Academic literature on the topic 'Public administration|Organization theory|Organizational behavior'

Abstract In November 2018, the University of Arizona’s School of Government and Public Policy hosted an international workshop on the role of organization theory in public management. The intention was to renew interest in organization theory in public management research. Scholars such as Herbert Simon, Herbert Kaufman, and Richard Selznick made seminal contributions to organization theory through the study of public organizations from the 1940s through the 1960s. In our estimation, organization theory is underrepresented in public administration scholarship for the last several decades. There are natural reasons for this trend, including the discipline’s turn towards organizational behavior and the ascendancy of techniques that advance the study of large datasets and those that allow for experimental control. The recent emergence of “behavioral public administration” is a prominent example of this evolution. This symposium is an attempt to make a place at the table of public management for organization theory. The articles in this symposium contain articles from scholars who operate in the tradition of classic organization theory in new and innovative ways to lend intellectual purchase to studies of public organizations and public organizational networks.

The selection of 'right man' for 'right job' and his/her orientation in administrative philosophy and social values need to be reinforced by effective systems for ethical administration as they create 'conducive' or 'non conducive' environment Numerous studies have indicated that organization climate and atmosphere will play a dominant role in influencing individuals with appropriate attitudes and skills. Keeping this in view, this work focuses on the important aspects of organization and their impact on ethical behavior of administrators. Some of the important issues raised are to what extent hierarchy influences ethical behavior. How rules and procedures influence administration. Whether ethics institutions and codes of conduct help achieve public service ethics? This method used in this research is context textual analysis.

Politics is one of the most common yet least studied phenomena in organizations. This study examines employees' perceptions of organizational politics in the public sector and suggests that it mediates the relationship between job congruence (e.g., person-organization fit and level of met-expectations) and employee performance (e.g., organizational citizenship behavior [OCB] and in-role performance). A survey was conducted among 303 individuals in public personnel from two local municipalities in the north of Israel (first survey). Supervisors completed an assessment of employees' OCB and in-role performance six months later (second survey). Path analysis using LISREL VIII was implemented to evaluate two alternative models, direct and indirect. Findings of the study show that the indirect model fits the data better than the direct model, and therefore supports a mediating effect of perceptions of organizational politics scale (POPS) on the relationship between job congruence and employee performance. Structural coefficients among the research variables promote the theory on the affect of job congruence and POPS on OCB and in-role behavior. The findings contribute both to the understanding of antecedents of POPS as well as to the exploration of some of its consequences. The paper concludes with several implications and suggestions for further inquiry into politics in public administration systems.

Public sector organizations are undergoing a transformation in management style. Not only is the behavior of government agencies increasingly being carried out like business, where managers play a central role, but aspects of client service are also becoming more important. Communication is input or message from one person to another. Organizations need communication to streamline their work and carry out tasks in a perfect way. Communication is the art of sending messages and receiving the same in the form of feedback. The success of an organization is highly dependent on effective organizational communication patterns. This study aims to understand communication in achieving the objectives of government organizations. Furthermore, this study discusses effective communication in government organizations. Keywords: Organization Communication, Internal and External.

Organization theory suggests that the strength of the ties between employees is likely to be weaker in large organizations, but that decentralization of decision making can help generate norms of collaboration, trust, and shared mission. This article explores the separate and combined effects of size and decentralization on perceptions of organizational social capital in central government agencies in Europe. The statistical results suggest that there is a negative relationship between organization size and organizational social capital and a contrasting positive relationship between decentralized decision making and social capital. Further analysis revealed that decentralization of key decisions can overcome the internal social dysfunctions associated with being a big organization. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

David Farmerʼs work is too often misunderstood, perhaps because of the truly imaginative metaphors that he employs for expressing it, and the seemingly paradoxical prescriptions that it leads to at the level of practical action. This problem is helped by elaborating the grounding in which his work is at least implicitly set (namely, Traditionalism in American public administration) and by considering its congruence and compatibilities with the best of such contemporary organization theory as Demingʼs approach to organizational and management practice. With such clarified understanding, it becomes obvious that his work opens the way to a truly new 21st century model of public administration both in theory and in application.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore an integrative model which includes specific intentions that may explain the contradictory citizenship behaviors and misbehaviors among superintendents in Israel. Design/methodology/approach In total, 518 superintendents from seven Israeli Ministry of Education district offices were randomly selected. Based on sequence theory, the study examined motivational perceptions of authentic leadership, psychological empowerment and collective efficacy, and their relationships toward intentions to engage in organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and organizational misbehavior (OMB) which may lead to OCB and OMB. The research combined self-reports and computer records. The model was analyzed using Mplus statistical packages. Findings The authors found that intentions to be late positively predicted lateness, while intentions to leave predicted OMB. In addition, the study indicates several mediating relationships. For example, intentions to engage in OCB-organization and OCB-individual fully mediated the relationship between “self-determination” of psychological empowerment and OCB. In addition, intention to leave mediated the relationship between authentic leadership and lateness. Originality/value Across nationalities, superintendents greatly impact the educational processes in their districts. Their high status in the educational system makes them role models. Therefore, it is important to investigate their behaviors and motivations. The findings may contribute toward developing an integrative approach that can predict the superintendents’ behaviors by suggesting specific intentions that can explain corresponding behaviors. This model may also help in developing educational policies for reducing the superintendents’ OMB and increasing their OCB.

