Introduction to Fire Safety Management

Minimising violations
Violations can only be reduced to a minimum by creating 
a positive safety culture in the workplace, i.e. a culture 
that involves and empowers employees to be actively 
involved in decisions that affect their own safety.
A culture where the most senior management are 
visibly committed to high safety standards and a culture 
that encourages standards of safety to be maintained 
despite internal problems and external pressures will 
also assist in minimising employee violations.
4.10
Effecting cultural change
In order to effect cultural change with an organisation, 
it is necessary for the most senior levels of manage-
ment to understand the implication of a negative culture. 
Experience has shown that organisations with a poor 
culture are liable to suffer serious accidents with subse-
quent loss of life, business assets and reputation. In addi-
tion they will be liable to lengthy legal action by enforcing 
authorities and the families of those who have been killed 
or injured.
Without this understanding of the risks that are being 
run, if safety is not seen as a central element of managing 
a business, managers are not likely to be committed to 
Figure 4.16
Routine violations of basic safety systems 
indicate a poor safety culture – wedged fi re door

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Safety culture
81
safety in a way that takes their whole organisation with 
them.
Once management are fully committed to improving 
the safety culture they need to establish and promote 
high standards of safety in the workplace. This must be 
reinforced by clear leadership including acting in a way 
that provides a clear and positive example for all the 
individuals in the organisation.
Management then need to ensure that individ-
uals understand their role at work and are competent to 
undertake that role. Everyone in the workplace should 
have suffi cient relevant knowledge skills and experience 
to operate confi dently and safely.
People at work cannot guess what they are 
supposed to be doing. This is particularly true if what they 
are expected to be doing is new. Therefore adequate, 
focused training which, where possible, is tailored to the 
individual training needs will play a major part in effecting 
any cultural change. Opportunities will arise for training 
and thereby improving the safety culture when there is, 
for example, a change in the law, or the introduction of 
new equipment or procedures or when individuals are 
recruited or change roles.
Management need to constantly reinforce their 
commitment with clear, consistent, understandable 
communications. The safety ethos of an organisation 
should be refl ected across a wide range of communica-
tion media. Care must be taken to ensure arrangements 
are in place for effective communications both vertically, 
up and down a hierarchy, and horizontally, across an 
organisation.
Neither cultural change nor changes in any behaviour 
at work can ever be achieved without convincing employ-
ees of the need to change. Once the need to change is 
accepted it can only be effectively implemented if the 
workforce feels that they have a serious and important 
contribution to make. Therefore among the tools available 
for managers to achieve cultural change are the formal 
and informal methods of consultation with employees.