Motivation-Based Safety

"The industry... can make quantum leaps with safety issues as it becomes more adept at reaching the source of individual’s behaviors and their unsafe work disorders." (Paragraph 5)

Safety’s Next Step

by Charles W. Coker, Ph. D.

INTRODUCTION

For the past sixty years, the safety community has relied on engineering control; observation; quantitative information analysis; "broad brush" training; and, most recently, behavioral observation and modification approaches for the reduction of accidents and associated costs-- all with somewhat acceptable success. Continuing demand for increased performance and bottom-line emphasis will no longer allow industry to stick with and use only these approaches in the next millenium.

Better results in safety are attainable if corporate America looks beyond mere behavior to the core motivations that a person brings to the work environment. Analysis of behavior is, by necessity, analysis of the individual person and that person’s actions within a group. Motivations are the source and cause of those actions. Each and every person who walks into a company or work environment brings capabilities, as well as his or her "behavioral baggage." Behavioral baggage, such as self-punishment, is the cause of accidents and will continue to cause accidents until the underlying motivations are identified, removed, and replaced. Historical data supports this notion.

HISTORY

During the mid 1930s, the safety industry recognized that most accidents were caused by an individual’s behavior. Industry realized the concept was sound and began a process of evolving to today’s more sophisticated level of observing behavior; analyzing that behavior; and then formatting principles, policies, and procedures based on the analysis of that information. The process provided progress but not the total desired results.

A case for this evolution is the State of Florida’s and OSHA’s Safety and Health Achievement Recognition Program (SHARP). SHARP, in essence, is a modified version of OSHA’s Voluntary Protection Program, (VPP.) But SHARP produces only minimal results. SHARP focuses only indirectly on an employee’s motivation through a four-tier approach:

Management commitment & employee participation
Worksite Analysis
Hazard Prevention and Control
Safety and Health Training

SHARP is obtaining some positive results because the focus is on the person and the workplace. Unfortunately, the program still ignores the source of the problem—different motivational factors of individual employees. This, and programs that ignore the source of the employee’s behavior minimize potentially positive results.

ANALYSIS

Many safety programs ignore the source and place more emphasis on the work environment. Such programs focus on workplace conditions rather than on the employee’s motivations because conditions are easier to monitor and control. Observed behavior is not sufficient to divine an employee’s motivation for mental and physical pain. Observable behavior alone does not identify the whole associate who comes to work.

Behavior is only a part of the whole person’s self-esteem and attitude. Attitude is more important than intelligence. The whole employee, not just the job description, walks in the door at 8AM. The real safety issue of why the person inflicts pain or loss on him/herself or other people is harder to reach. The largest component of motivation, self-esteem, must be considered.

The industry will make quantum leaps with safety issues, as it becomes more adept at reaching the source of individual’s behaviors and their "Unsafe Work Disorders" (UWD) following this approach. The illustrations below graphically illustrate the difference between traditional, behavioral, and the suggested motivational approach.

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