Developing Role Awareness in Safety Observer Training

Abstract

Many companies in industry concentrate a lot of energy on drawing up training programmes which tackle the difficult problem of making workers conscious of the dangers confronting them in their place of work. Many programmes include aspects of accident prevention dramatically illustrated by “what happens when …” situations, appeals to safety observers to drive home to fellow‐workers the necessity of wearing goggles, ear plugs, safety shoes etc. In other words, the primary task of the safety observer is to observe skilfully and prevent unsafe acts which could endanger health and safety at work. How often, however, is the safety observer himself fully aware of the role which he has accepted? How beneficial can role‐awareness be in carrying out safety training measures at shop‐floor level? Finding an answer to this question was, for us, the basic part of a new approach to safety training which was to be tested with a group of safety observers in one of our production plants.

Citation

Clyde, C. and Kurtz, H. (1979), "Developing Role Awareness in Safety Observer Training", Journal of European Industrial Training, Vol. 3 No. 1, pp. 9-12. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb014175