Journal of Safety Research

Journal of Safety Research

Volume 77, June 2021, Pages 296-310
Journal of Safety Research

Identifying management practices that drive production-line workers’ engagement through qualitative analysis

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsr.2021.02.006Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Main H&S engagement drivers were found to be safety focus, quality of communication and environment.

  • Workers were fundamentally, intrinsically self-motivated to keep themselves and others safe.

  • Personal protection and human empathy were workers’ main values and that formed their identity.

  • Disagreement between managers’ and workers’ perception of safety impacted workers’ H&S engagement.

  • Interventions to warrant workers’ H&S engagement should ensure workers’ being heard and taken seriously, part of decision-making processes, recognised and appreciated, and cared for by the company.

Abstract

Introduction: Engagement research - most often defined by a worker’s psychological state of vigor, dedication, and absorption - pays little attention to production-line workers. This study therefore explores factors that drive workers’ engagement with health and safety (H&S) in a production-line context as well as their perception of managerial influence Furthermore, the study adds to the body of research by exploring H&S engagement concepts through the use of qualitative research methods. Method: 38 semi-structured interviews were conducted and analyzed through template analysis to identify themes that promote and hinder engagement. Results: The main engagement drivers were found to be: (a) the displayed safety focus of the company in organizational and social aspects; (b) the quality of the communication approach with respect to quality, consistency and direction; and (c) the environment encompassing the relationship between workers and supervisors and peers as well as the psychological environment. Notably, a trusting relationship between supervisors and workers appeared to be the most influential driver in determining engaged H&S behavior. Discussion and impact in industry: The study highlights factors that could be adapted to improve engagement and consequently enhance H&S approaches. Originality: The study reported in this paper offers a unique insight into individual production workers’ perceived drivers of H&S engagement using Qualitative Analysis. Practical applications: The study identified the important role that supervisors play in workers’ H&S engagement levels and what skills they need to employ to enhance workers’ engagement in general and in the context of H&S behavior and performance. Furthermore, the importance of psychological and sociological factors in safety approaches are highlighted and were found to be key for creating safer workplaces.

Introduction

While many managers are knowledgeable about the technicalities of engaging workers to enhance performance and behavior, proactive action to create a positive, trusting environment often falls short. Competing work duties, productivity demands and a lack of consistent communication for example can influence and impact worker’s H&S engagement (Conchie, Moon, & Duncan, 2013). This study highlights the consequences of such factors and provides recommendations designed to enhance the workers’ engagement with H&S in a production context.

Section snippets

Literature background

Workers’ health and safety (H&S) is of paramount importance to companies, yet often, even in environments with a well-implemented safety management system (SMS), the occurrence of incidents and accidents plateaus, while low-impact incidents still occur regularly and the occasional surprising high-impact accidents seem to be unrelated to the risks monitored (Townsend, 2016). This phenomenon has been described by Dekker and Pitzer (2015), who hypothesized that some safety practices and structures

Engagement in the context of H&S

With respect to H&S, studies show that engaged workers have fewer accidents at work and lower reports of ill-health (Hansez and Chmiel, 2010, Harter et al., 2002, Nahrgang et al., 2011, Wachter and Yorio, 2014). Furthermore, perceived management commitment to safety mediates the relationship between resources and task-related safety non-compliance through work engagement (Hansez and Chmiel, 2010, Laurent et al., 2018). Laurent and colleagues (2018) proposed that when employees feel cared for by

Business characteristics

All participants in this research were employees at a UK automotive production plant of a global organization. The UK plant began production of petrol engines in 1980 and during the period of study was operating three production lines (PL) with approximately 1,700 employees on site; 1,350 of which were working in shop floor-close jobs (e.g., assembly and machining lines). The employees were represented by a strong trade union and the plant had a comprehensive Safety Management System (SMS).

Results

With respect to the factors affecting H&S engagement at the plant, after careful consideration of all codes, comments fell into three main themes, which were identified as overall categories:

  • Safety focus (section 5.2),

  • Communication (section 5.3), and

  • Environment (section 5.4).

Within the identified themes, several drivers and barriers were identified as sub-themes.

