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A safety professional's ultimate goal is to achieve a total safety culture (TSC) within his/her organization. In a TSC, everyone feels responsible for safety and pursues it on a daily basis; employees go beyond "the call of duty" to identify unsafe conditions and behaviors, and intervene to correct them. In a TSC, safe work practices are supported via rewarding feedback from peers and managers; people "actively care" on a continuous basis for safety. In a TSC, safety is not a priority that can be shifted depending on situational demands; rather, safety is a value linked with all other situational priorities.
This goal is much easier said than done, however. Through application of various safety processes rooted in the disciplines of engineering (i.e., equipment design) and psychology (i.e., behavioral and social sciences), however, TSC can be achieved. Generally, TSC requires continual attention to the three domains illustrated in Figure 1: 1) environmental factors (i.e., equipment, tools, physical layout and temperature); 2) personal factors (attitudes, beliefs and personalities); and 3) behavioral factors (safe and unsafe work practices, exceeding the call of duty to protect another person's safety). (Figure 1 omitted)
These factors are dynamic and interactive-changes in one factor eventually impact the other two. For example, behaviors that reduce the probability for injury often involve environmental change and produce attitudes consistent with the safe behaviors, especially if these behaviors are viewed as voluntary. In other words, when employees choose to act safely, they act themselves into safe thinking; such behaviors often result in some environmental change.
Behavior and person factors represent the human dynamic of occupational safety. This discussion examines 10 basic principles on which to base people processes for achieving a TSC. When employees understand these principles, a process based on them is not viewed as "flavor of the month," but as an action plan that exemplifies one (or more) principles. When employees accept these principles, they can help design and implement relevant action plans. Indeed, employee involvement is essential to developing a TSC.
PRINCIPLE 1: THE CULTURE, NOT OSHA, SHOULD DRIVE THE SAFETY PROCESS
Employees at all levels often refer to safety rules and procedures as OSHA mandates or regulations. Their language implies that the "stuff they do for safety" is more for OSHA than...