The B-BS challenge: effectively motivating managers at all levels.
To ensure safety in the workplace, it is necessary to galvanize all managers to work together in concert. Unfortunately, such alignment is notoriously difficult. A Task Force member analyzing Texaco's lackluster results in reducing discrimination pointed out: "The need was obvious to senior executives but was not apparent among the lower management ranks." But we already know from the Operant Model of Effective Supervision that exemplary leaders motivate by monitoring and providing consequences (1). This information only goes so far, however, when myriad managers are doing myriad, often unseen tasks. So what should a CEO do? Regretfully, I do not have a quick fix. But for a similarly daunting area, I created a performance matrix, reflecting the weighting and progress toward a variety of managerial tasks that a CEO can use as a basis for reinforcement (2). I recommend developing a comparable index to build a community of reinforcement for safety.
Baruch University, City University of New York, New YorK, USA. Judith.Komaki@Baruch.CUNY.edu
Judith L
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Komaki
D001519:Behavior; D006801:Humans; D016272:Occupational Health; D017132:Workplace / Q000458:organization & administration*