How Might Leadership Affect Safety Management - Assignment Example

How Might Leadership Affect Safety Management? Contents Introduction 3 Discussion 4 Impact of leadership on the safety management 4 Positive impact 4 Negative impact 5 Advantages of effective leadership on safety management 6 Disadvantages of absence of leadership on safety management 6 Effects of leadership on Organizational Effectiveness 7 Elements of organizational challenges associated with leadership 8 Human and organizational factors and its effectiveness of leadership to health and safety 9 Relation of leadership with safety management 9 Conclusion 9 References 11 Introduction Leadership can be defined as the art of influencing people and gaining the necessary support from them in order to achieve the task. Leadership has always played a major and important role in the organizational development. An efficient and effective leader provides operational oversight, inspiration to the business. Good leadership is very important for the organization Leadership helps in transformation of the potential into reality. Health and safety of the employees is also very important and a matter of concern for the organization as the management of the organization has to ensure that the health of the people is not damaged. Managing health and safety of the people is not only considered as being socially responsible but it should be considered as the main objectives of the organization. Safety of the employees in the organization is the responsibility of everyone. It is a matter of concern especially for the construction industry. While discussing the topic the affect of Leadership on the safety management it is observed that leadership and safety are closely and directly related to each other. The leadership provides importance on the profit, productivity and worker satisfaction. It is regarded that safety is considered as one of the parameter for analyzing the effectiveness of leadership (Hughes and Ferrett, 2011). Discussion Safety management are designed to identify and minimize the risk at the work place .The importance and significance of such management affects the performance of the business in negative way if they are designed and formulated in a bureaucratic manner or affect positively if they are designed to function effectively and efficiently. In order to create a positive impact the safety management must function smoothly (Crutchfield and Roughton, 2013). Impact of leadership on the safety management Safety management provides an opportunity for the improvement of the business efficiency and also protecting and safeguarding the workers. Positive impact 1. It will reduce or decrease the cost and there risk by decreasing the absence of the employees, reducing the turnover rate, accidents and also minimizing the threat of the legal actions. 2. It will lead to the better continuity of the business which will result in the increase in productivity and avoiding accidents, breakdowns and the failure in the process. 3. It helps in the creation and development of reputation among its various clients, partners and suppliers. Leadership can be termed as the condition for success. The preventive approach can only be adopted by the organization if it is supported and followed by the management. An efficient leader is capable of providing direction to adopt the preventive approach. The management can highlight leadership by preventing safety and health risk at the work place. The effective management of the health and safety is considered as the key factor for the success of the business. It is required by the leader to identify the health and safety along with the leadership and then integrating and correlating it with other activities, duties and responsibilities. An efficient and effective leader is very much concerned and conscious about the health, safety and security of the employees working in the organization by minimizing the risk and providing protection from the illness and harm caused from the various activities. It is the duty of the leader to provide and guide towards the strategic direction leading to the management of the health and safety of the workers in the organization and also motivating the employees to engage efficiently towards ensuring proper health and safety performance. Therefore there is a thin line difference between safety leadership and safety management. Safety leadership deals with strategic approach and Safety management deals with operational approach. Negative impact Inefficient and poor leadership can adversely affect the organization as well as will negatively impact on the safety of the employees working in the organization. Poor leadership will lead to the loss of reputation and financial damage that will result in the poor operational performance and will have severe effect on the financial performance of the organization. On the contrary an efficient and god leader is able to manage time for investigation of the accident, finding out the liabilities that are related to the injuries in the work place, the cost that is incurred for the adoption and implementation of preventive and corrective measures in the future. Good and effective leadership has a positive influence on the organization which includes developing and building the reputation of the organization, increasing the loyalty of the employees, increasing the ability of winning contract and attracting and retaining the best employees, improving the morale of the employees, increasing the operational efficiencies and also improving the productivity. Creation of the safe work place, ensuring the safety of the workers and promoting efficient and effective leadership are considered as the important goal and aim of the organization. But it cannot be assumed that all the leaders will behave in the same manner and will provide safety effectively because safety unlike the other outcomes is intangible in nature. A proper safety performance reaches a pinnacle in non events that are not self reinforcing. Thus in order to create, develop and sustain the motivation of the employees for safety it is natural that the managers will require some motivational and communication skills that may vary or differ from those that is required in fulfilling the task related goals and objectives. Advantages of effective leadership on safety management The benefit of the leadership on the safety management can be understood from the financial performance, ethics of the workers, value of the stakeholders, growth of the business and also minimizing the risk to attract the client. A good health and safety record provides an indication for the quality service that is provided by adding the credibility for the service offered. There are mainly related to motivational and financial benefits in offering a quality service which can be accessed by providing safety as a priority. In order to achieve the safety performance, strong leadership is considered as the key. Safety leadership and strong health will lead to the creation of value. It will minimize and reduce the cost, accident, turnover rate of the employees in the organization (Mol, 2003). Disadvantages of absence of leadership on safety management The disadvantage of the absence of leadership on safety management is that, the organization cannot focus on the well being and safety of the employees which will