The emergent global administrative order includes more than 800 international and regional organizations. Just as the rise of the modern state placed greater importance on the study of public administration, the growth of multistate organizations, their agendas, and personnel require research that draws upon contemporary and classical public administrative thought. This article employs multiple lenses to explore the utility of public administrative theory and empirically based knowledge in analyzing the behavior of international and regional organizations. Specifically, while remaining cognizant of differences between international organizations and sovereign states, we consider the utility of the politics–administration dichotomy, representative bureaucracy, individual and employee due process and other rights, and broader questions of accountability in understanding the administrative life and influence of international organizations in global governance.

In an era of continuing economic uncertainty public sector organizations face unprecedented challenges in resourcing increasingly complex missions. To meet these challenges public sector managers must look for innovative ways to resource essential missions and define public sector outcomes. The use of collaboration to create public value represents one way to provide effective and efficient service in this environment.

This study informs the subject of collaboration as a mechanism for creating public value by considering these concepts as a practical matter against actual events or programs involving the California Highway Patrol, a large State police agency with multiple missions and complex inter-agency relationships. The results of the study demonstrate a correlation between the strength of the collaborative effort and the results obtained, as well as the effect of circumstances on results. In identifying a common formula for evaluating these concepts, other public programs can be evaluated based on these contexts.

This study was conducted independently, but in collaboration with a team of peer-researchers who came together to study the lived experience of exemplar leaders in diverse organizations as they transformed conflict to reach common ground. This study contributed to the collective work by looking at K-12 Human Resource Officers (HROs) as the population of interest. HROs are often at the center of resolving conflict, yet only a few emerge as exemplar leaders. These exemplar leaders were the target population situated in the phenomena under investigations. The team selected a qualitative phenomenological approach, in an attempt to uncover what strategies exemplar leaders used to transform conflict to find common ground using the six domains of conflict transformation behaviors: collaboration, communication, emotional intelligence, ethics, processes, and problem-solving. Evidence showed that exemplar leaders tended to integrate these domains, rather than using them separately, for a more powerful impact in transforming conflict and finding common ground. Interviews, observations, and artifact data identified shared practices and behaviors to represent a more powerful repertoire of conflict transformational skills.

Trust is consistently identified as a key factor in the success of organizations. Despite its importance, public trust of U.S. institutions has fallen steadily over six decades. One exception is public trust of the U.S. military, which has increased. This qualitative Delphi study sought to answer the question: What are the perceived characteristics of the trust relationship between the U.S. military and the general public at the point interface where senior military leaders, their public affairs advisors, and national-security media representatives directly facilitate the relay of information between the military and the public? This study also sought to identify which, if any, of those perceived characteristics are unique in the literature, or if they are uniquely prioritized in the trust relationship between the U.S. military and the general public. The purpose of the study was to explore a favorable trust relationship in an effort to identify characteristics that might be beneficial to other leaders in their effort to establish, preserve, or strengthen public trust in their own institutions. The Delphi methodology was used to achieve consensus of opinion among three groups of subject matter experts who, in accordance with joint U.S. doctrine, act as a point of direct interface between the military and the public. Retired senior military officers, retired or former military public affairs officers (PAOs), and journalists who cover the national-security beat for national and international media organizations participated in the study. During three survey rounds, members of two independent groups identified, prioritized, and defined characteristics they perceived as contributing most to the favorable trust relationship between the U.S. military; anonymously reviewed input from other group members; and modified their own input. Overall consensus was reached among these two groups of subject-matter experts that prioritization of honesty, integrity, and credibility contributes most to a favorable trust relationship. Summative content analysis of the respective group’s definitions of those terms revealed key themes of open communication and the critical importance of an organization’s members doing and saying the right thing, regardless of consequences.

