Of People, Programs, and Priorities: The Impact of Organizational Culture in Industrial Research and Development Laboratories

Abstract

Development of laboratory safety programs often focuses on the tools and policies needed to protect people, the environment, and equipment. Tools and policies are unlikely to result in meaningful positive safety outcomes alone. Effective engagement is a critical component, and this can only be achieved by nurturing an effective safety culture. Merriam-Webster offers one definition of culture as, "the set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes an institution or organization" (emphasis added), and employee engagement and leadership support are equally critical to safer laboratories. This commentary begins with a discussion of how human beings perceive work, individual and organizational performance heuristics, and the ways in which policies and procedures influence individual behavior and how individual engagement in safety programs can influence organizational change, resulting in evolutionary improvements in approaches to laboratory safety. We then offer examples of tools and engagement that have been used at Dow to achieve those goals.

Mitigation of Potential Risks in Chemical Laboratories: A Focused Review

“…These differences underscore the importance of developing safety protocols that are not only effective but also contextually appropriate for the specific challenges and needs of each laboratory type. 150,228,229 In conclusion, while academic and industrial laboratories both prioritize safety, their approaches reflect the distinct nature of their work. The academic environment, with its focus on exploration and discovery, adopts a more flexible approach to safety, tailored to the diverse and evolving nature of research projects.…”

“…Furthermore, the approach to risk management and record keeping is more formalized and systematic in industrial laboratories, emphasizing the need for ongoing monitoring and diligent documentation. These differences underscore the importance of developing safety protocols that are not only effective but also contextually appropriate for the specific challenges and needs of each laboratory type. ,, …”

A Case Study in Assessing a Potential Severity Framework for Incidents from a Decadal Sample

“…Near misses are defined as a hazardous situation, event, or unsafe act where the sequence of events could have caused an accident if it had not been interrupted . Near misses and their role in safety culture have been widely explored in safety management literature. − For this reason, a future point of interest would be to run the framework through near misses to test its applicability in these scenarios. While LLNL has a workflow for near miss reporting, it is independent from the process for reporting injury and illness cases.…”