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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A comprehensive and useful coverage of the topic., 16 Sep 1999
By A Customer
Improving Safety Culture-A Practical Guide is a challenging and thought provoking book in which the author, Dr Dominic Cooper, argues strongly and persuasively that organisations can benefit commercially from adopting management policies and practices that develop a safety culture.Dr Cooper sets out his thesis in the opening words of the book, when he states that 'companies have begun to recognise the important contribution that an effective safety culture can make to the control of their ongoing operational costs and the efficiency of their ongoing operations'. EU goal setting legislation, which requires organisations to 'identify and properly manage the risks created by their activities' is a factor in this development, he writes. Having explained the concept of safety culture, the author then sets out a three step strategy guiding organisations on its implementation. These steps are described as 'levels of effort' required to bring about the desired result. The first level, the 'immediate', requires that the CEO and the senior management team show safety leadership. Amongst the methods of identifying achievement are the presence and quality of risk control systems. At the second level, the 'intermediate', the visible signs of a positive safety culture will be apparent from the 'quality of an organisation's safety management information system'. The final part of the three level strategy, described as the 'ultimate', is concerned 'with winning people's hearts and minds to the organisations safety cause'. This will be achieved by the development of high quality safety training programmes, seeking and acting on employee's views, and empowering employees to become actively involved in safety. Cost benefit is always a factor in securing senior management support for safety. Dr Cooper offers examples, such as construction sector research which has shown an investment of 2.5% of direct labour costs in an effective safety programme should produce a gross saving of 6.5% of direct labour costs (net saving 4%). Improving Safety Culture is a book for those who are committed to safety management development. It is a book that those who are concerned with safety management standards will find informative and stimulating and one from which those who are just starting on the road to a safety culture will draw encouragement.
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