Organizations responding to humanitarian crises often have different organizational cultures and observational lenses, presenting barriers to collaborative efforts at the outset of a crisis. The inherently chaotic nature of these crises exacerbates this problem, slowing the speed of response and the degree of efficacy of the response effort. Researchers have examined these organizational differences but have not defined barriers to mutuality and possible ways to overcome those barriers presenting a gap in knowledge. The purpose of this study was to fill this gap by offering areas to focus on to improve cultural awareness between disparate organizations. The central research question investigated the extent to which intrinsic value descriptions of organizational cultures provide opportunities to mitigate barriers between the military and humanitarian aid workers. A qualitative study using narrative ethnography was applied in answering this question. Two Participants were recruited from the military and two from civilian aid organizations based upon their experience and insight and their commensurate ability to relate the need for mutual understanding between their organizations. Data were collected through descriptive interviews of the participants' lived experiences in crisis response. The data were coded using existing theory on cultural dimensions from Project GLOBE and then analyzed using relational theory. The results confirmed a need for more effective coordination and unity of effort, which may be achieved through cultural understanding and which can result in a more efficient crisis response. These findings may ease the suffering encountered in humanitarian crises by improving the collaborative education of both military and civilian responders to these crises.

The purpose of this qualitative grounded theory study was to generate a theory about the implications of leadership development and organizational culture on employee engagement. The focus is on the experience and perceptions of participants of a leadership development program within a public-sector organization with a strategic imperative focused on cultural transformation. The researcher investigated the outcomes of the leadership development program, and examined cultural aspects of the organization, each from the view of employee participants. Much leadership development research to date is based on private sector organizations. There are studies that are an examination of quantitative organizational results such as productivity and personal results such as promotion and incentive pay rates. The researcher placed emphasis on the lived experience of employees and sought insight to the differentiators that result in higher levels of organizational buy-in and commitment exemplified by engaged employees. The research included interviews with individuals that participated in the subject organization’s leadership development program. The research findings led to the generation of a new theory of employee engagement applicable to the field of human resource management. Understanding the differentiators within an organization such as leadership strategies and organizational cultural objectives that lead to increased levels of employee engagement is instructive for organizations. The results are applicable to organizations in the public-sector, or in the private-sector, when the organization adopts an intentional leadership development approach based on leadership strategies and makes organizational culture a strategic imperative.

Much has been written in academic and popular publications about organizational change. Topics have ranged from case studies to anecdotal stories of how leaders can change an organization. There is little written on changing the culture and vision of a profession at the macro level.

This dissertation shows that one key to effecting change within a profession is to educate those at the entrant level and thereby effect change with the profession. Over time, these new entrants to the profession will rise to senior positions and be able to effect greater change through the hiring, training, and mentoring processes inherent in the professions and the organizations for which they work. One way to effect change in these entrants is through education in college and professional schools. This study is specifically focused on effecting change in the interdisciplinary field of engineering and public policy. Public policy involves countless infrastructure issues at all levels of government. Engineers are well-versed in dealing with the technical issues of infrastructure but their voice is often lacking at the policy level. Similarly, political scientists are well-versed in policy but are often lacking in a thorough understanding of the technical aspects of the policy.

Through an introductory course in engineering and public policy, undergraduate students from the seemingly disparate fields of engineering and political science were placed in a common classroom and through lectures, writings, presentations, and guided discussions their attitudes on key areas were changed. Areas studied were professional interest, legitimacy, deference, the public policy process, and education outside of a specific field. Through the process of education, changes in each of these areas was possible. Further, the movement was towards making students in each discipline more open to the input, opinions, and attitudes of others, and specifically in shifting engineers toward a more positive view of the public policy process. Being exposed to these topics and to each other’s thought processes, changes in professional attitudes were made.

While there is not a specific profession for which any research has been done, the military is used, in places, as an analog to the profession of engineering.

