Introduction to Fire Safety Management

4.5.2 Staff feeling undervalued
Problems that can lead to stress include the lack of 
adequate and meaningful communication and consult-
ation on safety matters that will affect the individual 
employees. Management will also demonstrate that they 
undervalue employees if they operate a so-called ‘blame 
culture’ that results in the blame for problems always 
identifi ed as a failure of an individual rather than accept 
that there has been a failure of a management system.
As well as fi nding fault with individuals and/or teams 
organisations often promote a negative safety culture by 
failing to recognise good work, for example when safety 

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Introduction to Fire Safety Management
72
objectives are met or when accidents are avoided by the 
personal intervention of a conscientious member of staff.
4.5.3 Job 
demands
An organisation promoting a negative culture will impose 
unrealistic and unnecessary job demands on the work-
force, in particular poor organisations will fail to:
➤
Prioritise 
tasks
➤
Cut out unnecessary work
➤
Try to give warning of urgent or important jobs
➤
Ensure that individuals are matched to jobs
➤
Provide training for those who need it
➤
Increase the scope of jobs for those who are 
overtrained
➤
Ensure workplace hazards, such as fi re, noise, 
harmful substances and the threat of violence, are 
properly controlled
➤
Allow staff to control any aspects of their own work 
or make decisions about how that work should be 
completed and how problems should be tackled.
4.5.4 Role 
ambiguity
Role ambiguity is experience by individuals who are 
uncertain of their work roles and responsibilities. People 
will often fi nd themselves in the situation where they 
do not know what they are supposed to be doing and 
feel ill equipped to do what they think may be expected. 
Organisations will create role ambiguity by ill-defi ned job 
descriptions in order to cover all possible eventualities. 
This has the benefi t, for the negative organisation, of 
being able to identify and blame individuals for a broad 
range of failures.
Role ambiguity has been proven to be a signifi -
cant cause of work-related stress with all of the serious 
consequences of chronic mental ill health for the suffer-
ers. Specifi c factors that lead to role ambiguity among 
the workforce are the lack of:
➤
Clearly written and communicated policies, sup-
ported by clear and realistic job descriptions
➤
Proper supervisory support
➤
Adequate training and supervision for the job holder
➤
Adequate performance review.