1st Edition

Seven Bad Habits of Safety Management Examining Systemic Failure

By Murray Ritchie Copyright 2024
    116 Pages 18 B/W Illustrations
    by CRC Press

    116 Pages 18 B/W Illustrations
    by CRC Press

    Occupational Health and Safety has been a growth industry for several decades and has moved beyond the realm of the human resource department and workers’ compensation claims. However, the methodologies utilized and taught within the profession have changed little since the 1930s. The industry continues to operate in a "comfort zone" and, as such, has reached an improvement plateau. This important book examines seven of these antiquated comfort zones from their conceptions to implementation and explores why they fail to achieve the desired results and what alternatives are available.

    Seven Bad Habits of Safety Management: Examining Systemic Failure delivers seven focused chapters outlining the comfort zones they create and their impacts on new initiatives. Each critically analyses common safety practices exploring where they came from, why they fail, and a few alternatives being discussed around the world. Case studies underpin learning that will allow the reader to revisit and revise their current programs and campaigns to realise a better return on their safety investment. The book will allow the reader to better understand the root causes of systems failures faced daily in the management of health and safety and how to confront them.

    This readable and exciting text from an author with over 40 years of experience in occupational health and safety will appeal to students, researchers and professionals of process safety, occupational safety, safety engineering, human resources and business management.

    1. Bad Habit 1 - Plan-Do-Check-Act - The Activity Trap.  2. Bad Habit 2 - Safety Management Systems - Rules vs Risk.  3. Bad Habit 3 - Lagging Indicators - Not Everything That Can Be Counted Counts!.  4. Bad Habit 4 - Leading Indicators - Not Everything That Counts Can Be Counted.  5. Bad Habit 5 - Behaviour Based Safety - The Problem Child.  6. Bad Habit 6 - Joint Health and Safety Committees - Put Down the Donuts There’s Work to Do.  7. Bad Habit 7 - Safety Culture - If You Can’t Speak The Language Blame The Culture.

    Biography

    Murray Ritchie is an occupational health and safety practitioner, researcher, educator, and speaker with 40 years of experience working with various industries, governments, and NGOs. He obtained a Master of Science degree in Occupational Safety and Health from the University of Greenwich, UK, late in life following a boots-on-the-ground career in the offshore oil and gas industry. He has worked on five continents consulting to a wide variety of industries, has served on program advisory boards for two colleges, and taught as a contract instructor for the University of Alberta Faculty of Extension.