The inquiry concerned gaining insights into environmental elements needed within California public-sector organizations to increase employees’ willingness to share innovative ideas. Although research exists regarding the need for service innovation and employees as fruitful sources of innovative ideas, there have been limited studies concerning public-sector organizations and the best method to solicit employee ideas. The data collection for this qualitative research study consisted of a series of interviews with front-line, non-supervisory civil servants. The results provide insights and information on how public-sector organizations may foster a culture that promotes and encourages employee-led innovation. The themes that emerged were (a) transparency in the process of sharing ideas and what is needed to feel motivated to participate in a formal submission process; (b) recognition and follow up, including which types of follow up and recognition are needed to feel the idea submission was worth the effort; (c) safe space including what needs to be present within the process for employees to feel safe to participate; (d) organizational buy-in including the need for encouragement and demonstrated support from all levels of leadership. These themes contributed to form the following recommendations for organizations to create a process and culture for soliciting ideas from employees: (a) establishing a transparent and easy to use process; (b) utilizing trusted and unbiased evaluators to review ideas; (c) providing meaningful and specific follow-up on ideas submitted; (d) ensuring there is no public criticism of ideas, but having public praise for submitting ideas; creating an organizational culture to be promoting and supporting participation in these processes. The data analysis revealed several implications: a significant disconnect between what employees' need to be comfortable sharing ideas and the existing process; the insufficient efforts of current leaders to promote and execute innovation within their organizations; the need for a paradigm shift to embrace a culture and operations that support innovation at all levels of an organization.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the post-Soviet transformation process influenced the establishment of democratic institutions in the country of Georgia. Scholars and analysts from international organizations have revealed a gap in the development of the central and regional civil society organizations in Georgia. Using Morgan's organizational metaphors framework as a guide, the purpose of this multiple case study was to explore the nature, culture, and structure of regional nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in Georgia. Research questions focused on the influence of the post-Soviet transformation on the development of Georgia's regional NGO sector and its perceived capacity as a democratic institution. Data were gathered through interviews with 9 stakeholders from 3 regional NGOs, observations of the organizations' daily operations, and review of publicly available documents and organizational records. The data were analyzed thematically, using structural and pattern coding. The analysis revealed that regional NGOs in Georgia are strong leader-driven, family style organizations and limited in their financial and organizational capacities. The insufficient intersectoral collaboration with local government and businesses has kept regional NGOs fully dependent on small grants provided by international donor organizations and large NGOs from the capital city, Tbilisi. That dependence has restricted local NGOs' ability to initiate programs based on the identified needs and demands of the local communities. The results of this study increase the knowledge of civil society organizations outside Tbilisi and offer recommendations for enhancing the organizational capacity of regional NGOs, leading to rapid democratization processes and positive social change in Georgia.

AbstractTourism and hospitality crises that are extensively discussed online are damaging to organizational image and reputation; therefore, choosing effective response strategies is of paramount importance for service providers. The online discussions data from six hospitality and tourism related crises were used to test which crisis and media coverage characteristics significantly affected the public’s emotional and behavioral reactions to crises. With reference to the attribution theory and the situational crisis communication theory, this study identified the potentially influential crisis characteristics, hypothesized their relationship with variables describing consumer reactions to crises, and then tested those relationships in a series of ANOVA and hierarchical regression analyses. Results indicated that the locus of control, crisis stability, attribution of organizational responsibility, and organizational response strategy affected the public’s cognitive and emotional responses to crises most strongly. The attractiveness and goodwill of media sources also had an effect, as well as the quality and fairness of messages. This study makes a methodological contribution to tourism research by training machine-learning classifiers prior to conducting hypothesis testing. Identifying the most influential factors affecting the public’s response to crises can serve as guidelines for tourism and hospitality organizations in monitoring the spread of online crisis discussions and developing the most appropriate response in order to minimize consumers’ negative emotions that affect online and off-line behavior toward the organization and its brand.

Covid-19 pandemic has spread to the whole world from Wuhan, China in December, 2019 and seriously changed the daily life. While various measures have been taken to fight against the global pandemic in the whole world, transformations have occurred in business manners in many countries including Turkey. The public relations sector, which is an applied communication discipline managing the communication processes between the organization and target audience, has been affected by this process. Thus, how the pandemic period has affected the business manners of agencies and how the public relations profession has been actualized in agencies have been an object of interest. The main question of this study is how the pandemic period has affected the organizational culture in public relations agencies, and will these effects cause permanent changes in business manners in the agencies after the pandemic. The fact that most people have started making grocery shopping online due to Covid- 19 has increased the share of e-trade in the sector of Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG), which are also known as packaged consumption products. Public relations agencies serving in this sector have accelerated their communication activities especially during the pandemic. A semi-structured interview technique was applied to the representatives of seven public relations agencies serving in the fast moving consumer goods sector within the framework of the questions formed in line with the factors affecting the corporate culture according to Mondy (communication, motivation, leadership, management process, organizational structure and management style) in this study. The study found that hybrid working order (telecommuting/office working) was adopted by agency employees, the concept of office hours disappeared in agencies, the service process became 24/7 by the agency, digital communication tools accelerated the communication processes, and the business capacity of agencies increased. It is observed in line with these factors that pandemic period has caused both positive and negative permanent behavioral changes in the organizational culture of agencies.

