Occupational Safety, Essay Example

Since the 90’s, the movement of safety has been steadily going as industrial accidents in the workplace were becoming common. At the time before the 90s there were little safety legislation that protected workers’ safety. It was not until the passage of OSHA, Occupational Safety and Health Act in 1970, and more emphasis was placed on workplace environment and safety regulations were the amount of accidents and people killed on the job were less than half of what it was 60 years earlier. (Goetsch, 2011) The concept of safety culture is the way in which safety is perceived, prioritized, and valued within an organization. Through a combined effort within the organization that promotes a positive stance on culture, safety culture is a perceived as of importance, and direct impact on performance.

In order to tell that an organization is implementing a safety first initiative is by seeing how a company feels about safety. It ismeasured in their productivity, the way in which the organization does not cut corners, does not workaround safety protocols and makes conscientious decisions and judgments when there is the slightest hint of danger or risk involved. When incidence do occur on the job, the attention and emphasis on safety shortly after is a trigger of how the organization is creating an environment in which they do not want injuries to be common place, and placing protocols in place to prevent them. The concept of safety isn’t centralized to one country. After many international incidents around the world, the trend of safety culture has a globalization impact. The human and managerial impacts in which the communities and countries that make way for new corporation have to follow the rules of safety. If not, they could receive public backlash, violation of regulations, and so on if safety is not made a priority in the workplace.

According to Goetsch, the hazards are a combination of conditions that if left uncorrected could potentially lead to illnesses, injuries, accidents, and the damage of property. In the concept of a safety-first culture, an organization must place protocols in place to prevent workplace hazards. In ways that management can prevent hazards are conducting a preliminary hazard analysis to identify and categorize potential hazards to assess the amount of damage, injury, and severity. FMEA, Failure Mode and Effects Analysis measures failure analysis that critically looks at the organization’s system, dividing into several components. FMEA works by examining the several components and recording failure modes (problems or malfunctions). The failure  in this tool is that is only effective as use in a top-down approach that identify more causes and failures, but if used as bottom up, it can have augmented results. Hazard and Operability Review (HAZOP) are a system that consists of structure examinations of existing operations to identify problems that could lead to potential personal or equipment risks. Usually carried out by a knowledgeable team of individuals that brainstorm potential hazards. The weakness is this analysis is that it is dependent on the knowledge of the team members is assessing problems related to the process or operations in the organization. Which do to human error can miss out on potential high risks to people and the organization. HEA is a systematic method in which incorporates human errors and failures that occur performing certain tasks. Similar to HAZOP, but goes further in safety assessment to predict human error.By observing workers and noting hazards, they are able to get a firsthand feel for hazards. The weaknesses presented in this approach, is once again the potential risks of human error in the HEA, where certain problems can be missed by the untrained eye.  Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) is another top down method tool used for deductive failure analysis. Using the Boolean logic to analyze the undesired state of the system to see how it can fail. In doing so, the organization can reduce risks, and identify ways in which to prevent risks, and accidents from happening. Used in mostly high-hazard industries, it can monitor and be used to control the performance of safety in numerous ways for an organization. The weaknesses lie in the system not being able to find all the initiating faults in systems or subsystems, as well as examining the multiple failures at a system level. The last system, TOR, Technic of Operation Review are another analysis method that permits employees and supervisors to work as a team in order to analyze workplace failures, incidents, and accidents. The error is that in some cases, it can prevent all systematic causes, and failures of unknown risks.

Changes and importance placed on the environment in the last decades has prompted many organizations to rewrite policies on the importance of corporate responsibility and environmental awareness. In the industry where there is a high-hazard risks and industries that directly affect the environment have implemented several safety protocols, due to the intense scrutiny and the initiative for a safety first work environment. The increased risks of infections, especially with the spread of globalization has led many organization in the health industry to take extra precautions when coming into contact with individuals and unknown materials. The effects of Chernobyl, BP disaster, and other environmental disasters has prompted plants and other industries to use internal audits and other tools to analyze possible risks and faults to critical systems that control operations in the organization. Safety and health managers have responded accordingly based on their occupation in which they have implemented protocols such as procedures, criteria, and requirements to prevent accidents and manage hazards that may cause damage to people and the environment.

Quality management is an essential approach within an organization to maximize not only a competitive advantage but also continually improve the people, processes, services, environment, and products. Critical characteristics of Quality Management includes using a scientific approach that operates on facts instead of assumptions; customer focus (internal and external); quality is a priority from the top down; teamwork; long-term commitment; proper education and adequate training; and continual improvement to processes. Effective quality management makes sure that safety is a priority and that managers show their commitment to the company’s goal on safety, and health for the entire organization.While TSM model is integrated from the focus on total safety management to give sustainable competitive advantage, and establish, maintain, and seek to improve the safety of the work environment for optimal performance.

Ethics plays a vital role in an organizations’ mission and corporate responsibility. The organization must make ethical decisions in regard to employee safety, as well as environmental sustainability, and to the organization itself. The measure of an organization’s ethics towards its practices is dictated by their response to external and internal situations. Organizational ethics incorporates the values of the organization and commitment to their employees in respect to the laws expressed by the government. In the events of major companies being caught in major scandals do unethical decisions, organizations must implement several policies and ethical frameworks that must be encouraged by managers on all levels. The guidelines include providing an open door policy where employees can express their concerns, having a written ethical code, training, internal or external audit system, and a confidential reporting system that includes potential hazardous and safety concerns. The practice of having a system in which employees on all levels can express their concerns if managers or employees cut corners can potentially save companies from global or public scandals, as well as place employees and the public out of harm’s way. The ethical guidelines are crucial not only for the organization but the public as well as trust is essential in the success of every organization.

References

Goetsch, D. L. (2011). Occupational safety and health for technologists, engineers, and managers (7th Ed.).Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.