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Safety Management Tasks at Different Management Levels

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Advances in Human Factors, Business Management, Training and Education

Part of the book series: Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing ((AISC,volume 498))

Abstract

Top management’s strategic commitment to occupational health and safety (OHS) is crucial, but the middle and frontline managers play an important role in OHS management at the tactical and operational levels. The managers’ commitment can be supported by defining their OHS responsibilities and tasks. However, practical examples of their tasks are not widely discussed. This qualitative study aims to identify the OHS management tasks at different organizational levels based on empirical findings from Finnish industrial organizations. Top management’s OHS tasks focus on value judgements, goal setting, providing support, and visibly demonstrating their commitment to OHS. Middle managers develop uniform OHS procedures across the organization, and provide guidance to the frontline managers. Frontline managers monitor the daily work and identify the safety development needs for decision making. The emerged OHS tasks mostly involved technical issues, while human factor aspects were less emphasized, although they have been actively studied for some time.

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Acknowledgments

We sincerely appreciate the generous contributions of the Finnish Work Environment Fund and the participating organizations of this study. We acknowledge and warmly thank all the managers and safety professionals who participated in the study.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Industrial Management, Center for Safety Management and Engineering, Tampere University of Technology, P.O. Box 541, 33101, Tampere, Finland

    Sari Tappura & Jouni Kivistö-Rahnasto

  2. Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Safety Solutions, Töölöntullinkatu 8, 00250, Helsinki, Finland

    Anna-Maria Teperi

Authors
  1. Sari Tappura
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  2. Anna-Maria Teperi
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  3. Jouni Kivistö-Rahnasto
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sari Tappura .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Vaasa , Vaasa, Finland

    Jussi Ilari Kantola

  2. Hungarian-Netherlands School of Edu man, University of Szeged Hungarian-Netherlands School of Edu man, Szeged, Hungary

    Tibor Barath

  3. Faculty of Technology and Maritime Scien, University College of Southeast Norway Faculty of Technology and Maritime Scien, Kongsberg, Norway

    Salman Nazir

  4. TiER1 Performance Solutions , Colorado Springs,, Colorado, USA

    Terence Andre

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Tappura, S., Teperi, AM., Kivistö-Rahnasto, J. (2017). Safety Management Tasks at Different Management Levels. In: Kantola, J., Barath, T., Nazir, S., Andre, T. (eds) Advances in Human Factors, Business Management, Training and Education. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 498. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42070-7_104

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42070-7_104

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-42069-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-42070-7

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