Transformational Safety Management Program, Essay Example

Enacting transformational leadership confers many benefits in the maritime industry, as these types of leaders are more aware of the individual needs of the workers and are prepared to maximize the skills that their employees have to offer (Eagly 569). While transformational leadership typically applies to the applications of these skills with regards to employee motivation and other productivity factors, it is important to consider that this leadership style is useful to individuals that wish to confer safety goals (Antonakis 261). Transformational leaders tend to serve as role models for the individuals they lead, which is beneficial because this sets clear cut expectations and goals for the employees (Lowe et al. 385). A majority of those who employ this leadership style aim to prevent accidents from occurring in the workplace because they aim to protect the interests of both their job site and their employees. In addition, these individuals are skilled at addressing accidents that have already occurred in order to achieve this same purpose.

In the past, workers in the maritime industry have suffered injuries related to their work (Times Staff).  However, in many instances these actions are preventable. While the actions that contribute to injuries are often a direct consequence of workplace safety operations or a direct failure of the employees to follow the rules, it is important to understand that safety officer is responsible for monitoring the work site to determine which safety concerns can be rectified according to both equipment and behavioral causes.

Many severe injuries that occurring in this industry result as a consequence of fires. In this scenario, John Smith, a skilled maritime employee is working in the engine room. He has spent more than 10 years in the industry and is able to get his work done quickly and efficiently, making him a major asset to the team. Due to his experience in the field, his skill set extends to a variety of different tasks, and he often works in a manner that displays his confidence. Therefore, John Smith is not typically concerned with safety principles and requirements, contributing to his increased risk for injury. Despite these apparent breach of rules, staff members do not report these behaviors because John Smith never gets hurt and seems to know what he is doing in these situations. However, he never wears PPE and tends to not follow general ship safety rules.

In the engine room, John Smith was reportedly smoking a cigarette when a small fire broke out. Parts of the engine room ignited, causing damage to the equipment in addition to the room in general. John Smith survived the incident, but was badly burned. Immediately after the fire broke out, emergency workers rushed to the scene to put it out. John Smith apologized for the incident, recognizing the cigarette caused the fire. However, it was apparent that he would be unable to work for a period of time and needed to stay at the hospital for burn treatment. Furthermore, the engine of the ship would not be usable until repaired. Since John Smith had a high technical understanding of the engine compared to the other workers onboard, repairing the engine and maintaining it during his absence will be challenging. In addition, the overall productivity and morale is expected to decrease due to the significant contribution that John Smith provided on these two fronts. Training new employees to work these particular jobs would be too challenging, as none of them have an engineering or technical background to the extent of John Smith’s training. Furthermore, requiring untrained individuals to work with this highly sensitive equipment could trigger further equipment failures, which would be even more detrimental to the sites operations.

As a consequence of this incident, the work site suffered a large number of direct costs. Since it will be time consuming to fix the motor and the workers are not able to do so due to a lack of training, it would be preferential to replace the system altogether. This would cost about $14,000 or more depending upon the particular model selected, and this price will increase due to the installation cost, which will add about $2,000 onto the price (Konrad). Furthermore, the aesthetic features of the engine room were destroyed, which can be ignored at the moment. However, many of the floor boards must be replaced due to fire damage and the associated safety risk posed. Since the engine room was small, it is not expected that these repairs will cost more than $2000. Therefore, the direct costs of this tragedy amount to approximately $18,000.

In addition, there are many indirect costs related to this incident. The most concerning will be the price of John Smith’s medical bills, which are expected to exceed $5,000 for the burn treatment. While he was engaged in erroneous behavior that contributed to the accident, workplace compensation mandates that he be cared for. If the site were better managed, the cigarette use should have been reported and John Smith asked to cease his smoking while working on a site with flammable materials. Furthermore, many employees were aware that he was smoking and therefore at fault for not reporting the incident. Therefore, an additional indirect cost is the establishment of training programs that will be necessary to teach the employees about how to properly handle safety situations and to make sure that detrimental scenarios are prevented. This will cost about $500. However, the most significant cost to the ship is related to its inability to run in addition to the lack of John Smith’s expertise. It is expected that because John Smith is not present, it will take a longer period of time for the staff to complete the same jobs. Furthermore, morale will be lower knowing that their comrade has been hurt. Therefore, in terms of time and available resources, it is more beneficial to provide employees with safety training over training them to run the engine room and replace the tasks that John Smith had been assigned because these are highly specialized skills that take many years to perfect. During this time, a temporary employee will be brought in to achieve these tasks. Since John Smith is expected to be hospitalized for approximately six months, the temporary employee will need to be compensated at least $25,000 in salary and benefits, while John Smith will continue to receive his salary due to his injury at work. Therefore, the indirect costs associated with this injury is $30,500. The total costs associated with this incident is $48,500.

It is important for the employees and management team to consider that many of these costs could have been avoided if safety measures were appropriately followed. Overall, John Smith endangered himself and others by smoking in the engine room. It cannot be said that he is without fault for this incident because due to his many years of engine operations expertise, he must have been aware that the substances he was working with directly were flammable in nature. Therefore, it is the role of the safety officer to constantly remind workers how they should conduct themselves in order to adhere to safety standards. Furthermore, they should be informed of injuries that workers have experienced in the past related to their behavior so that they can gain a greater understanding of how they should be acting while on the work site.

In conclusion, it is apparent that injuries in the workplace are very costly to the site and have the potential to slow down the rate at which work is accomplished if the individuals injured are integral to the mission of the site. It appears that skilled and experienced workers are comfortable with their job site and are therefore more likely to forgo safety precautions. Therefore, it is important to emphasize safety measures for these individuals’ as much as new employees who have less awareness of the rules and procedures. If safety managers are able to appropriately target every member of their worksite, encouraging them to follow both site specific and OSHA safety standards, the overall safety of the site will improve and the number of injuries experienced will decrease significantly. Thus, it is essential for the safety officer to closely monitor the activities of the workers to ensure that their behaviors and actions do not become problematic.

Works Cited

Antonakis, J.; Avolio, B. J.; Sivasubramaniam, N. (2003). Context and leadership: An examination of the nine-factor Full-Range Leadership Theory using the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire. The Leadership Quarterly 14 (3): 261–295.

Eagly, Alice H., Mary C. Johannesen-Schmidt, and Marloes L. Van Engen. Transformational,   Transactional, and Laissez-Faire Leadership Styles: A Meta-Analysis Comparing Women and Men. Psychological Bulletin 129.4 (2003): 569-91.

Konrad J. Ship Engines – 7 Monster Engine Designs, Part 1. 2011. Web. 15 June 2015.

Lowe, Kevin B., K. G. Kroeck, and Negaraj Sivasubramaniam. Effectiveness Correlates of Transformational and Transactional Leadership: A Meta-analytic Review of the Mlq Literature. The Leadership Quarterly 7.3 (1996): 385-425