One of the main focuses of safety practitioners is to help reduce workplace
injuries. The primary means of accomplishing this generally involves more
training and greater focus on inspections to ensure hazards are controlled so
that workers may perform their tasks safely and possibly some form of
discipline for failure to comply or reward to induce compliance.
This approach focuses on the workers and tries to affect some form of change
in their behavior. These interventions certainly may have some short-term
impact, but they really do not address the underlying causes, nor do they have
any lasting long-term effect.
In conversations with various safety personnel from a number of construction
organizations of different sizes and levels of sophistication, the overarching
conclusion was that one of the predominant reasons for accidents involves the
worker’s attitude toward safety. To give them their due, there are compelling
reasons to suggest that specific attitudes workers hold may well be associated
with occupational injuries, as shown by various studies conducted by a number
of researchers. The question then becomes how these folks arrived at this
conclusion and, more importantly, what specific approaches they took to deal
with the stated problem.
I asked them to elaborate as to how they made this determination and how
they went about addressing this issue. I was told that the workers’ attitudes
were manifested in how they performed their work. The workers with
"wrong" safety attitudes violated safety rules, didn’t always use
their personal protective equipment, became complacent in how they performed
their work, cut corners, and rushed. They also did not follow good safe work
practices, follow directions, utilize the safety training they received, watch
out for hazards, and, more importantly, take responsibility for good safe
practices. These actions represent a poor safety attitude.
As for interventions, I was told that refresher training sessions were used
to remind the workers of rules and safe work practices. Others tried more
rigorous inspections to find the offenders and talk or reason with them. Some
mentioned coaching (the sports aficionados), who talked about using sports
analogies to drive safety home to the workers. Some talked about paying
attention to the language used in the coaching process; others mentioned
assigning another worker to act as a partner or mentor to remind the person
with the “bad attitude” to follow the rules. A few mentioned providing feedback
to workers who were breaking the rules. Others implemented or activated their
disciplinary program (three strikes and you're out) to drive the point
home. Some said they implemented an incentive program. A couple said they were
thinking about implementing a behavioral process to deal with the
offenders.
It may be true that some of the stated reasons may contribute to accidents,
but do they necessarily speak primarily to the workers’ attitudes regarding
safety? There may be a number of reasons why these workers behave the way they
do. The "wrong" behaviors may result from poor planning, the proper
equipment not being readily available, challenging production goals, or not
enough time to carry out the required amount of work. The training received may
not address the specific situation workers find themselves in. The task's
demand, lack of appropriate and relevant information, or a mismatch between the
task and the worker’s capabilities may also be factors ... the list could go on
for many more paragraphs. But, more importantly, the interventions mentioned
were the same ones used for any other categorization of the problem, which
speaks to a general lack of understanding of attitude formation and how to
manage and change them.
It may be worthwhile to address behavior at this point. Some of the more
sophisticated safety practitioners may go the behavior modification route by
trying Behavior-Based Safety as a way to modify their workers’ actions and work
practices. Behavior-Based Safety (BBS) was all the rage in the 1980s and 1990s.
One of the weaknesses of this approach was that it was primarily focused on the
worker and did not address some of the underlying system-driven factors that
impact the worker’s decisions. Because of these limitations and plateaued
improvements, many of the consultants who were involved with early BBS
implementations have since changed their focus from just the worker to include
leadership (management). This is because leadership has a profound impact on
the way workers behave at work.
Another interesting factor is that virtually all the safety improvement
interventions mentioned are compliance driven and extrinsic in nature and, as a
result, have limitations. That may be one of the reasons why progress toward a
zero-injury goal has stalled. A more effective approach to the creation of an
injury-free work environment may be through the use of intrinsic drivers
associated with the use of the planned behavior theory that can positively
influence safety, attitude, and behavior.
Attitude and Safety
Assuming that most of the obvious safety risks are identified and
successfully dealt with and the system risks are accounted for and neutralized,
it may be prudent to look at attitude as a means to improving safety results
because dealing with attitude without addressing the above will not enable the
worker to be able to achieve the expected safe behavior. With intrinsic drivers
(a positive attitude toward safety) and true motivation to be safe, it is
highly likely that it would result in fewer reportable incidents.
