Moving from contractor to owner operator: impact on safety culture – a case study
| Date | 28 December 2012 |
| Pages | 157-172 |
| Published date | 28 December 2012 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/01425451311287853 |
| Author | Susanne Bahn |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour |
Moving from contractor to owner
operator: impact on safety
culture – a case study
Susanne Bahn
Faculty of Business and Law, Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, Australia
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether a change in staffing contractual
arrangements, specific training in hazard identification, mentoring of supervisors and the introduction
of a robust safety system could improve an organisation’s safety culture. How safety conditions
change under contracted out labour compared to direct labour and the influence that contracting out
has on organisational safety culture is explored.
Design/methodology/approach – The study used a case study methodology to detail how the
change occurred over a six month period in 2011. As part of the analysis a model of the change process
and push-pull factors is offered.
Findings – As a result of the change, all areas saw some improvement. Work-related injury statistics
dropped significantly, supervisors were clear of their roles, actively monitoring their crews to ensure
they worked in a safer manner than before, and staff were actively addressing work-place hazards.
With the safety system in place the organisation should be deemed compliant and diligent by the state
auditing authorities. This study has also shown that using contractor workers together with in-house
workers that are managed under different safety regimes is problematic. The problems don’t occur due
to the contractor’s safety systems being less robust than the parent company’s or that contract workers
are themselves less safe; it is the added complexity of managing multiple safety regimes and the lack
of trust of the robustness of each system that create conflict.
Research limitations/implications – The paper reports on the change process of one mining
organisation in Western Australia as a case study from a managerial sample and is thereby limited.
Practical implications – This study demonstrates the difficulties in changing safety culture in an
underground mining organisation. The paper argues the need for specialised training in identifying
hazards by the staff, the mentoring of supervisory staff and the adoption of a robust safety system to
support improved safety culture.
Originality/value – There is little research conducted in the resources sector researching changes in
human resource supply and OHS management, in particular moving from contracted labour to hiring
in-house. This case provides an insight into how a change in staffing hiring arrangements, together
with specific safety initiatives, has a positive impact on safety performance.
Keywords Australia, Underground mining, Organizational change, Occupational health and safety,
Safety culture, Change agents, Contractor staffing arrangements, Human resource supply,
OHS management, Safety compliance
Paper type Research p aper
Introduction
Using the case of an underground mining operation in Western Australia (WA) this
paper explores safety culture change. The research study under pinning this paper
sought to understand whether a change in staffing contractual arrangements,
specialised training in hazard identification, mentoring of supervisors and the
introduction of a robust safety system could improve the organisations safety culture.
Of specific interest in the paper is a discussion on the influence that using contracted
labour as opposed to in-house personnel has on the organisational safety culture and
subsequent performance. Hence the study mapped in detail the change from using a
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Employee Relations
Vol.35 No. 2, 2013
pp. 157-172
rEmeraldGroup PublishingLimited
0142-5455
DOI 10.1108/01425451311287853
157
From contractor
to owner
operator
mix of contractor staff and in-house staff by the organisation to wholly employing
in-house staff. The study also sought to determine whether specific training of staff in
work-place hazard identification, one-on-one mentoring of supervisory staff and the
introduction of a robust safety system would lead to a reduction of work-related injury.
This paper explores these issues and provides a model of the change process and the
push-pull factors organisations of this kind are faced with. The paper begin s with a
review of the change literature before specifically narrowing down to the influence on
organisational safety culture when using contracted and in-house staff.
Change in organisations
Change in organisations can be a difficult, emotional and lengthy process that requires
skilful negotiations between managers and their employees. This study is no
exception. The change process often divides the participants into two g roups: the
change agents (managers) and the change recipients (employees) who engage in
reciprocal sense-making throughout. Change agents seek to determine strategies to
facilitate the change process; whereas the change recipient endeavours to determine
how the change will directly affect them (Gioia et al., 1994). Studies investigating
change processes (Berman and McLaughlin, 1975; Beer et al., 1990) highlight the
critical need for processes of “mutual adaptation”.
Ford et al. (2008) argue that resistance to the cha nge process may be an
interpretation made by change agents or that their own actions or inactions may have
contributed to change recipient’s unwillingness to change their behaviour. They
describe three sides to the change “resistance story” by change agents. First, it may be
viewed as a self-serving label given by change agents as a reaction by recipients
resisting change. Second, the change agents own behaviour can promote resistance, for
example the breaking of trust (Cobb et al., 1995; Tomlinson et al., 2004), personal
relationships (Pfeffer, 1994), and incongruent expectations of how the change should
occur (Van de Ven and Sun, 2011). Third, the resistance to change may be a positive
contribution to the change process (Knowles and Linn, 2004). Caldwell (2003) asserts
that the interactions that occur between different change agents within the
organisation act as inhibitors to the change process or as Van de Ven and Sun
(2011) describe as change model breakdowns.
This study supports the second point described by Ford et al. (2008) and the work of
Caldwell (2003) in that change agents vary from person to person in organisations.
Interpersonal skills and management style can affect the success of change initiatives.
For this paper, the change process is reviewed according to Van de Ven and Sun’s
(2011) discussion of the differences in perceptions of change agents of how the change
should occur according to their individual mental models of change. They explain that
due to the differences of individuals, their experiences both personal and at work, and
the intricacies of their roles and responsibilities, change agents and particip ants have
different interpretations and mental models of the change process (Van de Ven et al.,
1999). They argue that participants use these divergent perspectives to support the
change or undermine and suppress the efforts of change agents.
In order to counter resistance to change Parish et al. (2008) suggest that there is
a belief that change recipients can change without disruption to their work flows and
that change agents should consider the effect on their employees. They state further
that without the commitment of employees to the change process behaviours will
remain the same. Dvir et al. (2004) maintain that working with change recipients in
forming a vision in which they all share supports behavioural organisational change.
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