Book Review
McSween, T. P. (1995). The Values-Based Safety Process: Improving Your Safety Culture With A Behavioral Approach.

Beginning in the late 1970’s, behavior analysts began to address the issue of industrial and occupational safety. Early studies ranged from that of Sulzer-Azaroff (1978), conducted in university materials research laboratories, to Smith, Anger, and Uslan’s (1978) work in a shipyard, and Komaki, Barwick, and Scott’s (1978) in a wholesale bakery. Following these pioneers, behavior analysts took many different approaches to improving worker safety and reducing the economic costs of accidents and injuries in a variety of occupational settings. Several distinct methods for determining target measures were developed; some researchers focused on behaviors and their results, while others looked to outcomes such as injuries and equipment damage. Researchers explored the application of a number of standard behavioral techniques – many forms of performance feedback, praise and correction, competition and lotteries, tangible rewards, financial incentives, and token economies. A few researchers conducted component analyses comparing the relative effectiveness of goal-setting, feedback, and rewards, while still others conducted studies examining the effects on individual workers, teams or work groups, and even the entire workforce. In short, the study of occupational safety has been a fertile area for research over the last twenty years.

A distillation of this diverse body of experimental literature is presented in Terry McSween's book The Values-Based Safety Process: Improving Your Safety Culture with a Behavioral Approach. This is not an academic text – this is clearly a practical guide for managers in industrial organizations. The book would also be useful to both practitioners and to graduate and undergraduate students of behavior analysis. It illustrates the process of developing, implementing, evaluating, and maintaining behavioral safety interventions and would be an appropriate supplemental text for courses on industrial safety or organizational behavior management. Although not an academic textbook, enough research is discussed and illustrated in case studies to assure any reader that the plan of action is scientifically grounded. References to the experimental research enhance this straightforward and concise presentation of behavioral safety interventions.

In the initial part of the book (Chapters 1 through 3) McSween introduces the behavioral approach to safety and contrasts it with traditional safety programs. He emphasizes the distinction between a program and a process and stresses the advantages of a team-based process. In reacting to the current popular opposition to programs as opposed to processes, McSween makes an interesting suggestion – occasional safety programs will keep the safety process fresh (p.33). He discusses other common program elements that might be important for some organizations to use to supplement their behavioral efforts, such as process safety reviews, suggestion systems, slogan competitions, etc. (Chapter 6). Although evidence of the efficacy of such interventions may be lacking, it is well to address them. Neglect of strategies with which the reader may already be familiar has the potential to create the impression that behavior analysts are unfamiliar with approaches other than our own.

The introductory section also includes a discussion of punishment and the problems associated with its use. This is a well-placed discussion since many in the safety field believe that the personal and organizational costs of accidents justify a punishment-based strategy.

In the second part of the book the author introduces the values-based nature of the behavioral safety process. In discussing the establishment of a values-based safety culture in Chapter 4, the author outlines four steps to be carried out by the safety team – identification of basic values, pinpointing practices that exemplify those values, provision of training on the values, and finally using the values as ground rules for interactions.

McSween recommends a Design Team to plan a behavioral process tailored to the needs of a specific organization. A Design Team consists of “a project manager and selected employees representing all functions and levels within the areas implementing the behavioral safety process” (p.32). The Design Team typically participates in all phases of planning as discussed in sections addressing Safety Assessment, Management Overview, Initial Workshops, and Final Design.

The book also covers the responsibilities of Area Safety Teams, outlined in chapters covering the Safety Observation Process, Feedback and Involvement Procedures, Safety Incentives, Training and Kickoff Meetings, Support Programs, Implementation and Maintenance. Area Safety Teams consist of “local level management, supervision, and representative employees” (p.32).

Finally, practical suggestions, an explanation of basic behavioral principles, and illustrative case studies are included. Throughout the book, McSween presents examples that are relevant and instructive and that indicate his experience implementing behavioral safety. The case studies illustrate a variety of possible applications, the advantages and disadvantages of different strategies, and the difficulties in maintaining successful interventions. The appendices provide sample implementation schedules and a list of experienced behavioral consultants; the text closes with a select bibliography.

