Safety Leadership: An Analysis of Roles, Responsibilities, and Actions

This essay delves into the multifaceted concept of safety leadership, emphasizing its significance in fostering a robust safety culture within organizations. It explores the benefits of effective safety leadership, such as improved employee behavior, reduced injury rates, and enhanced productivity. The essay clarifies the roles and responsibilities of key figures, including directors, managers, and supervisors, outlining their specific actions and duties in promoting workplace safety. It also discusses the importance of employee engagement, communication, and training in achieving safety goals. The analysis highlights the legal, moral, and financial benefits of prioritizing safety leadership and concludes by reinforcing the crucial roles played by both supervisors and directors in ensuring a safe and healthy work environment.

Running Head: Safety Leadership 1
Safety Leadership

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Introduction:
Safety leadership is a vital component related to safety, health, and environment process, and it
mainly helps the organization in facing the challenges related to safety during the journey of
improving safety culture in the organization. Some benefits of safety leadership are:
 It helps the organization in improving the safety behavior of the employee.
 Safety leadership reduces the lost time and minor injury frequency rates.
 It help in continuing the business in easy and better way and also increase the
productivity of the organization by avoiding the incidents, accidents, breakdowns and
process failures in the organization.
 It helps the organization in reducing the insurance premium cost.
 It improves the goodwill and reputation of the organization.
 It leads to better all-round economic performance of the organization.
In other words, safety leadership is the system of communication between the leaders and
employees of the organization, and in this system leaders motivate the employees of the
organization in achieving the safety goals of the organization. However, this meaning of safety
leadership usually creates confusion in the roles of leaders and followers, because term
management and leadership are usually used interchangeably in the organization. The main
problem related to safety leadership is that, organizations do not consider the actual difference
between the roles of manager and safety leader (BSMS, 2017).
In this essay meaning and other factors of safety leadership are discussed. This essay also
discusses the functions and duties of director, manger, and supervisor and also actions which
must be taken by the individuals holding these positions. At last this essay is concluded with
brief conclusion.

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Literature related to safety leadership:
Leadership can be defined through various contexts and there are number of authors and
organizations that provide their views on leadership. As stated by Northouse (2010), following
are the characteristics of leadership:
 Leadership is the process which includes the influence of leader on the followers.
 Leadership is possible in group only which wants to achieve the common goals and
purpose.
On the basis of these characteristics, it can be said that leadership is the process in which
individual influence the group of people for the purpose of achieving common goal.
On the basis of the definition of leadership, it becomes easy to understand the meaning of the
safety leadership. Safety leadership is the process in which leader define the desired state, setting
up the team to succeed, and engaged in the discretionary efforts that result in safety value in the
organization. Safety leadership also helps the leaders in maintaining the behaviors of employees
for achieving the safety goals (White, 2016).
Who are the leaders of the safety and what position they hold in the organization? Role played
by safety leaders and what safety leadership includes in its ambit? These are some important
questions which affects the working environment of the organization and also the safety of the
employees. However, there is no relevant answer provided by academic and professionals
experts in lieu of these questions. There is no unequivocal and unambiguous definition related to
safety leader or safety leadership exists, and usually guidance notes and studies focus on role
played by directors, managers, supervisors or front-line employees in the safety leadership.

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The earliest definition related to safety leadership is stated in the publication of CBI named as
‘Developing a Safety Culture’ (CBI, 1990). As per this publication, safety leadership is required
for the purpose of initiate, develop and sustain a culture in the organization. Later, HSE
publication named as ‘Organizing for Safety’ (ACSNI, 1993) stated dominant themes of safety
leadership:
 Importance of leadership, and chief executive commitment towards the safety leadership.
 Role of executive management in the safety leadership.
 Whether all the employees are engaged in the safety goals.
 Communication in context of safety leadership in the organization.
The actions of care and concern for all those who are affected by the business of the organization
are important part of the safety leadership. Generally, leaders of the organization must include
thee safety goals as part of their leadership, and they must have some initial suggestion for
determining their actions and practices while performing role of safety leader. These suggestions
include engagement of employees, effective communication, etc (Pilbeam & Davidson, n.d.),
Analysis & Discussion:
Role of management:
As corporate culture of the organization includes all the employees and also affects all the
employees such as from the board room to the front line workers, in similar manner safety
culture affects all the employees of the organization from top level management to the workers.
Imagine, what organization look like if only employees and senior executives practice safe habits
at the workplace, as it result in inconsistencies in process, gaps in buy-in and more incidents and
injuries. Organization can only ensure safety culture when everyone in the camp recognized

