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ELEMENT 4
Promoting Positive Health and Safety
The concept and significance of safety culture

Describe the concept of health and safety culture and its significance in
the management of health and safety in an organization?
Key Information:
The safety culture of an organization is the way that all the people within the organization think
and feel about health and safety and how this translates into behavior. It can be defined as
shared attitudes, values and behaviors relating to health and safety.
There is strong link between safety culture and health and safety performance. Organization with
a strong positive culture tends to good performance whereas those with a weak negative culture
perform poorly.

Identify features of positive & negative safety culture within an
organization?
Positive Culture:
In organization with a strong positive safety culture the majority of the workers thinks and feels
that health and safety is important. There is a strong policy and clear leadership from the top
because senior management has this attitude which runs through the whole organization form
the top to bottom.
Negative Culture:
In an organization with a weak negative safety culture the majority of workers thinks and feels
that health and safety is not important; they are poorly educated in health and safety. There is
a lack of clear direction and leadership from senior management. Managers do not think about
health and safety in their decision making and priorities other things on safety.

Identify indicators which could be used to assess the effectiveness of an
organizations health and safety culture and recognize factors that could
cause weaknesses?
Factors Influencing safety culture:
The safety culture of an organization can be assessed by looking at indicator such as
Accidents
Sickness Rates
Absenteeism
Staff turnover
Compliance with Safety rules
Worker complaint About working conditions

Factors Promoting a Negative Culture:
Reorganization
Uncertainty
Blame Culture
Poor Communication
Conflicting priorities
Lack of Consultation
Poor Leadership by Management
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Factors Influencing Safety Related Behavior:
Individual worker behavior is a critical importance to health and safety management. One worker
may behave in an ideal manner but another may not and this unsafe behavior may endanger
themselves and others working around him.

Identify the factors which influence safety related behavior at work?
There are three significant factors influence a workers behavior:
The individual Factors
their personal characteristics
People bring to their job their own mix of knowledge and experience, attitudes habits and
personality. These individual characteristics influence behavior in complex ways.

The job Factors
the task that they are carrying out
These are behavior characteristics of workers job that influence their safety related behavior
o Characteristics of the workplace environment like, temperature, humidity and lighting.-
o Characteristics of plant, machinery and equipment like noise or vibration-
o Characteristics of the work itself like worker need to bend or stoop over while working-
o Mental demands of the job like worker has to handle large volumes of work in short time.

The organization Factors
Characteristics of the organization that they are working for
o These are the characteristics of organization that influence workers behavior
o Policies and procedures.
o Commitment and leadership from management.
o Levels of supervision.
o peer group pressure
o Training
o Communication
o Consultation and worker involvement

Outline the influenced of a workers attitude, aptitude and motivation of
their safety related behavior and considered the importance of
perception?
There are three personality characteristics of an individual that may
influence their safety related behavior
Attitude
Aptitude
Motivation
Attitude:
An attitude is a persons point of view of looking at something; how they feel about it. Changing
attitudes is notoriously difficult but can be done using following method such as:
Education and training
High impact interventions
Enforcement
Consultation and involvement in the decision making process
Aptitude:
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Aptitude refers to an individuals innate ability to learn and acquire new skills. For example some
people have an aptitude for using computers other for languages.
Motivation:
Motivation can be defined as persons drive towards a goal. Workers often behave unsafely not because
they are willful, but because they perceive a reward and they think that the risk is worth the reward. Their
unsafe behavior is incentivized.

What are the differences between mistake and violation?
Key information: slips lapses mistakes
People in a workplace are subject to human error; they get things wrong even though they are trying to do
them right. Human error can be broken down into two main types:
1. Slips and lapses
2. Mistakes
Slips and lapses:
When a person is carrying out a routine operation that they have done correctly many times before but
they get it wrong or they forget to carry out an action.
Mistakes:
When a person does something deliberately thinking that it is correct thing to do, but it is not. For example
an airline pilot caused a plane crash when he deliberately switched off an engine that he thought was on
fire. The engine was in fact functioning normally it was the other engine that was malfunctioning
Violations:
People in workplace also commit violations. They deliberately break rules knowing it is the wrong thing to
do. They are three types of violations:
1. Routine
2. Situational
3. Exceptional
Routine
Rule breaking as a matter of custom and practice for example workers went into Building where hard hat
require but they do not wear not because they forget(this would be laps) but deliberately not wear hard
hats.2.
Situational
Rule breaking in response to work pressure. For example worker in factory a worker need to change a filter
but scaffold is not available and without filter factory need to stop. Because of this work pressure he does
the job with ladder.3.
Exceptional
Rule breaking in extreme circumstance for example a worker uses forklift truck to lift a heavy piece of
machinery that is actually heavier than the rated lifting capacity.

