Tappura and Syvänen, Nordic Working Life Conference 2014 presentation

1. Dinno 2012-2014
Challenging management situations
in managing occupational
health and safety
11.6.2014
Nordic Working Life Conference 2014, Göteborg, Sweden
Stream 8: Quality of work in Nordic countries
Tappura Sari
Center for Safety Management and Engineering
Tampere University of Technology
Syvänen Sirpa
School of Management
University of Tampere
www.dinno.fi

2. Background – Dinno-programme (www.dinno.fi)
• This study is one thematic part of the Dialogic Leadership
Promoting Innovativeness research programme (Dinno-
programme 2012 – 2014, www.dinno.fi)
• Dinno is a multidisciplinary research combining theories
concerning performance, quality of working life, creativity,
learning, motivation and leadership funded by Tekes.
• The main research task of the Dinno programme is to
analyse how dialogic leadership can be used to
enhance creativity and innovations.
• This study discusses the challenging occupational heath
and safety (OHS) management situations that managers
encounter and which may diminish employees’ well-being,
creativity and organizational performance.

3. Introduction 1/2
• Good working conditions and successful (OHS) management
– Ensure the physical and mental health and safety of employees
(Frick 2003; Gallagher et al. 2001)
– Help to maintain employees’ working capacity and support the
quality of working life and performance (Syvänen 2010).
– Helps the employees to achieve the business targets
• Communication and a collaborative climate are central
elements when struggling to improve the psychosocial work
environment (Nielsen et al. 2010).
• A safe, positive, and supportive working environment is also
crucial when striving for innovations in products, services,
and work processes (e.g. Amabile 1997; George & Zhou
2007). www.dinno.fi

4. Introduction 2/2
• Challenging OHS situations in the work community
– Impede the well-being and productivity of employees (e.g.
Eurofound 2010; Leka et al. 2011; Syvänen 2010; Tikkamäki &
Syvänen 2014)
– Entails enormous costs via, for example, stress-related
absenteeism (e.g. Clarke & Cooper 2004; Earnshaw & Cooper
2001) and accidents (e.g. Sutherland & Cooper 1991)
• In organizations should be emphasized
– Employers’ OHS responsibilities (D 89/391/EEC)
– Organizational support for managers (Conchie et al. 2013;
Frick 2013)
– Managers’ competence, resources and role representing the
employer (Hardison et. al 2014; Tappura & Hämäläinen 2012)

5. Data and methods 1/2
• The research data is based on thematic interviews and
qualitative answers to inquiries with top, middle and front-
line managers (n = 75) in three Finnish public sector service
organizations:
- governmental expert organization
- municipal social services and healthcare service unit
- vocational education organization
• Due to the nature of the participating organizations
1.Cost-saving pressure has a large impact on resources and
work pressure as well
2.The psychosocial aspects of OHS management are
emphasized
www.dinno.fi

6. Results 1/3
The most challenging OHS management situations are
related to:
• Administration of work, e.g., inadequate resources due to high
economic and efficiency pressures, constant changes in the work
community, enforcement of organizational rules, operational
planning, organizational confusion, and redundancies due to
economic cutbacks.
• Support for managerial work, e.g., evaluating, prioritizing and
individually tailoring the workload of employees, assessing
employees’ mental and physical burdens, taking the employees’
individual characteristic and needs into account, lack of
opportunities for discussion with employees, missing support of
the immediate superior , and lack of organizational support and
resources for taking care of employees’ well-being.

7. Results 2/3
• Feedback, e.g., giving both positive and constructive feedback,
lack of time for giving feedback, providing feedback on
shortcomings, errors and inappropriate behavior.
• Social interaction, e.g., supervisory work related to collaboration
between employees, inadequate social and interaction skills,
changing harmful interaction, and encouraging all employees to
actively participate in collaboration and development meetings.
• Conflicts, e.g., due to the co-operation process, changing job
descriptions and responsibilities, work overload, inappropriate
work behavior, unauthorized absences, non-commitment to work,
personal problems of the employees, disciplinary situations, and
difficult interrelations in the work community.
www.dinno.fi

8. Results 3/3
• When a challenging situation occurs, managers typically look for
ad hoc help from their superiors, colleagues, HR experts, and
OHS experts to manage the situation.
• The respondents required more competence and expected
organizational procedures to support them.
• They also expected emotional support and sharing of experience
with their superior and colleagues in a confidential manner.
• The managers didn’t mention financial support from the upper
management, although more resources would have helped them
in organizing the work in their area of responsibility.
• The respondents pointed out the importance of actively solving
problems and that the work community should be open and
willing to confront difficult issues and find solutions.
www.dinno.fi

9. Discussion 1/2
• Active managing and solving the challenging OHS
management situations is important because
– They have a negative effect on OHS, learning, creativity,
performance and quality of working life in organizations.
– They are closely related to employers’ regulatory obligations
stemming from OHS legislation.
– Their economic effect is enormous and they are increasingly
associated with the operational efficiency and competitiveness
of organizations.
– Managers often have a heavy workload, which is a major OHS
problem as such.
www.dinno.fi

10. Discussion 2/2
• Managers mostly focused on individual relations and emotional support
to cope with challenging situations. However, managers need
competence as well as organizational support and tools for meeting
their responsibilities.
• It is employers’ duty to provide OHS procedures, such as risk
assessment procedures, proactive measures concerning all kinds of
OHS risks and early-on support model to support managers at all
organizational levels.
• Upper management often ignores its legal obligations and delegates
work environment issues to frontline managers, without providing any
resources or support. Challenging situations are related to imbalances
between workload and time frame, as well as problems concerning
relations, leadership, and trust. These are mostly high-level issues, and
front-line managers can do little for them. (see also Frick 2013)
www.dinno.fi

11. Reference
• Tappura, S., Syvänen, S. & Saarela K.L. 2014. Challenges and Needs
for Support in Managing Occupational Health and Safety from
Managers’ Viewpoints. Nordic journal of working life studies, Vol. 4, Nr
3, August 2014, pp. 31-51.
• Available:
http://search.proquest.com/docview/1709681650/fulltext/1CE3DA04C03
F4B49PQ/1?accountid=27303
www.dinno.fi