Culture has perhaps become the dominant theme in modern occupational health and safety (OHS). Possibly more dominant than Leadership. Culture remains an amorphous concept that is an inclusive adjective but also unhelpful. Several recent events started making connections in my OHS brain that I am still working through:...
Charles Handy died in December 2024. He was a prominent author on organisational behaviour and business management and was recognised as a major thinker. It is fair to describe him as a pre-Internet influencer. His ideas never went away, but they faded under the neoliberal onslaught. With the decline of that ideology, Handy’s approach to organisational … Continue reading “Handy and organisational culture”
On the morning of day one of the Australian Labor Law Association (ALLA) National Conference, the Fair Work Ombudsman, Anna Booth, mentioned a “culture of compliance.” She explained the culture of compliance by revealing data in several industry sectors about significant non-compliance based on the activities of the Fair Work Ombudsman inspectors. So, it’s perhaps …
Australia’s news media is reporting a shocking report about the workplace culture of parts of the Nine Entertainment organisation – bullying, sexual harassment, abuse of power – all the elements of organisational culture that can be found in any company if one scratches the surface. Scratching is one of the aims of the occupational health …
For many years, occupational health and safety (OHS) has been fixated on “Culture” as an encompassing term for what management activity does not work and what does. The focus has faded slightly since the COVID-19 pandemic. Still, Culture made an important reappearance this week with the delivery of the final report of Australia’s Royal Commission …
Every occupational health and safety (OHS) conference over the last twenty years seems to have revolved around the twin concepts of culture and leadership. The fascination with these concepts deserves analysis as they are confusing, and sometimes conflicting, and this is unhelpful for those in the lower or middle order of the management structures who …
Every so often, the spokespeople for occupational health and safety (OHS) regulators spread the public speaking load by having divisional heads speak at health and safety events. This week WorkSafe Victoria’s Director of Investigations, Peter Collins (pictured below), spoke at a breakfast seminar for the Australian Institute of Health and Safety, hosted by Herbert Smith …