The aim of the paper is to analyze the impacts of the quality of public spending and institutional change on the use of oil royalties. The related research is based on the (re)definition of concepts that are crucial for scholars in public administration. The debate on their utilization involves social and environmental issues, not limited to economic growth. Given the current economic crises faced by governments, there is a more significant limitation on public resources available by local governments. Therefore, one should not ignore the window of opportunity that has opened to give due attention to the quality of public spending. The research has also adopted the New Institutionalism theory that has as a premise that the institutions exert influence on the behavior of actors and on the political decisions. As a result, it is concluded that there is path dependence. The arguments of path dependence and increasing returns are used to explain the continuities. In the institutional analysis, the concept of path dependence helps to understand the possible behavior of economic agents. Thus, in this context, the economy does not represent an increase in the population’s quality of life, and it is necessary to build a work methodology that involves the knowledge of local needs.

"The administration performs a great task in the life of modern societies, through its intervention to satisfy public needs through the establishment and management of public utilities that aim to achieve the public interest and respond to the requirements and necessities of daily life, as well as protecting public order, and regulating the relationship between them and individuals with constitutional and legal texts, as well as The organizational rules that lay down the general framework for public liberties and individual rights, all to prevent them from practicing any activity outside the framework of legality. Originally, the administration is not obligated to issue its decisions in a specific form, as it is free to choose the external form of these decisions, unless the law requires it otherwise. This requires that the decision be embodied in an external form in order for individuals to know the will of the administration and to adjust their behavior according to its requirements. However, the implementation of this rule on its launch, may negatively affect the rights of individuals, because the administration may sometimes deliberately remain silent about deciding the requests submitted to it, or it may neglect at other times to respond to these requests. Existence of apparent decisions in an external legal form, meaning that the matter remains in the hands of the administration, if it wants it will respond to the requests of individuals, and if it wants to be silent, which constitutes a waste of their rights, a violation of the principle of equality, and confiscation of the right to litigation guaranteed by the constitution, it requires protection of individuals from the inconvenience of the administration And the abuse of their rights, and put an end to the neglect of employees and their indifference to the requests or grievances submitted to them, in addition to the fact that the requirements of the public interest require that the administrative staff exercise the powers entrusted to them by law at the present time. ( ) For these justifications, the legislator intervened in many countries, including France, Egypt, Lebanon and Iraq, to ​​suppose that the administration had announced its will, even if it remained silent or silent about deciding on the request presented to it, and this resulted in an implicit administrative decision of rejection or approval. As a result of the large number of state intervention in the economic and social fields in recent times, it has led to the multiplicity and diversity of state agencies and institutions, and the public administration often does not provide its services to individuals except at the request of individuals. Therefore, it may be difficult for individuals to identify a competent administrative authority to submit their request to. to get those services. He makes a mistake and submits it to a non-competent administrative body. When this authority is silent and does not transfer the request to its competent authority, and the legal period granted to the administration to respond to their requests has passed, individuals resort to the judiciary, and submitting the request to the non-competent authority prevents the judiciary from accepting their claim, which wastes their rights and thus harms them. Therefore, the administrative judiciary in many countries has extended its control over this case to consider the application submitted to a non-competent administrative body as if it was submitted to its competent authority, given that the state is a single public legal person. Accordingly, the request submitted to any party starts from the legal period available to the administration to meet the requests of individuals and in its absence the implicit administrative decision of rejection or acceptance arises. Accordingly, we will study the jurisprudence of the French, Lebanese, Egyptian and Iraqi judiciary in this study. The importance of the study lies in the implications of the subject of requests submitted to the administration, the delay in their completion, the silence of the administration, and the consequent effects and exposure to the rights of individuals. And that it will show how to confront this silence, neglect and intransigence of the administration. The idea of ​​implicit administrative decisions, resulting from the administration’s silence on the requests submitted to it, is an effective means, which makes the administration more positive and enables individuals to confront the administration’s silence, and prevents its intransigence, arbitrariness or neglect. The problem of the research is that can silence be an expression of the will? How do individuals protect themselves from the actions of the administration, and who guarantees its non-bias, arbitrariness and deviation? Does submitting the application to a non-competent body protect the rights of individuals? ? And the extent of judicial oversight on the authority of the administration.? And the extent of the compatibility and divergence of the positions of the administrative judiciary in France, Lebanon, Egypt and Iraq regarding this.? From the above in explaining the importance of the study and its problem, we can deduce the scope of the study, which is the study of judicial control over the requests submitted to the administration by taking an overview of the nature of the requests, their types and distinguishing them from others, and the position of each of the legislation, the judiciary and jurisprudence from it. The research consists of two sections, the first deals with the nature of the request and what is related to it, and the second is judicial control over the applications submitted to the administration, as follows"

