The problems with safety management were discussed from a historic and program standards perspective in a prior article. A look at the management of safety may highlight how the traditional means and methods may have contributed to the ineffectiveness of the practice as well as the potential resulting undesirable outcomes. Some of this stems from how the enacted Occupational Safety and Health Act (standards) has been implemented by organizations as well as utilized in their operations.
Due to the fact that the OSHA standards were voluminous, covered a large number of potential hazardous conditions workers could be exposed to in the work environment, required a significant number of training sessions to be provided to workers in order to familiarize them with the standards, required postings, inspections, as well as reporting and record keeping; industry determined that this would have to be handled by someone other than their operational supervisors.