How do an individuals peers exert influences over his behavior?
The influence of peers:
When people are put together into groups they interact. Some individuals will come to have a lot of
influence over the group others will have little influence. In this way a hierarchy is established within the
group. Certain ways of behaving will become the normal which will often be established by the more
influential members of the group. A person wishing to become a member of the group will have to comply
with the group Norm. This pressure to comply with group norms is peer group pressure.

Identify methods which could be used to improve the health and safety
culture of an organization?
Improving health and safety culture:
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The safety culture of an organization can only be improved if following things
1. Management commitment and leadership
2. Competent staff
3. Effective Communication
4. Broadcasting methods (Notice Board, Posters and Videos, Toolbox talks, Memos and Emails &
employee handbook)
5. Cooperation and consultation
6. The effective training.

1. Management commitment and leadership:
Management commitment starts at the very top of the organization. Senior managers must provide the
leadership necessary to inspire and motivate managers at all levels to pursue health and safety
objectives strictly.
Visible commitment can be demonstrated by:
Behaving safely
Involvement in the day to day management of health and safety e.g. attend safety
meetings.
Taking part in safety tours or audits
Promoting changes to improve health and safety
Enforcing the company safety rules.

2. Competent Staff:
A competent person is a person who has sufficient training, knowledge, experience and other abilities
or skills to be able to carry out their work safely and without risk to health.

3. Effective Communication:
The process of delivering information from a sender to a recipient there are three principal delivery
media for communicating information:
Verbal, Written and Graphic
Verbal Communication:
Communication using the spoken work e.g. face to face meeting this is easiest and most commonly
used form of communication but there are some weaknesses like language barrier may exist, strong
accent, background noise, recipient may have poor hearing, recipient may miss information or forget,
no written records as proof.
Written Communication:
Communication using the written word e.g. report memo, email, notice, company handbook, policy,
risk assessment and MOMs etc. but there are some weaknesses like indirect, takes time to
write, message may not read by recipient, immediate feedback is not available, question cannot be
asked.
Graphic Communication:
Communication using picture, symbols or pictograms e.g. safety signs such as fire exit signs but have
some weaknesses like, can only convey simple message, expensive to by or produce, may not be looked
at, symbols or pictogram may be unknown to the recipient, no feedback available and question cannot
be asked
Broadcasting Methods:
1. Notice boards
2. Posters and videos
3. Toolbox talks
4. Memos and emails
5. Employee handbook.
Cooperation and consultation:
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A positive safety culture can only be created in an organization with workers cooperation and
involvement
The effective training:
Employers have responsibility to train their staff to carry out their jobs in safe manner. Once worker
has been trained they will understand
1. The hazards and risks inherent in their work.
2. The correct rules and precaution to apply.
3. Foreseeable emergencies and the actions to take should these events occur.
4. Limitations and restrictions that apply to their work.

When should training be provided?
When training is require for person:
1. New employees.
2. Job change
3. Process change
4. New technology
5. New legislation
New Employees
when worker join an organization
Job change
when workers job changes in such a way that they are exposed to new hazards and risks
Process change
when the way in which way the work is done changes that require training
New Technology
new technology creates new hazards and risks that worker should familiar with.
New Legislation
changes to the law governing a particular health and safety issue often create need to Train workers on the
implications of new legislation.

Outline the internal and external influences on health and safety
management standards?
Internal and external influences:
The standards of health and safety management within an organization are influenced by both internal and
external factors

Internal Influences:
These are the various internal factors which influence the safety and health standards.
1. Management commitment
2. Production demands
3. Communication
4. Competence
5. Consultation

External influences:
These are the various external factors which influence the safety and health standards
1. Societal expectations
2. Legislation
3. Insurance companies
4. Trade unions
5. Stakeholders
6. General economics