Managing the Safety Function and Psychology and Safety Essay

Managing the Safety Function and Psychology and Safety - Essay Example In terms of directing, safety practitioners do not lead organizations directly but need financial and staff support to implement their safety decisions (Lecture Notes). Finally, some safety directors do have authority to hire staff and, if that is the case, safety officers must ensure legal and regulatory compliance and develop explicit job descriptions (Lecture Notes). The benefits and limitations of safety incentive programs have been described in abundance. Basically, positive feedback and rewards are claimed to reinforce safe behaviors and, consequentially, enhance safety performance in the workplace (Goodrum & Gangwar 24). Simultaneously, safety incentive programs may not provide long-term safety improvements. The fact is that the relationship between incentives and safety behaviors is misleading: as soon as these programs end, the quality of safety behaviors falls below original levels (Goodrum & Gangwar 24). Finally, safety incentive programs often become an object of serious concern, as they drive underreporting of incidents: employees do not report safety incidents and failures in order to qualify for rewards (Goodrum & Gangwar 24). Unfortunately some people prefer to hide the fact of failure in order not to spoil their own reputation. At the same time they do not think about harm that such underreporting may cause. Such cases cause a lot of problems for many modern organizations. Underreporting of incidents is dangerous practice that sometimes leads to undesired results: some unreported incidents may create danger for employees who concealed the fact and their colleges. So, safety managers must take this fact into account while creating safety incentive programs in order to prevent case in which underreporting of incidents take place. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is a common instrument of management and safety management