Category: book

Yesmanship – the biggest threat to safety culture

The recent release of a new book on Operation Mincemeat has again raised the term “yesmanship” in  the media.  Online definitions explain the term as

“An atmosphere in which people claim to agree with leadership for political reasons, even when they don’t actually agree with leadership” .

The significance of the term in relation to the current trend of “safety culture” should not be underestimated.  Below are some definitions of safety culture that illustrate the similarities to or risk from yesmanship.

“The product of individual and group values, attitudes, perceptions, competencies, and patterns of behaviour that determine the commitment to, and the style and proficiency of, an organization’s health and safety management” Continue reading “Yesmanship – the biggest threat to safety culture”

US workplace bullying interview with Gary Namie

Ben Merens of Wisconsin Public Radio interviewed Gary Namie of the Bullying Institute on 26 May 2010 for 45 minutes on his At Issue radio program.  The interview is very timely as new “Healthy Workplace” legislation is being considered in the United States.

What was useful in this interview was that the discussion centred on workplace bullying and Namie summarised how this is substantially different from schoolyard bullying – a  significant difference which requires different methods of control.  Namie says that although bullying in childhood is significant, the impact on an adult of similar treatment may have longer lasting effects.

The broadcast, of course, applies to the US context principally but Namie has a long and strong international reputation in workplace bullying advice and deserves an audience.  Tellingly, Namie says that the comparison for workplace bullying is not schoolyard bullying but domestic violence.

In 2001, Namie provided me with a review copy the 2000 edition of The Bully At Work for the SafetyATWORK magazine.  The review is available HERE.

Kevin Jones

Guidance on the impacts of a workplace death

A short time after a traumatic death of a family member will cause the family to feel they are in a mental spin.  Not only are the usual funeral arrangements required but there can seem to be involvement in a personal loss from a mess of government departments and legal bodies.

It is not expected that all families have a manual to life and death but there is information for families who may have to face a workplace death.  Perhaps, more importantly, this information should be read by safety professionals so that they understand the social and familial complexities of workplace incidents.  Companies may call in the lawyers but there is also an obligation to their employees and families and guides, like the Kit for Families produced by the Workplace Tragedy Family Support Group, may help put all the processes into perspective.

Other online guidance material is available from

The Victorian Trades Hall Council

WorkCover New South Wales

SafeWork SA

One regulator’s perspective can be found at Health & Safety Executive

SafetyAtWorkBlog readers are welcome to suggest other similar online  guidelines.

Kevin Jones

Is OHS part of Labour Law?

The question in the title of this article came about from the release of a fabulous new book by LexisNexis- Butterworths – Australian Labour Law – Text, Cases & Commentary, 5th edition.

Through my introductory look at the book, it seems that occupational health and safety gets around half a page in a book of over 1200 pages.  As an OHS reader I was disappointed, as I believe that OHS is an important subset of labour law.  My belief is echoed by some Australian publishers who include, usually, a chapter on OHS in their labour law titles.  LexisNexis has never been a publisher of OHS information with the market leader being CCH but with Federation Press holding the more quality and original sector.

One possible reason for the lack of OHS is that the authors, Marilyn J Pittard and Richard B Naughton are lecturers in labour law at Monash University and OHS does not feature in their program.  Another could be that the book is a monolithic volume already and, perhaps, OHS could not be given adequate attention without adding a couple of pounds to the book and generating a manual handling risk.

It is hoped that LexisNexis realises there is a market opening for authoritative and fresh writing on OHS in Australia, particularly in this period of change due to harmonisation.  The morphing of OHS in the areas of due diligence and risk management are particularly interesting to watch. Continue reading “Is OHS part of Labour Law?”

What is the best OHS conference you have attended and why?

Australia is beginning the new year’s rounds of safety conferences.  There is always a lot to criticise on OHS conferences but SafetyAtWorkBlog wants to hear about the best safety conference you have attended and what made it so good?  (Teleconference and web-based conferences will be dealt with another time.

Was it the speakers? The venue location? The comfy chairs?  The lunchtime food?  The quality of conference attendees? Or the really cool USB of conference papers included in the ID card lanyard, as happened recently in Australia?

The most interesting comment will receive two OHS-related books from the SafetyAtWorkBlog review copy library (there may be scribbles in the margins).

Kevin Jones

Dipping into workplace violence

Jeff Sparrow recently gained considerable media attention with his book that reflected on violence in society.  Yossi Berger once described occupational health and safety as a “kind of violence” in his book of that title.  There is a lot of research  into occupational violence, much of it from the United States which, to some extent, has an unrepresentative view of this hazard.

An interesting, and brief, discussion on the matter is a chapter in the book “Perspectives on Violent and Violent Death” published by Baywood Publishing.  The existential perspective of one particular chapter may make it impractical for safety management purposes but as a background article for provoking thought, it is very good.

Without this chapter I would not have found the work of C E Newhill* into client violence in social work or that of C L Charles.  Charles identified some factors that have contributed to the “anger epidemic” which may provide some clues on understanding occupational violence.   These are listed below:

Another new Australian safety journal

In November 2009, the Safety Institute of Australia published its first edition of its peer-reviewed journal.  At the time it was described as a good start.

Also in 2009, another safety-related peer-reviewed journal was released and this one has avoided some of the SIA journal’s shortcomings…. in a way.  For a small academic country this now makes three OHS journals.  The International Journal of Social Security and Workers Compensation (IJSSWC) is published by Curtin University’s School of Business Law and is only available online. Continue reading “Another new Australian safety journal”

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