Assignment

1. Describe how your organization or an organization you are familiar with manages occupational safety and health. To what extent are executives and facility managers committed to the OSH effort, and to what extent are front-line employees involved? What level of effort is exerted to ensure that hazards are evaluated and controlled? Are there continuous improvement efforts in place?

2. Explain the five-why technique, and describe how this technique can be used in incident investigation to identify potential causes that may tie to deficiencies in processes and management systems rather than mistakes made by workers?

3. Compare and contrast the concepts of macro and micro thinking as they relate to safety and health management in the workplace. Which is more in alignment with the safety management systems approach and why?

4. Appraise the concept of organizational culture and its relationship to successful implementation of safety management systems.

5. In the conclusion to Chapter 4, Manuel states that top-level decisions largely cause potential for human error, and this impact spreads through the entire organization. Please examine this statement with respect to how it aligns with the tenets of the safety management systems approach to produce desired results.