These three broad themes have been identified to aid further analysis of key concepts, but it is recognized that categorization in

Discussion

The commentary suggests that the workers’ level of engagement cannot be determined by monitoring compliance with H&S rules and procedures alone. For example, while management indicate that some workers exhibit “childish behavior” (MA) putting “themselves at risk” (MA), this does not necessarily mean that workers are disengaged with H&S. Indeed, Kahn in Daisley’s (2019) podcast ‘Eat Sleep Work Repeat’ suggested that ‘H&S engagement’ – be it non-compliant or compliant – is still an outward

Summary

Whereas much research has been conducted in other industries, this study is the first of its kind to the authors’ knowledge that has analyzed the factors influencing engagement of PL workers in particular in a H&S context from a qualitative angle.

By using template analysis, three main themes were identified as overall categories affecting the H&S engagement climate in the plant:

  • Safety focus,

  • Communication, and

  • Environment.

All themes were found to be strongly linked to each other. Thus, they must

Limitations

Although this research has meaningful findings and offers contributions to the H&S as well as engagement literature, due to the context and nature of the research some limitations may apply. During the time when the interviews took place, the plant went through a phase of negative media where potential job losses were revealed before management had talked to staff about them, which may have introduced bias. Thus, this polarization was acknowledged and it was recognized that while the internal

Practical implications and future research directions

Based on the findings, exemplary recommendations for manufacturing environments to enhance H&S engagement were derived (see Table 3). It also became clear that a one-size-fits-all-solution will not be possible and that companies must make individual efforts to understand their workers’ drivers and barriers in terms of H&S engagement.

Whilst this study provides a meaningful insight into the drivers and barriers of engagement in one case-study plant, the findings are considered a snapshot of this

Franziska Homann, MSc, is a doctoral candidate in Health Science and Psychology at Cardiff Metropolitan University with the research aim to develop a tool kit containing recommendations for change which can be applied within blue-collar organisations to enhance engagement in health and safety practice via a focus on employee engagement. On the side of her PhD, she works as a business consultant and is a certified business coach and trainer.

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  • Cited by (1)

    Franziska Homann, MSc, is a doctoral candidate in Health Science and Psychology at Cardiff Metropolitan University with the research aim to develop a tool kit containing recommendations for change which can be applied within blue-collar organisations to enhance engagement in health and safety practice via a focus on employee engagement. On the side of her PhD, she works as a business consultant and is a certified business coach and trainer.

    Dr. Caroline Limbert, PhD, CPsychol AFBPsS SFHEA, is a HCPC Registered Health and Occupational Psychologist based at Cardiff Metropolitan University. She completed a PhD working for University of Oxford PGMDE exploring the use of evidence-based medicine by doctors. Her more recent research focuses on health and wellbeing, predominantly in a work-place setting. Much of her work involves conducting systematic reviews and service evaluations, as well as training the health psychologists of the future.

    Simon Matthews, PhD, IOSH, IEMA, is a chartered safety and environmental professional with 20 years of experience within the oil & gas, manufacturing, food, and power generation industries. Simon is passionate about sensible safety processes and is a firm believer in culture and it’s impact in the safety performance across all levels of a business.

    Darren Castaldi, DipNEBOSH, Grad.IOSH, is a Safety Engineer at the Ford Motor Company's engine manufacturing facility at Bridgend, South Wales. Darren has worked at the facility for 23 yrs, and most notably employed as a Safety Technician between 2011-16 and then as a Safety Engineer/Site Lead from 2016 to present. Amongst other qualifications, Darren has a Nebosh Diploma in Occupational Health and Safety, has 1st Class degree in History, and is presently working towards his MSc in Safety, Health and Environmental Management. Darren is a very experienced safety professional and classified as the plant’s subject matter expert on all health and safety related matters.

    Dr. Peter Sykes, PhD, is a Principal Lecturer and the Associate Dean (enterprise) at the Cardiff School of Health Sciences, Cardiff Metropolitan University. Peter is actively involved in occupational health and safety research, primarily in the waste management sector. In addition to his teaching duties at undergraduate and post graduate levels, Peter is actively involved in supervising doctoral work in Occupational Health and Safety.

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