Safety Culture - Sopranos Smallgoods - Case Study Example

Sopranos Smallgoods Name Course Lecture Date Executive summary Sopranos Smallgoods was founded back in the year 1920, and the Soprano family of farmers and butchers had a dream to provide the Australian public with the finest quality meat, cured using traditional Italian recipes. In 2015, the Sopranos were a major supplier of smallgoods to the Australian market. The product range spans across traditional Italian salami, ham, bacon and traditional smallgoods. The company has state-of-the-art facilities located in Bundoora, Victoria and employ over 250 workers. The company has a very flat organizational structure where the CEO reports to a Board of Directors (made up of members of the Soprano family).  Each department has a manager, with the production department having supervisors who directly manage the production line worker. The company needs to adopt the following recommendations so as to deal with the unsafe practices in the organization: Continuous safety communication Performance management Ownership of safety by management Involvement of front line supervises in safety issues Employee engagement in safety matters Through this, the company will have a safety culture and employees will always be willing to work in safe conditions and also to ensure that other employees are also safe. Table of Contents Executive summary 2 Table of Contents 3 Introduction 4 Findings and discussion 5 Safety culture 5 How a safety culture can improve safety behaviours of employees 6 Recommendations and justification 7 Recommendation one: ownership of safety by management 7 Recommendation two: involvement of front line supervises in safety issues 8 Recommendation three: employee engagement in safety matters 9 Recommendation four: continuous safety communication 10 Recommendation five: performance management 10 Conclusion 11 References 13 Introduction In regard to law, employers are charged with the duty of ensuring the health and safety of their employees. Employers have an obligation to protect the health, safety as well as the welfare of their employees and all other individuals who may be affected in one way or another by the business. In relation to these, employers need to provide and at the same time maintain a safe plant that is, the equipment and machinery as well as secure systems for employees to work with. A great number of the legal duties, as well as responsibilities, are in a way directed to the employers. The core functions of the employers include the setting of policies and procedures, ascertaining that all employees are well trained, giving out health and safety data and making sure that all the safety gear in the plant is in place and that they is being used correctly. At the same time, employers must employ competent supervisors, come up with medical programs, formulate and maintain health committees. At the same time, employers must ensure that they post some of the health information in the workplace. Thus, in general, companies need to ensure that, adequate health training is offered to the employees and make sure that they are well trained on how to use safety equipment. Based on these, creating a safe working environment is seen as a critical factor that can enhance the success of the business. A safe working environment can also act as one of the best ways of retaining staff and maximizing its productivity. Though implementing the safe practices and installing safety equipment may seem like a costly venture, the adverse effects that are associated with, not taking any form of action can be severe. This essay sets out to define what a safety culture is how a safety culture can improve safety behaviours of employees and outline five recommendations on creating a safety culture within Sopranos Smallgoods. This is as a result of the unsafe conditions that are evident in the company such as workers reaching into mincers to remove blockages whilst the mincer was operating; poor manual handling practices; workers not wearing their personal protective equipment; dangerous use of forklifts; equipment such as knives not being put away properly; and safety barriers on machines being removed to speed up the production process. Findings and discussion Safety culture The term safety culture was first used in the INSAG'S 1988 report and based on the report; it was defined as the assembly of attitudes and characteristics of individuals. In an organization which ascertains that nuclear plant safety concerns needs to be treated with a great level of interest as warranted by their significance. After this definition, there have been numerous definitions that have cropped up. The definition formulated by the UK health and safety commission as the most common and used definition. The Commission defines safety culture as being a product of group and individual attitudes, values, competencies, perception and patterns of behaviour that determines the style, commitment to and the proficiency of the health and safety management of an organization. Organizations that have a positive safety culture are typically characterized by the communication that are usually founded on mutual trust and also by the shared perceptions of the benefits of the safety. Ever since the 1980s, a lot of research have been carried out on safety culture (Clarke 2003). The emerging trend tends to define and express safety culture in relation to behaviours and attitudes (Cooper 2000). According to other authors such as Glendon et al. 2007, when defining safety culture most researchers focus on safety culture being expressed in terms of attitudes while others express it in terms of work activities and behaviour. A safety culture acts as an appropriate guide on how employees are supposed to behave while on their work premises. At times, their actions will in a way be affected by the organization's safety guidelines, a person's risks appetite as well as psychological factors. Based on Clarke 1999, the safety culture of an organization should not only be observed in the general state of the business premises and condition of the machines, but also in the behaviours and attitudes of the employees towards matters related to their personal safety. Despite the research, the concept remains ill defined. It is crucial for all organizations to assess their organizational safety culture since it represents an essential aspect that have an influence on multiple aspects of organizational safety and human performance. A poor health and safety culture usually leads to various weaknesses and mostly in problems at the person and work interface, and this can be significantly attributed to poor communication and training (Zohar 1980). A poor health culture encourages employees not to comply with the safe working practices that are in place and this does not help the organization in taking an effective action when it comes to resolving their health and safety problems. Thus, in relation to this report, the