One may be able to discern a worker’s attitude by observing his or her
behavior. Attitude reflects a person’s body of beliefs and emotions associated
with the organization’s policies, procedures, and practices, as well as its
leadership’s action and management methods, along with the organizational
climate and culture. We may have a number of beliefs about a certain subject,
but only a few salient ones affect our attitudes. The worker’s safety attitude
may be influenced by his or her perception of the work environment
(climate).
Almost all of the interventions mentioned herein use an extrinsic approach
to accident prevention. Working on improving workers’ attitudes toward safety
necessitates an intrinsic mechanism to improve safety results. Given that
workers’ attitudes impact their behavior and their behavior may result in an
accident, doing something about their attitudes will more than likely result in
a more effective approach. Since it is intrinsic by nature, it will prove to be
sustainable as well. To accomplish this, we need to have a better understanding
of attitude and how it is created before we can go about trying to replace an
unacceptable one with a more desirable one.
Attitude Overview
According to research, learning can account for most of the attitudes we
hold. Attitude is responsible for how we react to conditions; appraise and
judge people; and respond to situations, ideas, or things. Attitudes are
created by first creating beliefs. People collect information about the world
around them. How they are affected by this creates their beliefs (cognitive
learning). Beliefs underlie attitudes and may be true or untrue. Untrue beliefs
may be influenced and changed by providing accurate information, while ones
that are true may be influenced in the right direction by changing the
operational and/or organizational systems.
Attitude serves as a way for people to organize their interaction with the
world. This makes things more predictable and manageable for them. Attitudes
allow for the classification, evaluation, and summarization of the vast amounts
of information that people receive and process on a daily basis. People usually
use their perceived attitudes of others as a means to arrive at a judgment
about them. Attitude similarities among people tend to increase likability and
acceptance. Attitude also acts as a predictor of behavior.
Basically, attitude has three components—emotional, cognitive, and
behavioral (see Figure 1). Each one of these components is very different from
the other and they can build on one another to form our attitudes and,
therefore, affect how we relate to the world. It is important to remember that
the behavioral component is the only one that is observable. The emotional and
cognitive components can only be inferred. Attitudes can also be explicit or
implicit. Explicit attitudes are those that we are consciously aware of and
that clearly influence our behaviors and beliefs. Implicit attitudes are
unconscious, but they do have an effect on our beliefs and behaviors. Because
of their nature, they are somewhat more difficult to influence or change.
Figure 1—Components of Attitude
- The emotional component involves a person’s feelings toward or about a
person, place, event, issue, or thing. In other words, it is the person’s
disposition toward something.
- The cognitive component consists of the knowledge, information, and
beliefs a person has about something. It controls how a person understands
and thinks about things. Cognition includes beliefs, preferences, and other
aspects that shape how people respond to or interpret the world around
them.
- The behavioral component consists of a person’s tendencies to function or
behave in a certain way toward others or situations.
There is another aspect of attitudes to consider—its evaluative element.
Attitudes can be positive, negative, or neutral. They may occasionally be
conflicted (see Figure 2). Some research has found that if a person is exposed
to a certain person, place, or thing over a long period of time, his or her
attitude may change. It may go from negative to neutral or from neutral to
positive. Behaviors or attitudes that are followed by positive consequences are
reinforced and are more likely to be repeated or internalized than are
behaviors and attitudes that are followed by negative consequences.
Observations determine the responses we learn, but reinforcement determines the
responses we express.
Figure 2—Evaluative Effect of Attitude
The way safe behavior is affected at the worksite depends on a series of
steps (see Figure 3). First, workers become aware of a stimulus. Then they
think about it and process it. While processing the information, they generally
have an emotional response to it, which shapes the resulting behavior the
workers engage in.
Figure 3—Safety Attitude Toward Safety
Before doing something in response to a stimulus, we engage in a thought
process. Thinking results in a decision, which forms our intention. This
behavioral intention is based on two factors (see Figure 4), one of which is
personal and the other social. The personal factor reflects our attitude toward
performing that behavior and how important it is to us. The social factor
reflects the importance of what others would expect or want us to do and how
important that is to us. This is usually subjective, as we make assumptions
about what others may think or how they would expect us to respond or act.