lead to the illness and injury of the workers. Without the leadership in safety management it will lead to the fatal injury of the workers almost every day. Absence of leadership will lead to the increase of turnover and absenteeism among the workers. Effects of leadership on Organizational Effectiveness Leadership is referred to as the important function in the organization. Leadership and safety management generally represents two different concepts and business completely. Leadership mainly deals with establishing the clear vision and communicating the vision to others The impact of leadership on the safety management and its effect on the organizational effectiveness can be analyzed as the leadership will help in communicating the standards for the safety measures that is required to the respective team which will enhance the effectiveness of the organization as a standard form has been prescribed for the development and safety of the workers (Zammuto, 1982). For the smooth functioning of the operation in the organization the leader is required to adopt preventive measure for avoiding the unsafe acts and practices that may injure the workers and effect on the performance of the organization. The safety management that is adopted by the leaders in the organization usually motivates the employees and the workers to be safer. For the effective performance and functioning of the organization the main leadership responsibility or duty is monitoring the safety standards on a daily or regular basis. It is very much necessary for the effectiveness of the organization that the managers or the leaders are required to be trained in their respective role as a safety leader and providing them the freedom in implementing the skills at each and every stage. The application and monitoring of the safety leadership is critical and difficult (Schein, 2010).An effective organization is required to have an effective system for the coordination and management of safety. This is required to be monitored by the leaders in the organization together with the safety professionals. Their main objective should be monitoring the performance of the organization and safety management. The result and the output are required to be communicated and delivered to all the workers in the organization at regular interval. The safety of an organization is considered as an important factor for ensuring the efficiency and effectiveness of the risk management related to the organization. The safety management is considered as an important element for measuring the effectiveness and performance of the organization. By improving the safety measures the organization will be able to overcome the barriers of cultural change and developing the values of the organization (Dressler, 2004). Elements of organizational challenges associated with leadership Organizational change is often faced by the companies the companies are required to identify the problems faced by the management. An effective leadership on safety management will provide a framework for the decision rights so that the framework that is formed clearly identifies and motivates the employees to work strategically towards the attainment of the objectives (Kouzes and Posner, 2012). The employees generally accept that the leaders and the management of the organization will provide them safe working environment, proper incentive and satisfy their needs. A good leader will develop a sound relationship with its employees who will make the employees feel good and positive about their identity. Maintaining a healthy relation by the management and the organization with the staff or workers is an important element for the success of the organizational goal it will lead to high productivity and satisfy human needs and wants. A sound and healthy worker relation will result in the more productive, efficient and motivated employees which will increase the effectiveness of the organization (Thomen, 1991). Human and organizational factors and its effectiveness of leadership to health and safety The importance of the human and the organizational factors in handling the safety of the organization is explicated. The role of trust is developed between the leaders and the employees and its importance to the safety of the organization is analyzed. The role of leadership in health and safety management can be analyzed by its influence on the work place safety climate, on the workers and on the supervisors. It can be clearly indicated that the process of leadership helps in the reduction and minimization of accidents and maintenance of the safety climate. In order to create and develop the employee motivation for safety the leaders are required to possess motivational and communication skill that may vary from those required attaining the goal (Arezes and Carvalho, 2014). Relation of leadership with safety management Leadership is considered as the very important factor in the creation of safety that promotes and also supports the health and safety performance related to the organization. The leader plays a vital and important role in motivating the employees towards motivating the employees to attain safety and productivity which indicates that the organization must apply the features of good leadership on frequent basis. Leadership behaviour is considered to be vital for providing good and safety performance with the help of the awareness program of the employees towards conducting safety activities of the organization (Channing, 2013). Conclusion The focus or the importance on the leadership behaviour towards providing improvement in the performance of the safety management can be regarded as the sub system for the organizational performance. Safety management is the concept of the safety related issues and behaviours that are exhibited by the workers in all kinds of working environment which will provide safety and health for itself as well as for others in the organization . Adoption of good leadership skill will lead to the good performance of the safety which will minimize the cost of the accident and improve the productivity. The effect of the leadership on safety management will lead to the adaption according to changing needs and preference of the customers. References Arezes, P. and Carvalho, P., 2014. Advances in Safety Management and Human Factors. San Francisco: AHFE Conference. Channing, J., 2013. Safety at Work. New York: Routledge, Crutchfield, N. and Roughton, J., 2013. Safety Culture: An Innovative Leadership Approach. San Francisco: Butterworth-Heinemann. Dressler, S., 2004. Strategy, Organizational Effectiveness and Performance Management: From Basics to Best Practices. Florida: Universal-Publishers. Hughes, P. and Ferrett, E., 2011. Introduction to Health and Safety at Work: The Handbook for the Nebosh National General Certificate. New York: Elsevier. Kouzes, J. M. and Posner, B. Z., 2012. The Leadership Challenge: How to Make Extraordinary Things Happen in Organizations. San Francisco: John Wiley & Sons. Mol, T., 2003. Productive Safety Management. New York: Routledge. Schein, E. H., 2010.Organizational Culture and Leadership. San Fransisco: John Wiley & Sons. Thomen, J. R., 1991. Leadership in Safety Management. New York: Wiley. Zammuto, R. F., 1982.Assessing Organizational Effectiveness: Systems Change, Adaptation, and Strategy. New York: SUNY Press. Read More