Despite efforts to reduce workplace accidents through technical innovations and detailed safety procedures, incident rates remain high. Studies have confirmed that the most common causes of workplace accidents are rooted in human factors including rushed decisions, inattention, risky habits, complacency and misused equipment. Organizations may invest heavily in systems and tools, but if the psychological and social aspects of human behavior are overlooked, these investments often fail to deliver. Understanding how individuals think, feel, and interact in group settings is essential to creating a genuinely safe and resilient work environment which this book explores.
This book investigates why technical and organizational solutions alone are not enough to ensure workplace safety. Drawing from psychological theory and real-world experience, it demonstrates how integrating an understanding of human behavior into safety management systems leads to better and more effective outcomes. Through detailed case studies from major international enterprises operating, readers will see how practical, low-cost programs can be used to shape safer behaviors and attitudes at every level of an organization. The reader will develop a deeper, more sustainable view of what a good safety culture looks like that can align human nature with workplace expectations.
Safety Management: Psychological Aspects of Implementing Organizational Change is for a wide range of professionals involved in shaping workplace safety, including managers, team leaders, OHS specialists, HR professionals, compliance officers, consultants, and operational staff in high risk industries.
Katarzyna Boczkowska is a Doctor of Economics in the discipline of management science. Currently working as an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Marketing and Sustainable Development at the Technical University of Lódź. For more than 20 years, she has been the head of postgraduate studies in 'Occupational Health and Safety Management'. She has 15 years of experience as an expert witness, having drawn up more than 200 opinions commissioned by courts and prosecutors' offices in Poland. She has experience as a trainer and has carried out implementation projects on OHSAS 18001, ISO 45001 management systems, and Behavior-Based Safety programs. Her interests include occupational health and safety management in a broad sense, in particular: occupational risk management, safety culture, BBS, modeling of accidents at work, and OSH management systems. She is the author of more than 100 scientific publications, including monographs and articles.
Marta Stasila-Sieradzka is a Doctor of Humanities, work and organizational psychologist, research and didactic employee at the Institute of Psychology, University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland. Author of scientific projects and implementations related to numerous initiatives in the field of management and shaping work safety culture for companies from the metallurgical, mining, construction, refinery, and many other sectors. As part of her teaching and training activities, she conducts thematic classes on change management, motivational systems, and creating safe behavior in organizations. She is an adjudicator in the field of psychology of road transport, rail transport, and mining work. Author of numerous scientific publications in national and international journals and a popularizer of science. In 2023, she won the Third Degree Team Prize in the National Competition for the Improvement of Working Conditions organized by the Minister of Family and Social Policy and the Central Institute for Labor Protection in the category of scientific and research works for the study and creation of safety culture in organizations.
Marta Znajmiecka is a Doctor of Humanities in Psychology, work and organizational psychologist, research and didactic employee at the Institute of Psychology, University of Lódź, Poland. Author of scientific projects and implementations related to numerous initiatives in the field of management and shaping work safety culture for, among others, companies from the food, construction, and refinery sectors. As part of her teaching and training activities, she conducts thematic classes on safety culture, safety psychology, and prevention. Creator of a questionnaire to measure safety climate and attitudes towards safety. Author of numerous scientific publications in national and international journals, and popularizer of science. In 2023, she was awarded the Third Degree Team Prize in the National Competition for the Improvement of Working Conditions organized by the Minister of Family and Social Policy and the Central Institute for Labor Protection in the category of scientific and research works for the study and creation of safety culture in organizations.
Olga Zwardoń-Kuchciak is a Psychologist, educator, and business and interpersonal skills trainer and research and didactic worker at the Institute of Psychology, University of Lódź, Poland, in the Department of Work Psychology, Organization, and Career Counselling. In her research work, she explores the development of psychological capital and work crafting in the context of employees' professional effectiveness and well-being. She is a member of the international GIG-OSH project team and a contractor in the RESET project, implementing training activities in the field of diversity & inclusion. In her coaching work, she specializes in the development of psychosocial skills related to emotion and tension regulation, communication, relationship building, and well-being in the workplace and beyond. She is a speaker at webinars, scientific, educational, and business conferences. She designs training programs and scenarios in both traditional and remote forms (e-learning, remote training).