Figure 4—Relative Importance Factor
Which of these two factors plays a greater role in influencing our
behavioral intention is subject to a number or factors. Attitude toward
behavior plays a more important role when the decision maker has a greater
amount of information, and the subjective norm becomes more important when
there is little information. Another factor to consider is the personality of
the decision maker. The relative position of a person within the organizational
structure is also a factor. Higher positions are less likely to be influenced
by subjective norms than by attitudes toward behavior.
Changing Attitude (Behavior)
To structurally change behavior, we have to change our intention to perform
that behavior. To change our intention to perform that behavior, we must either
change our attitude or our subjective norm regarding that behavior. Subjective
norm is defined as an individual's perception of whether people important
to that individual think the behavior should be performed. The contribution of
the opinion of any given referent is weighted by the motivation that an
individual has to comply with the wishes of that referent. Or, maybe both of
them need to change. To accomplish that, we have to change the underlying
belief(s) regarding that behavior. This highlights the complexity of the
endeavor, as well as the challenges faced.
Unlike personality, attitudes can be changed. Many theories exist as to why
we change our attitudes. One way is through our experiences. If we become aware
of information from a reliable and trusted source and that new information is
in conflict with our understanding or position, this creates conflict and
forces us to try to achieve congruity (see the principle of consistency). This
will ultimately cause us to change our attitude about the subject. Another way
to change a person’s attitude is to change its utility to that person. If an
attitude is perceived as having no benefit, at best, or creating some concern,
at worst, the person will change it.
Another way to change attitude is through persuasion. If people can be
persuaded that an attitude is detrimental to them, they will change it. There
are certain factors that come into play in order to foster this.
- Research indicates that intelligent people are not likely to be persuaded
by “one-sided” arguments.
- The credibility of a perceived message has been found to be a key
variable here; if one trusts and respects the source, he or she is are more
likely to accept and act on information provided by that source.
- The nature of the message plays a role in persuasion. Sometimes
presenting both sides of a story is useful to help change attitudes.
Sometimes the number of arguments presented in a persuasive message will
influence attitude change.
We have to be careful about the message. Overly strong messages are likely
to produce the opposite effect than was intended. People will not believe us
and therefore not change their attitudes. You have to remember not only to know
the attitudes of your audience but also their latitudes of acceptance and
rejection. If your message falls outside those boundaries, you are apt to get
the “boomerang effect” on your message. In those cases, going for a moderate
change may be prudent.
In persuasion, as in social influence and attitude change, emotion is a
common affective factor. Emotions work in conjunction with the cognitive
process. This is how we think about situations, consider information, or
evaluate issues. Any discrete emotion can be used in a persuasive appeal. It is
important to note that there is an optimal emotion level in motivating attitude
change. Too little emotion may not facilitate change, and too much may paralyze
the person and prevent attitude change.
Emotions perceived as negative or containing threats are often studied more
than perceived positive emotions, such as humor. Though the inner workings of
humor are not agreed upon, humor appeals may work by creating incongruities in
the mind. Recent research has looked at the impact of humor on the processing
of political messages. While evidence is inconclusive, there appears to be
potential for targeted attitude change in this area.
Conclusion
Organizations generally have an expectation that the workforce will perform
the work in a safe manner. They have policies and procedures that speak to this
in some form or another, but, because many of them treat safety as being
distinct and separate from operations, they create unforeseen system-driven
risks and barriers to optimal performance. This structural misalignment between
operations and safety, as well as management’s actions and expectations,
creates a work environment (climate) that influences workers’ perceptions and
fosters the attitudes they form, resulting in unexpected and undesirable
behaviors.
In this case, neither an organization’s management, operation’s staff, nor
safety personnel have a clear understanding of the underlying complex problem
and how it drives the undesirable safety outcomes they get. They also have no
appreciation for the scope, difficulty, and challenges of the undertaking
required to structurally change the resulting safety outcomes. They invariably
work on the symptoms rather than the true drivers of their perceived problem.
As a result, they end up with the undesirable outcomes (accidents and losses)
they have designed their organizational and operational systems to give
them.