Health and Safety Standards and Communication among Occupational Management - Term Paper Example

Health and Safety Standards and Communication among Occupational Management Introduction The ability to meet health and safety standards in the work place is one that is often difficult to define and monitor. To do this more effectively, there is the need to have policies and procedures that are regulated through various companies and which relate to the standards that are a part of the workforce. More importantly, managerial areas need to implement safety legislation that can be used among workers and for those that are in specific positions. To change the level of standards that are met, is also the need for health and safety standards to be communicated from those in management to those who are working in specific positions. By having the right level of communication and implementation for health and safety among management, work areas will be able to move into more favorable environments that are able to match the regulations and legislations that are currently in effect. Aims / Objectives This research paper will examine the different ways in which communication can be used among workers to provide higher levels of safety and health. There will be an understanding of the current legislation that is expected within the work force. There will also be an examination of how well managers and staff implement the expectations and requirements for health and safety. Doing this will create alternatives and changes of what is needed within the work force while providing new options and an implementation of effective programs for those that are working within a specific region. Specifically, this paper will define: 1. What are the current safety and health standards within the work place? 2. How do managers and staff create communication that can be used within the work force? 3. How effective is the communication that is used within the work area? 4. If the communication is ineffective, what types of hazards does it lead to? 5. How can communication be improved to change the standards and environment for health and safety? By looking at these various components, there will be the ability to define the current standards for health and safety while adding in a new understanding of the gaps that are a part of health and safety. The current legislation and regulations, as well as the way that this is communicated to those that are in the work force creates a different approach to more effective results with the health and safety that is in a corporation. Literature Review Introduction There are several levels and standards that have been defined by commissions and committees to enforce health and safety in the work place. The main approach is to have preventative care that is available in the work space as well as risk – assessment based approaches that will change the amount of health and safety that is within a given area. Processes based on work – related stress, occupational hazards and working conditions are all expected to be evaluated according to these standards. There are six main areas which are included in this assessment, such as demands, controls, support, relationships, roles and organizational change. The measurements of health and safety within the workforce will then define specific policies and expectations that are a part of the various environments (Cousins et al, 2004, p. 43). The different concepts that are applied to these components of health and safety are often defined as a safety culture. The nature and environmental considerations that are in any environment also determine the climate of what is considered as high standard health and safety. If not, then components are defined with the reliability of the different measures and standards as well as the safety systems and performance that contribute to this. However, it has been noted that the idea of the safety culture is often not translated into practical needs that are in the environment and with the everyday work that is related to health and safety (Cox, 1998, p. 3). The main difficulty that has been found from the lack of the safety culture is from regulation and reinforcement of activities and standards that are within an area. It is noted that management is often required to make decisions on how health and safety should be approached, which is not always easy to implement. Others have found that a lack of knowledge on standards and laws create difficulties with the needs of a business and the tensions of communicating what is needed as a part of the safety culture (Genn, 1993, p. 219). The current standards and the gap of understanding through the safety culture is one that then moves into a lack of standards that are implemented from alternative health and safety factors. Spurgeon et al, (1997, p. 54), have noted that there is little to no substantial evidence on what the health and safety regulations should be within different arenas of work. For instance, the number of working hours that an individual has and the approach to stress and work are often limited by what is needed within a corporation. There is very little evidence on what the regulations should be or how they should be implemented by managers. The lack of standards, beyond basic regulations, and the inability for management to coordinate with these standards makes it difficult for individuals to define the effects that occur after working for longer hours. The result is the inability to maintain a good safety culture and a lack of information and standards that can be used sufficiently within a given work space (Clarke, 1998, p. 3). To change the approach to safety and health, new laws and legislation are being implemented within the work force. Policies and the ability to look further into the safety culture are also being looked into in terms of assisting those that are interested in performance requirements within a given area, as well as potential problems that can be met with assessments (Dale, 2003, p. 65). However, this has led to more safety standards, regulations and policies that are within a given work force. Implementing this through the managerial advice and the expectations that are within a company are often not a factor to the environment. The standards are often unmet by the work force because of the inability to understand the new assessments. More importantly, many of the assessments are not able to move into high level communication between the employees, management and politicians, which creates a gap in the effectiveness of safety and health (Kelly, 2003, p. 26). For consistency to be met with management, and the standards that are required, there is the need to not only focus on the health