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safety as important component in the everyday work. Organization can ensures safety culture
only when every individual in the organization as a key component of everyday work. There are
almost two types of creating and sustaining a safety culture that are leadership and engagement
of employees (NSE, 2013).
Director or project manager:
Directors and senior managers of the organization have long held responsibility under the
legislations of safety. In past, directors and top level management is concerned about the
shareholders only and ignores the interest of other stakeholders, which means for earning the
profit lives of workers will put at risk by employers of the organization. All this result in
conviction of man employers and some are banned from holding directorship in any
organization. There are number of legislations which have been passed by the government, and
these legislations directly imposed responsibility on top level management to ensure health and
safety in the organization. These legislations also provide guidance related to management of
health and safety in the organization, and how it affects the complete viability of the business
(Krause, 2016; Hseni, n.d.).
Health and safety responsibility of the directors covers the workforce, visitors, and any person
who is affected by the operations of the company. Areas which are included in the
responsibilities of the directors are safe workplaces, safe systems of work, assessing risk etc
through the provisions of the applicable acts, safety training, etc. It might be possible that
requirements related to safety management are complex in nature, but with right type of safety
leadership, these requirements can be met. Safety leadership also helps in getting competitive
advantage in the market and increase efficiency in the business. If top level management fails to
conduct proper safety leadership in the organization then it will result in incidents and injuries in

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the organization which ultimately result in decreased profitability, affects reputation of the
company, and sometimes failure of business. No one wants to deal with the company which has
been fined for seriously hurting one of their employees and who has bad safety records, and also
whose director has been convicted for his negligent approach in context of safety and health of
workers. It is very simple to find about the safety responsibility of the directors and senior
executive. Finding straight forward practical tools for safety management and keep the most
important assets of the organization safe that is human resource. Company gets legal, moral, and
financial benefits of leading safety in the organization (WLP, n.d.). Following are the actions
which can be taken by director for ensuring safety leadership in the organization:
Directors must encourage the people of the organization for take personal responsibility of safety
is setting the expected performance in this regard for each layer of the management and such
expectations must be directly related to goals of the organization. These expectations are
developed by the CEO or senior level executives in the form of vision and senior managers of
the organization translate this vision into mission. Generally, they ensure the strategies and
interventions adopted while conducting their activities.
Directors and senior level executives are not only liable to implement safety management system
in place, but they are also liable to monitor the performance of the mangers engaged in safety
leadership. However, role of directors are not limited to the framing strategies, but it also
includes various other functions such as Preventive Maintenance, Operation Procedures,
Inspections, Permit-to-Work systems, Safety talks, Safety Committees, Risk Assessments, Near-
miss reporting, etc.

