Systems approaches have been used for years in manufacturing processes. But only recently has the idea of management systems been applied to the field of occupational safety. Let's discuss the dynamics of the safety management system and its role in preventing liability for occupational health and safety violations.

A Safety Management System Model

If we were to apply a typical "closed loop" management system model to occupational health and safety, we could use the typical Plan, Organize, Direct and Control scenario found in so many management textbooks. To render the model, you simply draw a circle and place each of the management functions at each quarter of the outside of the circle.

The piece which would make this system complete from a safety management perspective is the prevention function. Place the prevention function in the middle of your circle and draw a broken line from the prevention function to each of the management functions.

The addition of a prevention function to a management system stabilizes the system and keeps it from being simply reactive. The prevention aspect facilitates root cause analysis and makes it an integral part of the problem solving and investigation process. This helps ensure that more than simply work behaviors get addressed as part of the problem solving model.

The Systems Approach & Due Diligence

Integrating a prevention aspect into your management system model also provides a sound means of developing your standards for due diligence, which will help you demonstrate compliance with regulatory requirements.

This is important because if you're ever charged with a serious OHS offense, you will be forced to prove due diligence, i.e., demonstrate that you took all steps reasonable under the circumstances to comply with legal requirements and prevent the violation. Courts in Canada have interpreted reasonable steps as including the implementation of necessary systems to prevent accidents, injuries and illnesses.

(Editor's Note: Although due diligence is a concept of Canadian OHS law, similar principles apply under U.S. OSHA rules. For example, demonstrating that you took reasonable steps to comply can help avoid liability or knock down an OSHA citation from willful to serious or other-than-serious.)

As with any approach to due diligence, you can follow two approaches:

Conclusion

Next week, I'll finish the series by describing how to audit your safety management system.

HEROES OF SAFETY

Henri Dunant

Henri Dunant: Founder of the international Red Cross movement

By Glenn Demby

In 1859, an allied French and Sardinian Army under Napoleon III and Victor Emmanuel II defeated the Austrians in a bloody battle outside the northern Italian town of Solferino. Historians mark the Battle of Solferino as the climactic clash that paved the way for the reunification of Italy. But what happened on the battlefield immediately after the engagement has proven of equal significance not just to the history of Europe but mankind.

A Swiss businessman named Henri Dunant witnessed the battle and all its horrors. But what really appalled Dunant was how the tens of thousands of wounded soldiers from both sides were left unattended on the battlefield to die of their wounds. Dunant organized teams of volunteers from local villages to recover the injured and bring them to schools, churches and homes where they could receive proper care.

It was a heroic effort but Dunant recognized that he was dealing with a systemic failure of military organizations to treat the battlefield wounded. So he resolved to establish permanent teams of international, militarily neutral medical volunteers to provide relief to wounded soldiers a la Solferino. Dunant's efforts culminated in the holding of a conference in Geneva in 1863. A year later, principles were laid out and signed by 12 nations at another conference that would forever be known as the Geneva Convention. As its symbol, the international movement selected a red cross.

Like many Americans, I thought that the U.S. Civil War nurse Clara Barton founded the Red Cross movement. She didn't. But what she did do was establish the American Red Cross on May 21, 1881.

Before long, the Red Cross was providing emergency relief and care not only to wounded soldiers but to all people suffering from disasters including floods, famine, forest fires, earthquakes and hurricanes. In 1900, the U.S. Congress passed a law designating the American Red Cross as the nation's official relief agency.

Today, the Red Cross and Red Crescent has become arguably the world's best known and most respected provider of emergency relief. The recent catastrophes in Myanmar and China are a reminder of just how much the people of this planet rely on the efforts of the agency and others like them and why we all must make every effort to support their vital work.

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