Identifying management practices that drive production-line workers’ engagement through qualitative analysis
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:
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Safety focus (section 5.2),
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Communication (section 5.3), and
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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:
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Safety focus,
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Communication, and
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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.