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Directors must educate and aware their employees and other persons who are affected from the
operations of the company, and for this purpose senior executive can arrange training programs
which trains the employees and workers to compliance with health and safety regulations. The
most effective training strategy related to any employee is the visible compliance with the health
and safety regulations and commitment towards safe workplace. For all this purpose it is
necessary that safety leaders have accurate knowledge in context of safety and health and how
every person is accepting their safety responsibilities.
Another important responsibility of director is to review the performance of organization in
terms of safety management on time to time basis (Sanderson, 2015).
Supervisor:
Ability of supervisor to lead, positively influence, and manage the regulatory compliance results
in safe and secure culture in the organization. From last many years, workforce in the
organization becomes leaner, and the role of the supervisor continues to be one of the most
important elements in the ability of the organization to achieve the goals of the organization.
Supervisors are considered as direct link between the workforce and upper-level management.
Supervisor is also responsible to conduct various actions in regards of safety management and
following are the actions of supervisor in safety leadership (Misch, 2015):
 Supervisor must communicate the safety values and other provisions related to health and
safety to the workers who are working and site.
 Supervisor must ensure that all the safety equipment’s and other tools are available at the
site on which workers are working.
 Supervisor must ensure that workers get the proper training of work and also the training
in context of safety and health.

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 Supervisor must identify physical hazards at the workplace and take preventive measures
for the same.
 Supervisor must report to the immediate manager in case of identification of any risk, and
also report to the manager about the daily performance in context of health and safety.
Recommendations:
After considering the above facts, it can be said that top level management must introduce
reward policy in the organization for the purpose of motivating the employees to achieve the
safety goals in the organization. As per this, reward policy, those employees were encouraged by
giving rewards who meet the health and safety regulations in the organization, and such
employees were presented as example in front of other employees.
Management also introduces control mechanism in the organization, for the purpose of
controlling the performance of employees and other managers in context of safety management.
This mechanism also helps the organization in getting the relevant information in lieu of safety
and health of the workers and other persons who are affected from the operations of the business.
Conclusion:
After considering the above facts it can be said both supervisor and directors play important role
in the safety leadership, and both the levels of management considered the safety as important
part of their role. Areas which are included in the responsibilities of the directors are safe
workplaces, safe systems of work, assessing risk etc through the provisions of the applicable
acts, safety training, etc.
On the other hand, role of the supervisor continues to be one of the most important elements in
the ability of the organization to achieve the goals of the organization. Supervisors are

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considered as direct link between the workforce and upper-level management.it can be said that
both play different roles, but the main objective of both the levels is to ensure safety at
workplace.
References:
BSMS, (2017). Safety Leadership. Available at: http://www.behavioural-safety.com/behavior-
based-safety-solution-center/safety-coaching-and-training/safety-leadership. Accessed on 24th
November 2017.
CBI, (1990). Developing a Safety Culture: Business for Safety. Confederation of British
Industry.
HSC, (1993). Advisory Committee on the Safety of Nuclear Installations. ACSNI Study Group
on Human Factors. Third Report. Organizing for Safety. Advisory Committee on the Safety of
Nuclear Installation.
HSE. A review of the literature on effective leadership behaviors for safety. Available at:
http://www.hse.gov.uk/research/rrpdf/rr952.pdf. Accessed on 24th November 2017.
Hseni. CEOs and directors - responsibilities for health and safety. Available at:
https://www.hseni.gov.uk/articles/ceos-and-directors-responsibilities-health-and-safety.
Accessed on 24th November 2017.
Krause, T. (2016). how to undermine the credibility of safety leadership in your organization.
Available at: https://krausebellgroup.com/undermine-credibility-safety-organization/. Accessed
on 24th November 2017.

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Misch, M. (2015). Safety Leadership: The Supervisor’s Role. Available at:
https://www.aist.org/AIST/aist/AIST/Publications/safety%20first/Safety_First_Apr-15.pdf.
Accessed on 24th November 2017.
NSE, (2013). Creating a Culture of Safety in Your Organization - Part 1: Leadership. Available
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2017.
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Sanderson, R. (2015). The influence of safety leadership at board level. Available at:
https://www.shponline.co.uk/influence-safety-leadership-board-level/. Accessed on 24th
November 2017.
White, C. (2016). Safety Leadership is NOT Safety Management. Available at:
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management. Accessed on 24th November 2017.
WLP. Director’s Safety Responsibilities and Safety Leadership. Available at:
http://w-l-p.co.uk/directors-safety-responsibilities-and-safety-leadership/. Accessed on 24th
November 2017.