833 Developing a Construction Safety Management System

Drive Out Fear

Driving out fear is the most important requirement when deploying an effective CSMS. You must begin here first. Management controls the workplace. It influences the standards of behavior and performance of its employees by creating cultural norms in the workplace that dictate what are, and are not acceptable behaviors. Management may rely solely on safety rules and progressive discipline (negative reinforcement) in their attempt to control the safety behavior and performance of its employees. However, a strategy such as this, that may be successful in forcing compliance, is never successful in producing excellence in product or process. Strategies using fear and control are rarely, if ever successful. What develops from such a strategy is a controlling, compliance driven climate of mistrust and disgust; only a shell of an effective CSMS.

Managers and supervisors can drive out fear through a real commitment to:

• fact-finding, not fault-finding;
• uncovering the weaknesses in the system that allow unsafe work practices and hazardous conditions to exist;
• educating and training everyone so that those weaknesses are strengthened; and
• recognizing employees for appropriate safety performance.

Doing these things will help build trust between labor and management. Morale and motivation improve because employees are not afraid to report safety concerns to management. In an effective CSMS, a safety concern is never considered a complaint.

Knowledge Check Choose the best answer for the question.