Publisher
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
Place of Publication
Chattanooga (Tenn.)
Abstract
Organizations with strong safety cultures tend to have fewer injuries, which is likely attributed to an increased engagement in safe work behaviors (Dejoy, 2005; DeJoy et al., 1995; Zou, 2011). Furthermore, Hahn and Murphy suggest that engagement behaviors in safety management systems also contribute to a strong safety culture (2008). Engagement behaviors in safety management systems include reporting near misses and minor injuries as well as engaging in safety policies and practices that are perceived as important to the organization and its leaders. In this study, we will be examining how leadership engagement in safety practices is related to near misses and workplace incidents at a large chemical manufacturing company in the United States. The company recently implemented a leadership engagement tool called the ZIM Tracker (Zero-Incident Mindset), which is designed to encourage leaders to engage in and track safety practices in hopes that it will ultimately lead to a decrease in workplace incidents. The ZIM Tracker presents individuals and groups with monthly safety goals, which include over 20 different safety practices, such as Pre-Job Hazard Assessment or Emergency Drill Participation, identified by the company. We suggest that if leaders are more engaged in safety practices and tracking those practices, then the number of reported near misses will increase and the number of workplace incidents will decrease. The number of reported near misses will increase because the leaders’ engagement will signal to the employees that it is important to report near misses, which will allow for the situations leading to a near miss to be addressed. By addressing these near misses, we expect a subsequent decrease in workplace incidents. Because the ZIM Tracker is a relatively new tool, it is important to evaluate its validity over its three years of implementation. We expect that if the ZIM Tracker is encouraging leaders to engage in and report safety practices then there will be an increase in safety practices reported and conducted because leaders will be motivated to achieve their safety goals within the ZIM Tracker. We also expect that this increase will subsequently lead to an increase in reported near misses and a decrease in workplace incidents. To test this hypothesis, we will examine safety outcome data over the three years prior to the implementation of the ZIM Tracker compared to three years after implementation.
Date
October 2022
Subject
Industrial and organizational psychology
Document Type
posters
Language
English
Rights
http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Included in
The relationship between leadership engagement and workplace incidents
Organizations with strong safety cultures tend to have fewer injuries, which is likely attributed to an increased engagement in safe work behaviors (Dejoy, 2005; DeJoy et al., 1995; Zou, 2011). Furthermore, Hahn and Murphy suggest that engagement behaviors in safety management systems also contribute to a strong safety culture (2008). Engagement behaviors in safety management systems include reporting near misses and minor injuries as well as engaging in safety policies and practices that are perceived as important to the organization and its leaders. In this study, we will be examining how leadership engagement in safety practices is related to near misses and workplace incidents at a large chemical manufacturing company in the United States. The company recently implemented a leadership engagement tool called the ZIM Tracker (Zero-Incident Mindset), which is designed to encourage leaders to engage in and track safety practices in hopes that it will ultimately lead to a decrease in workplace incidents. The ZIM Tracker presents individuals and groups with monthly safety goals, which include over 20 different safety practices, such as Pre-Job Hazard Assessment or Emergency Drill Participation, identified by the company. We suggest that if leaders are more engaged in safety practices and tracking those practices, then the number of reported near misses will increase and the number of workplace incidents will decrease. The number of reported near misses will increase because the leaders’ engagement will signal to the employees that it is important to report near misses, which will allow for the situations leading to a near miss to be addressed. By addressing these near misses, we expect a subsequent decrease in workplace incidents. Because the ZIM Tracker is a relatively new tool, it is important to evaluate its validity over its three years of implementation. We expect that if the ZIM Tracker is encouraging leaders to engage in and report safety practices then there will be an increase in safety practices reported and conducted because leaders will be motivated to achieve their safety goals within the ZIM Tracker. We also expect that this increase will subsequently lead to an increase in reported near misses and a decrease in workplace incidents. To test this hypothesis, we will examine safety outcome data over the three years prior to the implementation of the ZIM Tracker compared to three years after implementation.
Department
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Dept. of Psychology