Transformational Leadership in Safety :: essays research papers

Running head TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP AND SAFETYTransformational lead and gum elastic deviceTransformational Leadership and SafetyThe Postal Service in Baton Rouge and cities around the nation has a poor reputation when it comes to pencil eraser and health of its employees. In an attempt to debunk this unjust accusation, Management and slyness employees alike set out to accomplish a task never before achieved by a postal facility with more than 20 employees. Many managers in the Southwest Area thought it suicide to invite the Occupational Safety and Health institution (OSHA) in for an inspection and try to achieve the highest recommendation obtainable, the coveted STAR award. The plants 491 employees, supervisors and managers using transformational leadership, prepared for and accomplished this achievement in only 90 days.Transformational Leadership by definition is the broadening and elevating of the awareness, acceptance and attitudes of the workforce beyond their persona l interest for the good of a group or company (Bass, 1990) Management, union officials, and craft employees acting as safety captains, worked together to motivate the workforce to see a bigger picture. The first and most important task was building a relationship of trust.The Postal Service is notorious for discipline of its employees when something goes wrong but is slow to reward these same employees for a job well done. The Plant coach-and-four at Baton Rouge, Joseph Tate a 42-year veteran of the service, decided that charisma, intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration, as discussed by Sally A. Carless (1998) were necessary in achieving a heathenish change. He believed that in order to achieve a STAR rating the employees would have to come onboard. With the blessings of the Louisiana District office, he instituted a new safety program that was fashioned after that of Dow Chemical, 3-M and other industry leaders. Employee involvement, as in every industrial succe ss, was the key. Employees selected their own safety captains from the craft workers. Instead of the supervisors of each whole giving the same old boring safety talks, it was now the responsibility of the safety captains to present relevant safety information for each unit. Safety captains collect information throughout the week, and used examples, tasks, tools and materials used within the unit for these talks. Weekly safety meetings became participative and interesting from the onset. Monthly meetings attended by the safety captains, the plant manager, and the territory safety manager proved extremely productive. Monthly safety contests with prizes, job safety analysis completed by the employees themselves, additional OSHA sanctioned training, and a safety information centers on the workroom floor were but a few of the ideas implemented.