SLP 5 MGT - 411 MANAGING WORKPLACE SAFETY AND HEALTH - Essay Example

Managing workplace safety and health Managing workplace safety and health It is easy to be or to feel like a good leader, when everything goes well as planned. However, sometimes things don’t go well, such situations can be critical in the life of an organization, and how a leader handles them can make or break it. An organization is said to be experiencing a “disconnect” when a single or series of events or crisis impedes its progress.Such events occur in different ways and situations, it may be technological, natural, management or confrontation crisis.

Technological crisis results from application of science and technology by humans (Angel & Smithson, 1990). Accidents can occur when complexity emerge in technology leading in breakdown in the whole system. Others occur as a result of disruptions, in such situations people have the tendency of regarding the blame to be a technological disaster since technology is subject to human manipulation. All these may result to fall down of the organization. Crisis may also arise from the decision of the management in an organization.

Sometimes management takes actions that it knows will harm or place stakeholders at risk for harm without adequate precautions (Fink, 1986). These occur when managers favor other stakeholders who may lead them to short term gain while neglecting other investors. This lopsided value state is rooted in businesses that mainly focus on the interests of stockholders while disregarding the interest of other stakeholders who include the employees, customers and the community as a whole.Due to increase population, climate change, and environmental degradation, there has been a global increase in natural disasters.

Phenomena such as; earthquakes, tsunamis, floods and volcanic eruptions threatens property and life itself. Such occurrences lead to breakdown of organizations (Fink, 1986). For example the tsunami that occurred in Japanese led to a certain shut down of factories that had been supplying automotive parts to Japanese automakers, among them a large customer of Ryder who was forced to cut the production of vehicles due to shortage parts.Confrontation crisis occur when discontented individuals fight a businesses, government, and various interest groups so as to win acceptance of their demands and expectations.

The most common type of confrontation crisis is boycotts, and other kinds are picketing. In battle crisis faced by an organization, stakes are high since different groups challenge each other. Such situations occur when a labor union goes on strike for example activists may picket in front of a store urging consumers to boycott products that are controversial, such as California grape produced by farmers accused of unfair labor conditions(Cruz, 2010). Some organizations get confronted because of associating with someone else policy.

For example a Danish dairy company ”Arla food” was boycotted in the Middle East after a cartoon deemed insulting Muhammad was published in the Danish newspaper.In conclusion, some crises occur to the organization when opponents or individuals use criminal means or other unlawful tactics to express anger or to seek gain from an organization, with the aim of destabilizing or completely destroying it. This may occur in different ways such as tampering with products, spreading malicious rumors against it and even terrorism.

For example the American Ford motor company, had to shut down five of its U.S. plants because it could not get enough parts from suppliers in Canada.ReferencesAngell, I. O., & Smithson, S. (1990). Managing information technology: A crisis of confidence? European Management Journal. doi: 10.1016/0263-2373(90)90046-9Cruz, A. (2010). There Will be No ‘One Big Union’: The Struggle for Interracial Labor Unionism in California Agriculture, 1933 — 1939. Cultural Dynamics. doi: 10.1177/0921374010368307Fink, S. (1986). Crisis Management: Planning for the Inevitable.