definition offered by the UK health and safety Commission will be used. How a safety culture can improve safety behaviours of employees There exist various ways in which a safety culture within an organisation can enhance safety habits among the employees. In an organisation where there is a strong safety culture, employees usually feel that they are all responsible for safety and thus they tend pursue it on a daily basis and in all the activities that are called upon to undertake. Thus, a considerable number of these employees are likely to go beyond their call of duty and identify any unsafe behaviours and conditions and take all the necessary measures to correct what is wrong. For example, in an organisation with a strong safety culture, all the workers will always feel comfortable even to walk to the seniors and remind them of putting any protective clothing such as gloves and safety glasses. This type of behaviour should be valued in the organisation and should always be rewarded (Zohar 2006). Similarly, co-workers will feel that it is their duty to look for one another and can point out any unsafe behaviour demonstrated by others. A safety culture in an organisation is clearly demonstrated and advocated by those in top management positions. When employees are well aware that their seniors uphold a safety culture, they are more likely to follow in their footsteps. Thus, managers, departmental heads and immediate supervisors ought to act as good examples to the employees. When managers and other senior people in an organisation are not concerned about safety, they act as bad examples and employees may also have a lot of regard for safety issues. With time, the beliefs and norms shifts their focus from just eliminating the hazards and they turn to eliminating all forms of unsafe behaviours and coming up with systems that aggressively advance health and safety outcomes (Saksvik & Quinlan 2003). With time employees have a high regard to safety, and they tend to do all their activities in the right manner. Thus, at all time the seniors need to adhere to safety measures and by so doing; the employees are more likely to develop safety behaviours in all their duties. Additionally, a workplace safety culture can improve the safety behaviours of employees if they are involved in the process from the start. Though the management may come up with the safety culture, they need to be actively involved. A convincing reason is that any changes and implementation of safety rules need to be spelled out on everyone. The employees need to understand that, a safety culture is necessary and all the benefits associated with it (Mearns et al. 2004). By understanding the reasons as to why a safety culture is necessary, the employees will adopt a trend of developing and maintaining safety behaviours. It becomes easier for the employees to develop safety habits if they know the reason behind it. Recommendations and justification Based on the evaluation which has been done, employees at Soprano Smallgoods were said to engage in unsafe practices such as workers reaching into mincers to remove blockages whilst the mincer was operating; poor manual handling practices; workers not wearing their personal protective equipment; dangerous use of forklifts; equipment such as knives not being put away properly; and safety barriers on machines being removed to speed up the production process. Recommendation one: ownership of safety by management A major recommendation is to ensure that management owns the safety and all related practices in an organization. The important role played by management ownership of organizations safety cannot be overlooked. In simpler terms, the ownership of safety by the directorate is an essential characteristic of safety culture. It is widely acknowledged that, issues that are prioritized by the leadership of an organization are important for employees and stakeholders. Additionally, business practices that are reinforced and endorsed by management are quickly assimilated and become organizational norms (Arboleda et al. 2003). Senior leadership in an organisation needs to establish a safety vision in the organization. They need to do so by formulating a well-written mission and vision statement that relates to workplace safety. This needs to be communicated to all the stakeholders in an organisation. Additionally, the safety mission and vision needs to be displayed publicly for example in the company’s website. Also, all discussions related to safety commitment must be included in the annual report of the company. It may also seem crucial for performance appraisals to include performance in the corporate workplace safety. This means that, all the performance incentives need to be process oriented rather than being outcome based. In particular, if the management teams are only evaluated on the basis of injuries, decline in the working days, reduction in employee’s compensation cost and this may put pressure on management not to report any injuries and discouragement is mostly due treatment or reporting (Zohar 2006). This issue can be devastating to safety culture since it inhibits the remediation and identification of risks and this is due to the lack of reporting. Recommendation two: involvement of front line supervises in safety issues Another recommendation is to involve all the frontline supervisors in safety issues. Departmental managers, frontline managers and other immediate supervisors have a philosophical impact on the safety performance of an organisation. The front line supervisors are the people in an organisation who are usually in close contact with the employees on a daily basis. The departmental heads, on the other hand, have the most challenging jobs in most establishments. They are in charge of merchandising, sales, scheduling, housekeeping and safety. For an organisation to have a safety culture that is strong the departmental manager’s needs to prioritize, support and model safe work related practices (Saksvik & Quinlan 2003). In particular, these managers need to ensure that when an employee makes a decision that favours safety, that their decisions are supported and thus they are not likely to face any repercussions. Additionally, the departmental managers have to model safe workplace practices. In instances, when the front line supervisors and managers work in an unsafe environment or conditions, they are likely to send a clear message to the junior employees that such kind of behaviour can be condoned and supported. Supervisors need to be vigilant and avoid creating impressions that all other workplace activities takes consideration in an organization takes precedence over safety concerns. Lastly, and most outstandingly, supervisors and front line managers must always offer positive and appreciative feedback when any employees follow good and safe work practices. When this feedback is provided, it will play a great role in solidifying and establishing a solid safety culture within an