Changing the Safety Culture: Safety Professional as Change Agent

By:
Dr. John Kello
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The safety professional is often viewed mainly as a technical expert. But there are many parallels between the role of the the safety professional and the OD consultant today. A strong case can be made that both are change agents, influencing others (without line authority) to change behaviors. And increasingly, safety professionals aim beyond a spot program or intervention, and attempt to help bring about major transformation in the organization's overall approach to safety and health, and to effect durable systemic change - to build a 'positive safety culture'.

This paper presents some essential principles of change management, drawn from the research and practice literature in OD, as well as from the author's more that 25 years of consulting experience, and illustrates how these principles can be applied to the contemporary role of modern safety professionals, to increase their effectiveness in building a sustainable positive safety culture in their organization.The paper also briefly addresses the issue of how safety professionals can 'manage their practice' internally, so that they become more than the technical expert, and are viewed as trusted advisors in their organization.


Keywords: OD, Change Agent, Organizational Transformation, Positive Safety Culture
Stream: Change
Presentation Type: 30 minute Paper Presentation in English
Paper: Changing the Safety Culture

Dr. John Kello

Professor, Department of Psychology, Davidson College
UNITED STATES

As a Full Professor at Davidson College, I teach and do research in a variety of areas of I-O psychology and Organization Development. As President of John E. Kello & Associates, Inc., an OD consultancy, I have worked with many organizations in a variety of OD and Training & Development interventions. My work focuses on helping clients make the transformation from a "traditionally" structured organization a team-based, High Performance Organization, and helping them develop people to lead and manage such a flexible organization. I have also had extensive experience in behavior-based workplace safety, and in designing and evaluating Crew Resource Management (CRM) training programs in commercial aviation and in the nuclear industry. Recent projects include strategic planning and organizational alignment consulting with NASA's Johnson Space Center.

Ref: M06P0067