Safety depends upon attitude

Press, 28 July 1976, Page 4

Safety depends upon attitude

Managers who want to produce the best results for their companies must be totally committed to industrial safety, said Mr George L. Germain, a United States expert on “less-control management," to the annual general meeting of the New Zealand Institute of Industrial Safety in Christchurch. Mr Germain, billed by the conference organisers as a world authority on the subject, said that believing in safety and achieving it went hand in hand. He told the meeting of about 67 company safety officers and managers that industrial safety could be helped by positive thinking. Negative attitudes towards accidents could encourage them, he said, and he outlined a number of these attitudes. A common belief was that a type of work was naturally hazardous and there was not much which could be done about it. ‘‘This is a very common attitude in industries such as woodpacking, forestry, and construction. As long as you believe it, then it will come true. Hazard detection is the first step in preventing accidents” he said. He said that a mining company in the United States had a record of 11 million man hours worked without an accident because

its management sought positively to overcome this attitude. Some managers believed that some of their employees were naturally accident prone. “This is a negative and defeatist attitude. Accidents have causes and this belief can be overcome by correct placing, counselling and training of staff,” said Mr Germain. The attitude that a company did not have enough space led to excuses, waste, property damage, and accidents, he said. “1 believe that cleanliness and order are a sign of good management.” Some managers felt that because employees did not own equipment they did not care about it. “Believe the worst about people, and you wil] bring out the worst in them,” said Mr Germain. “As long as managers think that accidents occur in clusters, they will. This is a self-fulfilling prophecy. One accident does not lead to another.” The attitude that accidents were a matter of luck was the ultimate “cop-out” and a rationalisation for a donothing approach, he said. “Industrial safety is created by enthusiasm, commitment, leadership, proper instruction and repetition of that instruction. It is a combination of attitudes and actions,” he said.