Risk tolerance impacts safety

Ignoring or engaging in risky behavior might be a perception issue

Recognition of hazards and acceptance of risk
    Basically, the risk of injury can exist in the work environment, the organizational as well as operational systems, or result from some action on the worker’s part. There are five means or methods that are at play in creating or recognizing situation where a hazard may be created or exist which may potentially cause an accident, injury or loss. These involve risk recognition, assessment, acceptance as well as the means to eliminate it or reduce their adverse effect.

Sources of physical hazards or risk
    In all likelihood on a construction worksite just about every physical hazard or risk of injury encountered by the workforce may have been created by the action of workers putting work in place at some earlier point in time. Other risks may be created by supervision or management while planning, organizing, directing, assigning, or controlling the work. Risk may also come from the design, interaction, or influence of operational and organizational systems, the organizational culture, the work climate as well as management and supervisions, actions, behaviors or expectations, as utilized, understood or perceive by the worker. And finally, the project design may contain inherent risks, The following 4 points
    Risk-tolerance generally occurs over time. Workers may take shortcuts when performing their work for any number of reasons and encounter no negative outcomes. This will eventually desensitize them to those risks and cause them to accept the at-risk behavior as the way they routinely preform all their work going forward. This paper will primarily deal with the decision and action taken by the individual worker as listed in items 3 through 5 above.

Potential risk-tolerance interventions
    One way to deal with the workforce’s acceptance of greater risk than what is deemed reasonable or acceptable by the organization, as well as minimizing their adverse effect is to anticipate such potential outcomes. The best way to address this is to engage in a robust and systematic preplanning effort of all tasks and/or activities before their start and error-proof them as much as possible so as to reduce the risks faced by their workforce when they are assigned to those tasks. (Look for a paper on effective preplanning coming in the near future). Item 1 above will be dealt with in multiple papers in the future.
    The way to determine if an individual worker tends to accept more risk than is deemed acceptable is to observe them if they are new to the worksite or every time, they are assigned a different kind of task from the one they have been performing. The workers who are identified as risk takers are dealt with as follows:

Experience factors
    Familiarity with the work may cause the worker’s attention to wonder and as a result become unaware of any potential hazard that may develop during work, or wonder into what is known as ‘the line of fire’ which will in all likelihood result in an incident with negative consequences.
    Having performed similar work over a long period of time may cause the worker to become over confident in their ability and as a result underestimate the severity of the risk and thereby fail to take ample precautions potentially leading to an incident with serious consequences.   

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Perception factors
    Over confidence in one’s capabilities, knowledge, or experience may result from past experience in having performed similar tasks in a certain way successfully even though the method involved a level of at-risk behavior. At a subsequent instance there may be a small difference with the level of risk or conditions may change, but overconfidence in the worker’s ability may over shadowed this which may lead to a negative outcome.
    The level of risk may be perceived as acceptable, when in reality the worker under estimates it. Therefore, the worker proceeds with the work without changing the means or methods which could lead to an accident.
    The associated risk of the task is determined to have a minor or insignificant negative outcome. So, the worker proceeds with the work but unfortunately is involved in an accident whose consequences result in a serious injury.

Difficulties with safety factors
    Completing daily task assignment may cause the worker to choose to rush because he realizes that this will not be possible given the remaining time left in the work day. So, rushing to meet he goal, may cause the worker to engage in at-risk behavior which may result in an incident with a negative outcome.
    The personal protective equipment is uncomfortable or hinders production. This could involve safety glasses that fog up requiring multiple stoppages to clean away the moisture, as well as others. In order to meet the production goal set by the superintendent the worker chooses to remove the safety glasses or other PPE and continue without them. This increases the risk of a potential eye injury, or another loss.
    The workforce needs to receive appropriate training which enables them to identify the existence of the risk of injury in the work environment. After having made the identification, they may need to be coached in order to enable them to make a determination of the level or seriousness of the risk. The next step for the worker, is to make and evaluate the level of the risk as compared to the organizational acceptable standard, in order to safely proceed with the work. Supervision must be cognizant that this is where the worker’s risk-tolerance may come into play and possibly override caution.
    The worker’s risk-tolerance can be brought in line with the organizational predetermined level through proper training followed by careful oversight as well as coaching and feedback, This, will eventually align the worker’s risk tolerance level in line with that of the organization. To reinforce this, the organization must make it “safe” for the worker to inform supervision that they will not proceed with the work if they determine that the existing level of risk is too high and that certain changes need to be made in order to safely proceed with the work. The diligent management of the reinforcement process will invariably make the workers risk-tolerance come into line with organizational expectation.

Conclusion
    Research has shown that different people are likely to see hazards and their associated risks as well as how to address them in different, sometimes contradictory ways. Incomplete and differing knowledge leaves considerable room for different plausible choices or approaches to dealing with encountered situations or conditions. Judgments about the same evidence can vary, and both judgments and the underlying analyses can be influenced by the situational reality, individual experience, as well as values held by each individual.
    It is important for project supervision supported by the safety manager to provide the appropriate training, provide on-the-job support, coaching and feedback. Management must create a work environment which enables the worker to seek guidance, discuss concerns and receive support in improving their risk identification, assessment and determination of the appropriate level of the existing risk.