Week 4 Project

Behavior-Based Approaches and the Safety Climate

Attempting to change an employee’s behavior is a very lengthy process. In essence, the safety manager must uninstall a learned behavior from this person’ psyche and do some extensive reprogramming. If the employee is open to the change, it may not take too long for him or her to recognize the value of the new safety concept. In this case, the goal is to have the employee perform a task in a certain way in order to avoid a safety hazard. The term “behavior” is recognized by many safety managers. When the safety manager is able to change the behavior of an employee, it helps in reducing employee injuries and safety violations. To accomplish this goal, the safety manager must understand the concept of behavioral safety analysis. “Managerial interventions that focus on improvement of group safety practices are likely to impact strongly on safety outcomes. Initially, climate theory was intended to explain the psychology of employees’ safety behaviors. In numerous studies, safety climate was also shown to be a good predictor of safety outcomes, and ultimately to have the ability to control and change those outcomes in intervention studies. Several studies of managerial intervention provide support to climate theory by demonstrating that manipulation and improvement of group-level climate also improve safety climate and safety outcomes” (Clarke, Probst, Guldenmund, & Passmore, 2016, p. 367). Therefore, the safety manager should strive toward improving safety-related behavior in order to prevent and reduce injuries.

Negative Feedback on the Behavior of Employees

Lowering employees’ self-ef�cacy with negative feedback can also undermine future attempts to be proactive. Self-ef�cacy perceptions are, in fact, a key motivational antecedent of proactivity at work (can do motivation). As an example, if an employee’s efforts to be proactive are reciprocated with blaming, reprimands, and destructive criticism, then his or her con�dence to be proactive again at a later time is likely to be undermined. Arguably, this effect might be more conspicuous for role- breadth self-ef�cacy, rather than work-related self-ef�cacy (Clarke et al., 2016, p. 228).

From the South University Online Library, read the following:

Reference Clarke, S., Probst, T. M., Guldenmund, F. W., & Passmore, J. (2016). The Wiley Blackwell handbook of the psychology of occupational

safety and workplace health. Malden, MA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Avoiding Criticism Harms Workplace Performance  

(https://www.thecampuscommon.com/library/ezproxy/ticketdemocs.asp?

sch=suo&turl=http://search.ebscohost.com.southuniversity.libproxy.edmc.edu/login.aspx?

direct=true&db=bth&AN=119656989&site=eds-live)

Negative Effects of Destructive Criticism: Impact on Con�ict, Self-Ef�cacy, and Task Performance  

(https://www.thecampuscommon.com/library/ezproxy/ticketdemocs.asp?

sch=suo&turl=http://search.ebscohost.com.southuniversity.libproxy.edmc.edu/login.aspx?

direct=true&db=edsovi&AN=edsovi.00004565.198805000.00008&site=eds-live)

Employees' Psychological Ownership and Self-Ef�cacy as Mediators between Performance Appraisal Purpose

and Proactive Behavior   (https://www.thecampuscommon.com/library/ezproxy/ticketdemocs.asp?

sch=suo&turl=http://search.ebscohost.com.southuniversity.libproxy.edmc.edu/login.aspx?

direct=true&db=pbh&AN=108945303&site=eds-live)

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Additional Materials

From your course textbook The Wiley Blackwell Handbook of the Psychology of Occupational Safety and Workplace Health, read the following chapters:

Behavior-Based Approaches to Occupational Safety

Safety Training

Safety Climate and Supervisory-Based Interventions

From the South University Online Library, read the following article:

Proactive Behavior-Based Safety Management for Construction Safety Improvement (https://www.thecampuscommon.com/library/ezproxy/ticketdemocs.asp? sch=suo&turl=http://search.ebscohost.com.southuniversity.libproxy.edmc.edu/login.aspx? direct=true&db=edselp&AN=S0925753515000144&site=eds-live)

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