These days, almost every presentation on safety leadership or management includes information about psychology (e.g., people's attitudes, personality, and/or behavior) and culture (e.g., the interpersonal context of the workplace). As a university professor of psychology for 43 years, I view this burgeoning interest in the human dynamics of injury prevention to be extremely encouraging.
However, it's discouraging and disappointing to see so much inaccurate information presented about people and their culture. As a result, a number of errors related to managing the human dynamics of safety are consistently made, and these can limit the beneficial impact of any safety-management process calling for authentic engagement of employees.
This paper identifies 20 common errors of safety management and specifies ways to correct each. The rationale for each solution is given, along with supportive research available and reference to relevant literature.