and safety standards from legislation. Communication and training has to be developed among employees through the standards that have been set to those that are within a specific work place. The employees will need to understand how the health and safety standards within the work force can create a better value to the place in which they are working. More importantly, there will need to be a new safety culture that is defined that is created through recruitment, training and reputation. More importantly, the communication and management has to take place not only among legislation, but also through investors, shareholders and awareness of customers (Ridley, Channing, 1983, p. 12). The main concept that is associated with this is creating a multi – dimensional approach, which incorporates the legislation that is a part of health and safety with the main work conflicts that are associated with management and the communication that is need on various levels for health and safety. Moving into depth with managers and specific needs can help to create an alternative approach to what is needed within the work force and for occupational health and safety (Bohle, Quinlan, 2000, p. 57). Current occupational hazards and safety measures Firefighting apart from sharing the common health hazards like injuries during work and respiratory complications (IFC OHS, 2003) ,with most professions it has peculiar safety concerns. One of them is the risk of cardiovascular diseases. Most of the firefighters end up having poor health as a result or even die of cardiac problems. Carbon monoxide and hydrogen cyanide (formed during combustion of plastics, paper and cotton) found in almost all of fire incidents have been identified to be the causes of these cardiac complications (NIOSH, 2007). Hypertension is known to be caused by the noises involved in the profession and other heart diseases. As an occupational hazard fire fighters also experience heat stress. During their operations they wear heat insulated clothing which means the heat they generate as a result of their work does not get a way out. This leads to dehydration. Heat stress is known to affect the cognitive ability of a firefighter and might in turn endanger their lives in a fire situation. A device like the ‘PASS device’ detects the movement of a firefighter in a building and alerts the monitoring team 10 to twenty seconds after a firefighter’s motion in the location of the fire stops. This system helps them be able to intervene promptly. There are monitors that measure a firefighter’s vitals like the stress, exertion and fatigue levels. All this information is measured and sent by their voice radios. Structural collapse is another fatal problem of most fires. However, most companies have emphasized on the importance of maintain two way communications during missions. Importance of Communication during incidents and at work area The success of any fire incident rescue is based on the communication system in place in the company and also in the country. This is to mean importance has to be laid on the communication channels that people use to report incidents. A telecommunicator or dispatcher always takes care of such pieces of information. He or she needs to be well trained and very quick with responses. Their responsibility is to receive such calls and take down as much relevant detailed information as they can from the callers. It usually is a sensitive situation since most of the callers are usually under stressful and or traumatic conditions. They also have to prioritize the various requests and then engage the relevant bodies for assistance. The dispatcher has to be efficient enough to restore order in a situation that is chaotic Apart from this, the communication channels within the departments need to be very vivid and effective to avoid miscommunication. The next type of communication is the communication at the scene of the incident. This needs to be super effective and two-way at all times. This is where a lot of things and lives are at stake and the firefighters need to make sure all the loop holes are dealt with. Firefighters are trained to use communication devices and equipment to both send and receive commands. For the purpose of order and for effective communication there is usually a ranking systems and this way information is passed through the relevant authorities per time. Analysis of the role of individuals and teams within organizations; Individuals within organizations Learning Cognitive approach entails a person behaving in line with their own principles and determining what is right and what is not by what they are told. It includes self management and self verbalization. A person speaks to themselves about what to do. Behaviouristic approach is more about conditioning and how a person is instructed to things in a certain way. They do it until they don’t need supervision to do it anymore but will require great effort to change their pattern of behavior. Personality People have different personalities in a workplace and mangers have to plan to take care of the differences in this to avoid conflicts. There are four major types of personalities: Phlegmatic. These are the thoughtful type; they are the cool calm and collected types in the office. They always have their work done on time and respect others opinions. They are the ‘cool’ type. The Melancholic are the kind of people everyone likes to avoid at the workplace. They are mostly moody and pessimistic. They are also very rigid. The Choleric are more aggressive in nature. They are the competitive type and are also very impulsive. Lastly, the Sanguine, they are everyone’s favorite in the office, they are fun to be with and are good leaders (Dr. Miller, Matrix Psychology, p. 2). Managers can assess personalities by analyzing quality of work of assignments given to workers. Communication Communication is vital anywhere and in any relationships that humans form. In the work place there are several barriers to communication. Among others is the poor flow of information from managers to employees. This could be because of a lack of a proper effective system in delivering information. Another hindrance could be unhealthy relationships. Some of the ways in which these barriers can be overcome are by managers maintaining personal contact when delivering instructions and to avoid depending too much on technology: e-mails and phones. When they pass on the information personally they can be able to read reactions and make assessments of how the workers feel without them speaking (Smith, Next Level consulting.com). The other point to note is giving feedback. This works both ways; the management should seek feedback from workers on the assignments given