Transformational Leadership In SafetyEssay Preview: Transformational Leadership In SafetyReport this essayRunning head: TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP AND SAFETYTransformational Leadership and SafetyJesse R. BlountBaker CollegeTransformational Leadership and SafetyThe Postal Service in Baton Rouge and cities around the nation has a poor reputation when it comes to safety and health of its employees. In an attempt to debunk this unjust accusation, Management and craft employees alike set out to accomplish a task never before achieved by a postal facility with more than 20 employees. Many managers in the Southwest Area thought it suicide to invite the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) in for an inspection and try to achieve the highest recommendation obtainable, the coveted “STAR” award. The plants 491 employees, supervisors and managers using transformational leadership, prepared for and accomplished this achievement in only 90 days.
Transformational Leadership by definition is the broadening and elevating of the awareness, acceptance and attitudes of the workforce beyond their personal interest for the good of a group or company (Bass, 1990) Management, union officials, and craft employees acting as safety captains, worked together to motivate the workforce to see a bigger picture. The first and most important task was building a relationship of trust.
The Postal Service is notorious for discipline of its employees when something goes wrong but is slow to reward these same employees for a job well done. The Plant Manager at Baton Rouge, Joseph Tate a 42-year veteran of the service, decided that charisma, intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration, as discussed by Sally A. Carless (1998) were necessary in achieving a cultural change. He believed that in order to achieve a STAR rating the employees would have to come onboard. With the blessings of the Louisiana District office, he instituted a new safety program that was fashioned after that of Dow Chemical, 3-M and other industry leaders. Employee involvement, as in every industrial success, was the key.
Employees selected their own safety captains from the craft workers. Instead of the supervisors of each unit giving the same old boring safety talks, it was now the responsibility of the safety captains to present relevant safety information for each unit. Safety captains gathered information throughout the week, and used examples, tasks, tools and materials used within the unit for these talks. Weekly safety meetings became participative and interesting from the onset. Monthly meetings attended by the safety captains, the plant manager, and the district safety manager proved extremely productive. Monthly safety contests with prizes, job safety analysis completed by the employees themselves, additional OSHA sanctioned training, and a safety information centers on the workroom
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Employees were given their own safety captains and supervised by our employees, who were held to a code of conduct that was followed by the management and oversight of the crew. Safety captains and workers then shared their safety information, and shared knowledge with their supervisors. The OSHA’s safety procedures and policies can be found in
United States Federal Regulations.
Many of the benefits of the safety captains were demonstrated. Workers took part in the safety meetings to receive detailed information about safety risks in each of their work environments. Workers also were given a clear goal of completing safety tests to ensure their safe employment. Workers were also given opportunity to write in safety feedback form.
The safety captains received a range of training, including a rigorous and structured safety study with a range of benefits. Some participants did not complete safety testing and others did.
At least 70% of the employees were also given feedback about a range of risk assessment tasks. Some participants were also told that other safety challenges were being faced by other workers. Some participants also were informed about the activities of the other crew members, as well as about the safety aspects of the safety training.
Working Conditions (in Tables 1 and 2) and the Results (in Figures 3 and 4)
The weekly safety and security meetings had a number of opportunities to compare the performance of the safety captains. Most employers used a standard checklist of tasks, and the weekly safety and security meeting typically consisted of 15 to 20 people. However, a higher number of participants were involved in training, and it was often during the weekly safety meetings that participants met to develop a personal experience with the safety captains to meet the safety requirements. The results obtained from the weekly safety and security meeting should be taken with a grain of salt. Each safety captain would often be invited to speak to other senior employees.
We want to thank everyone who attended our weekly safety and security meetings. Many of them showed interest in the work environment as both a safety aspect versus one of its more interesting aspects. It was