Clothing consumption practice and its impact on the transformation of “public space”. Vía primavera, El Poblado, Medellín. Diana Carolina Gutiérrez A, Natalia Uribe Lemarie1. 1Arquitecture and Design School. Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana. Circular 1 No. 70-01 Bloque 10, Medellín-Colombia E-mail: dianaguti456@gmail.com, natalia.uribelemarie@upb.edu.co Telephone: +573113313512, +573002348456 Keywords (3-5): Space organization, Fashion consumption, exclusion and inclusion processes. Conference topics and scale: Urban form and social use of space Via Primavera is a fashion district in El Poblado neighborhood that has become a public referent of city life in Medellin – Colombia; a space that is shown as inclusive and accessible to all types of collectives. This paper is part of a research which purpose is to understand the connection between the public space with its moral and physical organization and the exclusion processes that the clothing conspicuous consumption generates in Via Primavera. The analysis of this connection is subjected to a mutual play between prior structure and agency and the crystallization, or not, of its existence through an interrelation. In the same way, a concern about the city models resumed in the national and local development plans, and its relevance as the ones that set the social and economic ideal of public spaces arises. And ideal that contradicts with practice, where exclusion processes through consumption practices bring a tension in what is supposed to be public; breaking with its inclusive and collective character. References Archer, M. (1988). Cultura y teoría social. (H. Pons, Trad.) Buenos Aires: Ediciones Nueva Visión. Delgado, M. (2011). El espacio público como ideología. Madrid: La Catarata Park, R. E. (1925). The City. Suggestions for Investigation of Human Behavior in the Urban Environment. En R. E. Park, E. W. Burgess, & R. D. McKenzie, The City (pág. 239). Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Veblen, T. (1899 [2012]). The Theory of the Leisure Class. An Economic Study of American Institutions and a Social Critique of Conspicuous Consumption. Massachusetts: Courier Corporation.