Unlike many management books this one does not merely provide a case study, anecdotal approach to organizational change based on the personal experience of the author. Rather, it provides an analytical framework, detailed methodology, and guidelines that help the reader to do more than take a “cookbook approach” (p.222) when planning a process that meets the needs of a particular organization. However, the book does not provide sufficient expertise in behavioral technology to successfully address special problems such as safety practices that significantly impact production, unusual levels of resistance to behavioral techniques, or high levels of labor-management conflict. Many companies may find that they have situations that require a greater depth of knowledge than can reasonably be acquired from a single text. Such companies can either develop these capabilities within their organizations, hire well-trained behavior analysts, or contract with reputable consulting firms such as those identified in the book’s appendix.

Many will find the author’s style to be of particular interest. He addresses behavioral issues in a way that is easily understood by those in business or traditional safety fields by providing operational definitions of management terms. McSween defines “culture” as both the practices common to a group of people and the reasons people do what they do. Thus, a safety culture is an environment where people do their jobs safely “to prevent injury to themselves and others, not just because of pressure from management.” (p.35) A value is “a statement or rule that prescribes the form of personal interactions preferred by a culture.” (p.44) Such statements are valuable in a safety improvement process “as behavioral standards for managers and employees in their interactions with one another about safety.” (p.45) As Agnew (1993) and others have pointed out, OBM practitioners might benefit from using terminology familiar to their clients while providing precise, functional definitions for these usually vague terms, such as “values.” McSween’s text provides a good example of such an approach.

A second strength of the early sections of the book is the objective appraisal of the usefulness of the team approach. Team-based management has become a cultural phenomenon as a result of the Total Quality Movement begun in the United States in the 1980's. Many organizations leapt on the bandwagon without an adequate analysis of the systems or behavior necessary to the success of any behavior change effort. Many of those same organizations have abandoned work teams as ineffective, and the management literature is as replete today with articles on why teams do not work to enhance productivity, quality, or safety, as it was ten years ago with predictions that teams would revolutionize the work environment. McSween provides a concise description of the potential benefits of implementing a team-based safety program but does not fail to point out the necessity of real behavior change and the technology of a behavioral science to prevent the potential pitfalls associated with teams.

McSween devotes an entire chapter to strategies for sustaining and maintaining the integrity of the process. He goes beyond the data in discussing these issues, which is inevitable since there is no research that directly address this topic. Clearly, clarifying the elements that effect maintenance of safety processes represents one of the key research challenges in behavioral safety.

A workbook to accompany the text might include additional examples of recommended forms to guide implementation and supply more detail on tactics such as training of observers, providing praise and corrective feedback, mentoring, and presenting awards. Some behavior analysts have complained about a lack of a state-of-the-art performance management manual (Hopkins, 1996). This book appears to meet that need, at least in the area of behavioral safety. It illustrates a no-apologies approach to suing behavior analysis in organizations. Its strengths are the provision of an analytic framework, detailed steps for planning and implementing a safety improvement process tailored to the needs of the organization, the clarity of its style (including excellent worksheets, decision guides, graphs, and examples), the operational definition of many management terms, and real life case studies highlighting the potential, as well as some of the pitfalls, of behavioral safety interventions. In short, this is a very practical book that clearly illustrates how to apply behavioral technology to improve safety in the workplace.

References

Agnew, J. L. (1993). [Review of Danger in the comfort zone: From boardroom to mailroom – how to break the entitlement habit that’s killing American business]. Journal of Organizational Behavior Analysis, 13, 75-80.

Hopkins, B. (1996, May). The future of performance management. In B.L. Cole (Chair), The future of performance management. Panel discussion conducted at the meeting of the Association for Behavior Analysis, San Francisco.

Komaki, J. L., Barwick, K. D., & Scott, L. R. (1978). A behavioral approach to occupational safety: Pinpointing and reinforcing safe performance in a food manufacturing plant. Journal of Applied Psychology, 63, 434-445.

Smith, M. J., Anger, W. K., and Uslan, S. S. (1978). Behavioral modification applied to occupational safety. Journal of Safety Research, 10, 87-88.

Sulzer-Azaroff, B. (1978). Behavioral ecology and accident prevention. Journal of Organizational Behavior Analysis, 2, 11-44.

This article first appeared in Professional Safety (August 1997) and is reproduced here with permission.