organisation (Mearns et al. 2004). When a single unsafe act takes place in an organisation, it can lead to costly outcomes for an organization. Departmental managers and supervisors need to be mindful of the role they play in the workplace and thus they need to always support safe work activities that are carried out by their employees and they can do this by their words and actions. And by so doing, they are able to impact the employee’s actions, reduce risk due to safety standards in an organisation and lastly, they contribute positively to the organisations safety culture. Recommendation three: employee engagement in safety matters The other proposal relates to employee engagement in safety issues. The full participation of workers in the issue related to workplace safety is considered as the best way to absolute safety. Engaged employees are able to take full responsibility for their actions and those of others and make use of their unrestricted efforts to make their workplaces a safe and more secure environment for the employees. An organisation will have employees who are willing to take safety personally and at the same time, be involved in the creation of the safety process (Grote & Kunzler 2000). If employees consider workplace safety at a personal level, then the organisational safety culture is likely to be stronger. If the employees are even willing to put forward their discretionary efforts so as to cater for their security and those of others, then the impact created by a safety culture in an organisation is likely to increase tremendously. Researchers have also ascertained that, the most successful businesses are those whose employees are trained to work diligently and independently. The workplace safety field is no different from all the other business practices. If the employees are used to working safely even when not been supervised, this is an indication of a healthy culture (Mearns et al. 2001). Recommendation four: continuous safety communication Efficient and continuous communication also needs to be put in place so that so solve the safety problems being experienced in Sopranos small. A great number of organisations engage themselves in communicating their expectations in regard to adherence to safety programs and policies. Nevertheless, companies that have set high safety standards do not only communicate their expectations but they further try to explain why. Companies should shun away from just issuing regulations and rules and they should always couple this with the reasons behind the rules and regulations. In the aim of elevating the impact that communication can have in relation to safety, a company needs to make proper considerations on the information to communicate, how it should be demonstrated and the impact that the communication has on the organisation (Cox & Flin 1998). Recommendation five: performance management Performance management is termed as the strengthening of safe behaviours as well as the coaching and application of responsibility for the unsafe habits. A stylish performance process is essential for successful safety culture. In an attempt to enhance and create robust safety culture, the application of active support for safe behaviours and actions need to be always considered. In relation to these, workplace safety practices must always be subjected to active support. The best and most applicable way, of enhancing positive support, is through the use of feedback. In reality, simple conversations that conform to safe behaviours can go a long way in improving the morale of employees, engaging them and also positively reinforcing safe habits among the employees (Cheyne et al. 2002). When employees participates and undertakes activities aimed at working safely, their efforts ought to be recognized, noted and appreciated. To explain these aspects further, it is important to note that, at times some employees may receive positive reinforcement for engaging in unsafe workplace practices. If the behaviours that the employees used in accomplishing a task were done in an unsafe way, praise and compliment given can act as undermining factors to safety efforts. When managers and the departmental supervisors converses their prospects that all employees in the organisation must always work safely, and at the same time offer ample feedback for observed safe behaviours, the trends of working safely are more likely to increase significantly. On the other hand, punishment should be used if organisations wants to achieve constructive safety culture and it should only be reserved for situations where intentional acts are carried out and they in a way violate the already established procedures and policies. When violations of safety rules occur, employers need to determine if it was intentional or not. If it was not intentional and employee failure was due to some knowledge gap, training needs to be offered to such employees (Cooper 2000). For example, in Sopranos, some of the safety issues may be intentional such as the removal of safety barriers so as to speed up the production process. In regard to this, the company can opt to add more machines and also employ additional people. Thus in reality punishment is not a solution to anything and must only be applied when the primary goal is the ultimate removal of the individuals who are violating the already set rules. In most instances, such unsafe acts call for instruction and coaching rather than reprimand. Conclusion Based on the above report, it is clearly evident that health and safety culture need to be developed in all organisations irrespective of the industry. The concept of safety culture has been around for a considerable amount of time now, but despite that, no adequate definition of the term has been formulated. Employers have a duty under the law to ensure that their employees are safe in their working environments. Employers have an obligation to protect the health, safety as well as the welfare of their employees and all other individuals who may be affected in one way or another by the business. In relation to these, employers need to provide and at the same time maintain a safe plant that is the equipment and machinery as well as secure systems for employees to work with. Soprano’s Smallgoods need to adopt the recommendations offered so as to improve the safety conditions in the company. Through the adoption of the above recommendations, Soprano's smallgoods will be able to deal with the unsafe instances that were detected in the enterprise. References Arboleda, A, Morrow, P, Crum, M & Shelley, M 2003, ‘Management practices as antecedents of safety culture within the trucking industry: similarities and differences by hierarchical level’, Journal of Safety Research vol. 34, no. 2, pp. 189–197. Cheyne, A, Oliver, A, Tomas, J & Cox, S 2002, ‘The architecture of employee attitudes to safety in the manufacturing sector’, Personnel Review vol. 31, no. 5, pp. 649–670. 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