Attention to safety and health are of ever-increasing priority to industrial organizations. Good Safety is demanded by stockholders, employees, and the community while increasing injury costs provide additional motivation for safety and health excellence. Safety has always been a strong corporate value of DuPont and a vital part of its culture. As a result, DuPont has become a benchmark in safety and health performance. Since 1990, DuPont has re-engineered itself to meet global competition and address future vision. In the new re-engineered organizational structures, DuPont has also had to re-engineer its safety management systems. A special Discovery Team was chartered by DuPont senior management to determine the “best practices’ for safety and health being used in DuPont best-performing sites. A summary of the findings is presented, and five of the practices are discussed. Excellence in safety and health management is more important today than ever. Public awareness, federal and state regulations, and enlightened management have resulted in a widespread conviction that all employees have the right to work in an environment that will not adversely affect their safety and health. In DuPont, we believe that excellence in safety and health is necessary to achieve global competitiveness, maintain employee loyalty, and be an accepted member of the communities in which we make, handle, use, and transport products. Safety can also be the “catalyst” to achieving excellence in other important business parameters. The organizational and communication skills developed by management, individuals, and teams in safety can be directly applied to other company initiatives. As we look into the 21st Century, we must also recognize that new organizational structures (flatter with empowered teams) will require new safety management techniques and systems in order to maintain continuous improvement in safety performance. Injury costs, which have risen dramatically in the past twenty years, provide another incentive for safety and health excellence. Shown in the Figure 1, injury costs have increased even after correcting for inflation. Many companies have found these costs to be an “invisible drain” on earnings and profitability. In some organizations, significant initiatives have been launched to better manage the workers’ compensation systems. We have found that the ultimate solution is to prevent injuries and incidents before they occur. A globally-respected company, DuPont is regarded as a well-managed, extremely ethical firm that is the benchmark in industrial safety performance. Like many other companies, DuPont has re-engineered itself and downsized its operations since 1985. Through these changes, we have maintained dedication to our principles and developed new techniques to manage in these organizational environments. As a diversified company, our operations involve chemical process facilities, production line operations, field activities, and sales and distribution of materials. Our customer base is almost entirely industrial and yet we still maintain a high level of consumer awareness and positive perception. The DuPont concern for safety dates back to the early 1800s and the first days of the company. In 1802 E.I. DuPont, a Frenchman, began manufacturing quality grade explosives to fill America’s growing need to build roads, clear fields, increase mining output, and protect its recently won independence. Because explosives production is such a hazardous industry, DuPont recognized and accepted the need for an effective safety effort. The building walls of the first powder mill near Wilmington, Delaware, were built three stones thick on three sides. The back remained open to the Brandywine River to direct any explosive forces away from other buildings and employees. To set the safety example, DuPont also built his home and the homes of his managers next to the powder yard. An effective safety program was a necessity. It represented the first defense against instant corporate liquidation. Safety needs more than a well-designed plant, however. In 1811, work rules were posted in the mill to guide employee work habits. Though not nearly as sophisticated as the safety standards of today, they did introduce an important basic concept — that safety must be a line management responsibility. Later, DuPont introduced an employee health program and hired a company doctor. An early step taken in 1912 was the keeping of safety statistics, approximately 60 years before the federal requirement to do so. We had a visible measure of our safety performance and were determined that we were going to improve it. When the nation entered World War I, the DuPont Company supplied 40 percent of the explosives used by the Allied Forces, more than 1.5 billion pounds. To accomplish this task, over 30,000 new employees were hired and trained to build and operate many plants. Among these facilities was the largest smokeless powder plant the world had ever seen. The new plant was producing granulated powder in a record 116 days after ground breaking. The trends on the safety performance chart reflect the problems that a large new work force can pose until the employees fully accept the company’s safety philosophy. The first arrow reflects the World War I scale-up, and the second arrow represents rapid diversification into new businesses during the 1920s. These instances of significant deterioration in safety performance reinforced DuPont’s commitment to reduce the unsafe acts that were causing 96 percent of our injuries. Only 4 percent of injuries result from unsafe conditions or equipment — the remainder result from the unsafe acts of people. This is an important concept if we are to focus our attention on reducing injuries and incidents within the work environment. World War II brought on a similar set of demands. The story was similar to World War I but the numbers were even more astonishing: one billion dollars in capital expenditures, 54 new plants, 75,000 additional employees, and 4.5 billion pounds of explosives produced — 20 percent of the volume used by the Allied Forces. Yet, the performance during the war years showed no significant deviation from the pre-war years. In 1941, the DuPont Company was 10 times safer than all industry and 9 times safer than the Chemical Industry. Management and the line organization were finally working as they should to control the real causes of injuries. Today, DuPont is about 50 times safer than US industrial safety performance averages. Comparing performance to other industries, it is interesting to note that seemingly “hazard-free” industries seem to have extraordinarily high injury rates. This is because, as DuPont has found out, performance is a function of injury prevention and safety management systems, not hazard exposure. Our success in safety results from a sound safety management philosophy. Each of the 125 DuPont facilities is responsible for its own safety program, progress, and performance. However, management at each of these facilities approaches safety from the same fundamental and sound philosophy. This philosophy can be expressed in eleven straightforward principles. The first principle is that all injuries can be prevented. That statement may seem a bit optimistic. In fact, we believe that this is a realistic goal and not just a theoretical objective. Our safety performance proves that the objective is achievable. We have plants with over 2,000 employees that have operated for over 10 years without a lost time injury. As injuries and incidents are investigated, we can always identify actions that could have prevented that incident. If we manage safety in a proactive — rather than reactive — manner, we will eliminate injuries by reducing the acts and conditions that cause them. The second principle is that management, which includes all levels through first-line supervisors, is responsible and accountable for preventing injuries. Only when senior management exerts sustained and consistent leadership in establishing safety goals, demanding accountability for safety performance and providing the necessary