Lessons from the Tianjin explosion
- By Eugene Clark
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E-mail China.org.cn, August 19, 2015
Safety must be the concern of organizations big and small
Large international corporations are gradually learning the importance of workplace safety. Ironically, large organizations, such as BHP, can survive a workplace disaster. Small and middle sized organizations need it more because a serious violation of workplace safety could mean the end of that business.
Businesses should consider benchmarking their organization in terms of safety performance. An example is the Global Safety Index, which can be found at globalsafetyindex.com. The index provides a kind of "live, global database that positively measures, tracks and benchmarks organizational safety performance assessing output performance (KPI's, Lead and Lag), Safety Culture and Safety Leadership capabilities."
Organizational rules need to be in place which both educate and enforce safety in the workplace
Legislative and administrative laws governing safety need to be in place, well understood and rigorously enforced. Best practices should be identified and celebrated while poor practices publicized and remedied.
In safety as in all things one must balance many factors
Achieving 100 percent safety is an illusion. Additionally, it's undesirable to have so many rules and procedures that an organization creates a straight-jacket that impedes creativity, resilience and innovation.
There is also an important role for social media and whistle blowing. Employees and others at the ground level are often the first to notice a safety problem. They should be encouraged and protected while "blowing the whistle" on safety issues.
Given the many attacks in recent times focused on the workplace either from a terrorist group or an angry, perhaps mentally unstable employee, there is also a link between the growing threat of terrorism and workplace safety.
China needs to conduct more research about the state of workplace safety and how specific industries in specific locations can better their safety record and prevent another Tianjin type explosion from happening.
In the end, the real power of images, such as those seen from the Tianjin blast, is the power to jolt us out of our complacency and pierce through the blind spots that can cause us to deny reality. Who can forget the famous quote from Captain EJ Smith of the Titanic?
"I cannot imagine any condition which could cause a ship to founder. I cannot conceive of any vital disaster happening to this vessel. Modern shipbuilding has gone beyond that."
The author is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:
http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/eugeneclark.htm
Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors only, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.
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