Psychology of safety issues

Promoting safety is one of the primary obligations of management within the workplace environment. The psychology behind worker safety is an ever growing complex issue as noted within Warr's "Psychology at Work." He notes that safety is primarily an issue of individual awareness and vigilant affirmation of safety procedures rather than adequate provisions from management. Therefore the psychology behind workplace safety involves engendering employees themselves to positively promote safety within their individual spheres.

The essential factor within the psychology of safety is to reinforce safety procedures through encouragement. By nurturing behaviors through positive encouragement, management can instill a sense of pride and social acknowledgement through attention to safety. The key notes Ingar Rasmussen is to "work hard to show everyone that working unsafely is not smart, it is foolish," yet he also believes that in most cases "employees have a 'devil may care' regard for safety; unsafe acts may actually be rewarded by the approval of their peers." The complexity of workplace relationships promotes an environment that is often unconduscive to safety initiatives. This results from the consistent structural environment of the workplace which causes employees to have a strong psychological impulse to rebel. Oftentimes rebellion takes the form of neglect, which is the principle cause of safety risks.

In order to counteract this movement, a culture must be developed where awareness to safety is both recognized and rewarded by peers and management. The goal is to make safety such an ingrained part of the workplace culture that enforcement is not necessary, rather social pressures and "crowd" behavior will intuitively cause safety to be emphasized on a daily basis. Rules are in fact an implication of management's attempts at controlling workers; these will always be met with both reluctance and resistance. However, by instilling a sense of inner responsibility towards safety, power is placed within the hands of individual employees, allowing them to be in charge of their own safety.

There are many key facets to how to promote the efficient use of safety procedure within the workplace environment. Although employees need to be in charge of their own safety, management must use many different techniques to reinforce the procedures and methods by which employees can strengthen their approach to safety. One such method is through reporting hazards, in which employees are encouraged through rewards and gratitude to report any possible hazards within the workplace. Not only does this build a stronger bond between management at the specific employee, it shows that management is equally committed to the issue of worker safety. Training is of course a necessary and vital step for management to show the necessary steps for continuous safety practices. By reinforcing training sessions with handouts, videos and also a constant stream of safety messages through the workplace, employees will feel an obligation towards maintaining safety on the premise that management has spent so much time and effort to cultivate safe procedures. By specifically finding the areas that need the most improvement in terms of safety procedures, management can eliminate the most problematic issues that arise. The key therefore is to develop a strong connection with the employee through both verbal and physical messages. Management, by exhibiting that they care strongly about safety, but at the same time empowering employees to act in their own accord have a strong control of the psychology of safety.