and give meaningful feedback at the end of assignments. This keeps the workers in check. In this same spirit, managers amidst their busy schedules should always find time to have meetings with employees so they feel like priority. During the meetings, they should give them undivided attention by not allowing interruptions like phone calls. Perception In a work place, it is important that workers keep their opinions to themselves to avoid unnecessary conflicts. The organization could encourage employees to be tactful in handling such. Perceptions of a workplace will also determine how motivated a person will be. The management should always eek to give a good impression and atmosphere and encourage the workers to maintain it (Spears, “Perception and conflict in the workplace”). Motivation Motivation is the drive that one has towards the accomplishment of a certain task. On that note it is very important that the management keeps the employees have that joy when reporting for work any day and at any time. Conflicts and Conflict Management Conflicts arise when there is a clash of ideas, opinions or interests. They will always occur in any organization because no two people are the same in their cognitive capacities. When they do happen there are ways that this can be handled according to Kenneth Thomas and Ralph Kilmann. The first is doing it in a competitive way. This where one takes a solid stand on their decision and decides not to back off no matter. It is considers a selfish way to deal with conflicts but leaves people disappointed and resentful. The second way is to approach it in a collaborative way where one considers the needs of the other people involved. This is used when the matter is too critical to be ignored. The third is accommodating; the person lets the other party have their way maybe because the matter is of more importance to them. The fourth is compromising, here the decision arrived at should favor both parties partially, they find a common ground. There is the final one, which is simply avoiding the conflict by delegating to someone with better knowledge on how to handle. This method is discouraged (Mindtools.com, Conflict resolution). Methodology The methodology that will be used for this research proposal will evaluate the abilities to place health and safety standards in the workplace not only through regulations but through communication and management. The first component of this will be to evaluate the current conditions of a corporate building that focuses on construction work, as well as the measures that need to be defined with safety and health. The approach will be based on levels of stress and physical injury that are potential threats in the work area. There will be a determination on how and if this affects the performance of those that are working within this occupation (Lin, Mills, 2001). Two methodologies will be used from this specific aim and objective. The first will be a questionnaire that is given to employees which evaluates the performance levels, health and safety standards and the stress indicators in the environment. The questionnaire will also evaluate the communication that is used among the management for health and safety. The second component will be based on an evaluation of performance, as well as a comparison to the legislation and standards that are expected. A quantitative analysis will then be performed, in which the lagging and leading indicators of safety and performance will be measured. The observation will also provide details on the safety climate that is a part of the area as well as how this affects those that are performing within a given area. A factor analysis will be used to determine the size and demographics of the company then will be compared to the dimensions of safety (Flin et al, 2000). These components will be compared to the training, development and expectations of management to see the level of communication and prevention methods that are used for health and safety. Timescale The initial observations will be done as the first component of the research and will last for an average of two weeks to define the safety climate and expectations of management. After this time period, questionnaires will be given to different employees to determine what the health and safety measurements and understanding are. This will be completed within one week with the statistical analysis and results ready by the end of this week. The legislative policies and expectations will be combined with this after the questionnaires are completed and will be observed within one week. Observations, recommendations and results will be completed after this time frame to show the overall understanding of management, communication and health and safety regulations. Bibliographies Bohle, P., & Quinlan, M., 2000. Managing Occupational Health and Safety: A Multidisciplinary Approach. Australia: Macmillian. Clarke, S., 1998. “Safety Culture on the UK Railway Network”. Work and Stress (12), (3). Cousins, Rosanna, MacKay,C., Clarke,S., Kelly, C., Kelly,P., McCaig, R., 2004. “Management Standards Work Related Stress in the UK: Practical Development”. New York: Routledge. Cox, Sue, Flin, R., 1998. “Safety Culture: Philosopher’s Stone or Man of Straw?” Work and Stress (12), (3). Dale, B.G. (2003). Managing Quality. UK: Blackwell Publishing. Dr. Liz Miller, 2009.Blogspot.com:Matrix psychology. Viewed 20 September 2010 from Flin, R, K Mearns, P O’Conner, R Bryden.,2000. Measuring Safety Climate: Identifying the Common Features. Safety Science (34). Genn, H., 1993. Business Responses to the Regulation of Health and Safety in England. Law and Policies. (219). IFC Occupational Health & Safety 2003. “Occupational Health and Safety”. Viewed 20 September 2010 from Kelly, P., 2003. The WTO, the Environment and Health and Safety Standards. The World Economy (26), (2). Lin, John, Mills, A., 2001. Measuring the Occupational Health and Safety Performance of Construction Companies. Facilities (19), (3). Mindtools.com. 1995-2010. “Conflict Resolution”. Viewed 20 September 2010 from National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health(NIOSH), 2007. “Preventing Fire Fighter Fatalities Due to Heart Attacks and Other Sudden Cardiovascular Events.” Ridley,J., Channing, J., 2003. Safety at Work. UK: Butterworth – Heinemann. Smith, S.J.D., 2003. Next level consulting.“Remove your workplace communication barriers: they are costing you more than you think!” viewed 20 September 2010 from Spear, L., 2007. Biz covering: “Perception and Conflict in the Work Place”. Spurgeon, A, JM Harrington, CL Cooper., 1997. Health and Safety Problems Associated with Long Working Hours. Occupational Environmental Medicine (54). Read More