resources, can a safety program be effective in an industrial environment. The third principle states that, while recognizing management responsibility, it takes the combined energy of the entire organization to reach sustained, continuous improvement in safety and health performance. Creating an environment in which employees feel ownership for the safety effort and make significant contributions is an essential task for management, and one that needs deliberate and ongoing attention. The fourth principle is a corollary to the first principle that all injuries are preventable. It holds that all operating exposures that may result in injuries or illnesses can be controlled. No matter what the exposure, an effective safeguard can be provided. It is preferable, of course, to eliminate sources of danger, but when this is not reasonable or practical, supervision must specify measures such as special training, safety devices, and protective clothing. Our fifth safety principle states that safety is a condition of employment. Conscientious assumption of safety responsibility is required from all employees from their first day on the job. Each employee must be convinced that he or she has a responsibility for working safely. The sixth safety principle: Employees must be trained to work safely. We have found that an awareness for safety does not come naturally and that people have to be trained to work safely. With effective training programs to teach, motivate, and sustain safety knowledge, all injuries and illnesses can be eliminated. Our seventh principle holds that management must audit performance on the workplace to assess safety program success. Comprehensive inspections of both facilities and programs not only confirm their effectiveness in achieving the desired performance, but also detect specific problems and help to identify weaknesses in the safety effort. The Company’s eighth principle states that all deficiencies must be corrected promptly. Without prompt action, risk of injuries will increase and, even more important, the credibility of management’s safety efforts will suffer. Our ninth principle is a statement that off-the-job safety is an important part of the overall safety effort. We do not expect nor want employees to “turn safety on” as they come to work and “turn it off” when they go home. The company safety culture truly becomes of the individual employee’s way of thinking. The tenth principle recognizes that it’s good business to prevent injuries. Injuries cost money. However, hidden or indirect costs usually exceed the direct cost. Our last principle is the most important. Safety must be integrated as core business and personal value. There are two reasons for this. First, we’ve learned from almost 200 years of experience that 96 percent of safety incidents are directly caused by the action of people, not by faulty equipment or inadequate safety standards. But conversely, it is our people who provide the solutions to our safety problems. They are the one essential ingredient in the recipe for a safe workplace. Intelligent, trained, and motivated employees are any company’s greatest resource. Our success in safety depends upon the men and women in our plants following procedures, participating actively in training, and identifying and alerting each other and management to potential hazards. By demonstrating a real concern for each employee, management helps establish a mutual respect, and the foundation is laid for a solid safety program. This, of course, is also the foundation for good employee relations. An important lesson learned in DuPont is that the majority of injuries are caused by unsafe acts and at-risk behaviors rather than unsafe equipment or conditions. In fact, in several DuPont studies it was estimated that 96 percent of injuries are caused by unsafe acts. This was particularly revealing when considering safety audits — if audits were only focused on conditions, at best we could only prevent four percent of our injuries. By establishing management systems for safety auditing that focus on people, including audit training, techniques, and plans, all incidents are preventable. Of course, employee contribution and involvement in auditing leads to sustainability through stakeholdership in the system. Management safety audits help to make manage the “behavioral balance.” Every job and task performed at a site can do be done at-risk or safely. The essence of a good safety system ensures that safe behavior is the accepted norm amongst employees, and that it is the expected and respected way of doing things. Shifting employees norms contributes mightily to changing culture. The management safety audit provides a way to quantify these norms. DuPont safety performance has continued to improve since we began keeping records in 1911 until about 1990. In the 1990–1994 time frame, performance deteriorated as shown in the chart that follows: This increase in injuries caused great concern to senior DuPont management as well as employees. It occurred while the corporation was undergoing changes in organization. In order to sustain our technological, competitive, and business leadership positions, DuPont began re-engineering itself beginning in about 1990. New streamlined organizational structures and collaborative work processes eliminated many positions and levels of management and supervision. The total employment of the company was reduced about 25 percent during these four years. In our traditional hierarchical organization structures, every level of supervision and management knew exactly what they were expected to do with safety, and all had important roles. As many of these levels were eliminated, new systems needed to be identified for these new organizations. In early 1995, Edgar S. Woolard, DuPont Chairman, chartered a Corporate Discovery Team to look for processes that will put DuPont on a consistent path toward a goal of zero injuries and occupational illnesses. The cross-functional team used a mode of “discovery through learning” from as many DuPont employees and sites around the world. The Discovery Team fostered the rapid sharing and leveraging of “best practices” and innovative approaches being pursued at DuPont’s plants, field sites, laboratories, and office locations. In short, the team examined the company’s current state, described the future state, identified barriers between the two, and recommended key ways to overcome these barriers. After reporting back to executive management in April, 1995, the Discovery Team was realigned to help organizations implement their recommendations. The Discovery Team reconfirmed key values in DuPont — in short, that all injuries, incidents, and occupational illnesses are preventable and that safety is a source of competitive advantage. As such, the steps taken to improve safety performance also improve overall competitiveness. Senior management made this belief clear: “We will strengthen our business by making safety excellence an integral part of all business activities.” One of the key findings of the Discovery Team was the identification of the best practices used within the company, which are listed below: ▪ Felt Leadership – Management Commitment ▪ Business Integration ▪ Responsibility and Accountability ▪ Individual/Team Involvement and Influence ▪ Contractor Safety ▪ Metrics and Measurements ▪ Communications ▪ Rewards and Recognition ▪ Caring Interdependent Culture; Team-Based Work Process and Systems ▪ Performance Standards and Operating Discipline ▪ Training/Capability ▪ Technology ▪ Safety and Health Resources ▪ Management and Team Audits ▪ Deviation Investigation ▪ Risk Management and Emergency Response ▪ Process Safety ▪ Off-the-Job Safety and Health Education Attention to each of these best practices is essential to achieve sustained improvements in safety and health. The Discovery Implementation in conjunction with DuPont Safety and Environmental Management Services has developed a Safety Self-Assessment around these systems. In this presentation, we will discuss a few of these practices and learn what they mean. Paper published with permission.