E9 Arendsz Safety Culture

Msc. Gayle J. Arendsz – Cognitive Psychologist

• Construction industries

• Number of workers

• Hazards on the construction worksite

• Rate of incidents on the construction worksite

When incidents occur there is the possibility of certain

• direct costs ( impact on people, material and

environment)

• indirect costs (reputation of the organisation)

Even with strict safety standards and regulations, unsafe situations and incidents can still happen.

A Safety Culture research was performed on a construction site (a 80,000 m2 building) in the Netherlands.

More than 250 workers were working on the building site.

to what extent can an understanding of the range of safety culture(s) in an organization be obtained-using an ethno methodology approach?

Safety culture:

The safety culture concept was first introduced in an International Nuclear Safety Group (INSAG) report published in 1986 by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on the Chernobyl disaster (Choudhry et al., 2006).

The definition of the concept ‘safety culture’ and how it could be assessed was left open in the IAEA report. There are now several definitions of safety culture.

Definition:

To become a safety culture or to obtain one, different manageable steps are required. It is impossible to become or obtain a safety culture in just one step (Hudson, 2007).

The extended organizational communication model of Westrum (1988,1981) in Hudson (2007) was used as the model of safety culture.

The 5 levels of safety culture were characterized by phrases.

PATHOLOGICALwho cares as long as we’re not caught

REACTIVESafety is important, we do a lot every

time we have an accident

CALCULATIVEwe have systems in place to

manage all hazards

PROACTIVEwe work on the problems that we

still find

GENERATIVEHSE is how we do business

round here

Increasing

Trust/Accountability

Increasingly

informed

The HSE Culture Ladder (Hudson, 2007)

Ethnomethodology:

The study of what is happening in the real world

Working Safely Model

In order to get information from what is happening on the worksite, I have used :

The objective of the study: to what extent can an understanding of the range of safety culture(s) in an organisation be obtained- using an ethno methodology approach?

Observations

Interviews(walks and talks)

The Working Safely Model(Hearts and Minds tools)

Unsafe situations that you

encounter

Do you often come across the

situation?

Howdangerous

is it?

What can be done to make the situation

safe?

What are you going to do to

make the situation

safe?

How are you going to

maintain the situation

safe?

The Working Safely Model Worksheet

(Sense) (Know) (Plan) (Act) (Maintain)

Results:

On the worksite there were groups with different opinions and beliefs about the safety requirements. Some workers respect the safety requirements and comply with them, while others don’t.

Required PPE :

• Safety glasses

• Hard hat

• Safety shoes S3

• Reflecting cloth

Depending on the type of work other PPE are used

Working Safely Worksheet Outcomes

Unsafe situations that you

encounter

Do you often come across the situation?

Howdangerous

is it?

What can be done to make the situation

safe?

What are you going to do to

make the situation

safe?

How are you going to

maintain the situation

safe?

Without an effective plan it is difficult to know how to maintain the situation safe.

The GF had some short term solutions for removing unsafe situations

but not all of their solutions were effective or long-term solutions. The most recurring answer was to approach workers’ about the unsafe situation and to control the situation. (no solution to safety problems).

Hard hat- A worker was working on a sewerage system and did not have his hard hat on. The worker said that it was difficult to work with the hard hat. He was working close to the wall and when bending down, the hard hat gets in the way.

Hard hat- A bricklayer was working at the level of the ceiling. He did not have his hard hat on and he said he could not see what he was doing if he had the hard hat on. He was hitting his head a lot of times at the sharp metal pipes.

Unsafe situations (from WSM worksheet/ general foremen)

Openings in floor

Missing of edge protection

Working unsafely on heights

Rubbish on the worksite

Scaffolds’ guardrails at incorrect levels or not completed

Scaffolds not good build

Materials being lifted with cranes and moved above people

Mobile scaffolds not on brakes or not stable

Moving of (mobile) scaffolds with person on it

Water problems

Unsafe use of sawing machines

Observations and interviews

During observations and interviews (walks and talks) different situations were encountered in which different factors were shown:

Priority for work and not safety

Supervisors did not show any responsibility for the worker or the work.

Supervisors did not have solutions for unsafe situation

No planning for unsafe situations

Poor intervention or a lack of intervention

Not registering of unsafe situations.

Examples of situations

A supervisor tripped over an electric cable that a worker was using. He looked at the worker and did not say anything about it. However, before that incident he stopped and talked to some of the workers about the job that they were doing. (work is a priority)

A supervisor was talking with the workers about the work. Some minutes later, one of the workers approached the supervisor and asked if it would be better to stop with the drilling task he was busy with. This worker was using a drilling machine and it was raining. The worker said he was getting small electrical shocks and was thinking that it would be better to stop. The supervisor answered that the worker should decide what to do (responsibility, work as a priority). The worker was saying that he wants to finish with the task, because if it rains the next day he could not perform the task either and he continued to work a bit more (work as a priority).

Examples of situations (no solutions for unsafe situations)

Hard hat- A worker was working on a sewerage system and did not have his hard hat on. The worker said that it was difficult to work with the hard hat. He was working close to the wall and when bending down, the hard hat gets in the way.

Hard hat- A bricklayer was working at the level of the ceiling. He did not have his hard hat on and he said he could not see what he was doing if he had the hard hat on. He was hitting his head a lot of times at the sharp metal pipes.

While standing with a GF on the worksite, one of his workers came with a bucket of stones and climbed a ladder with only one hand. The worker almost lost his balance. The GF knows it was not allowed to climb ladders with only one hand, but there was no other way he said to bring a small bucket of stones or other small amounts of materials on the top floor. The GF said to have asked for building elevators but it wasn’t approved. He thought that it is crazy to lift small amounts of materials with a crane each time the worker needed something.

Some of the unsafe situations could be avoided with a proper planning. Registration of unsafe situation might be a step towards working on a plan.

All these factors are somehow related to each other and I have constructed a model out of these factors:

Priority=

Production

Work/time pressure

Lack of planning

No registering of unsafe situations

No solutions for safety problems

Lack of responsibility

Lack of interventions

Reluctance to safety

Model of Attitude

PATHOLOGICALwho cares as long as we’re not caught

REACTIVESafety is important, we do a lot every

time we have an accident

CALCULATIVEwe have systems in place to

manage all hazards

PROACTIVEwe work on the problems that we

still find

GENERATIVEHSE is how we do business

round here

Increasing

Trust/Accountability

Increasingly

informed

The HSE Culture Ladder (Hudson, 2007)

Thank you!

Contact:Gayle J. Arendsz

Janana 6O’stad, Aruba

Cell: + 31 5939784

E-mail: g.j.arendsz@gmail.com