Transcript Slide 1

Management
Leadership and
Accountability
Managing vs. Leading
By managing, organizations make things
happen
 By leading, organizations show employees
why safety matters and why they should
be motivated

Top Ways to Improve Safety
Management






Integrate all aspects of the safety program into a single
comprehensive management system
Manage safety at the same level and degree as every
other aspect of the business
Integrate safety into the process of the business
Safety is a value and not a priority
Lead with a philosophy that all injuries/illnesses are
preventable
Provide for and encourage meaningful employee
involvement in the safety process
“The single greatest safety
system failure in corporate
America today is the lack of
accountability”
Dan Peterson
If employees don’t believe they’re
going to be held accountable for
their decisions related to safety, the
safety effort is ultimately doomed for
failure.
What is Accountability?
Most common responses refer to negative
consequences for failure to perform
 Dictionary: Liable or Answerable
 It is the ability to account for or to measure
 Obligation to fulfill a task…or else

Accountability
It can be reactive – constantly putting out
fires
 It can be proactive – an executed plan that
works in the field

Responsibility vs. Accountability

Responsibility is an obligation to perform
duties
 It
relies on personal integrity
 It does not necessarily have associated
consequences

Accountability requires consequences
 Consequences
should be balanced
Responsibility vs. Accountability
Someone is accountable when his/her
performance is measured
 When someone is responsible, his/her
performance is not necessarily measured
 The objective is to motivate performance

Accountability
Supervisors are often measured on
schedule, production, cost, etc
 They are seldom measured on safety
performance
 Holding managers and supervisors
accountable for safety sends the message
that safety is a core value

Accountability Elements

Physical resources (conditions)
 Tools,

equipment, materials, environment
Psychosocial support (behaviors)
 Training,

Process of evaluation
 Daily

schedules, procedures, management
observations, formal evaluations
Effective consequences
 Positive
recognition or appropriate corrective action
Measuring Performance




Can you measure the Presence of Safety
rather than the absence of an injury?
Does safety have an equal weight to other
performance measures?
Are consequences applied consistently at all
levels of the organization?
How often should safety activities/results be
evaluated for their effectiveness?