Live or let die: managing safety management system strategies and stakeholders

Abstract

PurposeSafety management systems are created by firms to insure workplace safety while managing acceptable levels of risk. Global competition and the need to assimilate new processes, materials, and technologies, have imparted a more immediate financial and societal imperative in identifying the firm's safety stakeholders. This research identifies a strategic framework to be used by organizations in managing their safety management systems and stakeholders.Design/methodology/approachManagement's ability to organize stakeholders' demands is central to prioritizing safety knowledge and channeling that knowledge effectively through the organization. Management's safety strategy dilemma can be condensed through the optic of a knowledge‐based decision cycle. The three‐stage decision cycle developed in this research asserts that setting safety strategy is simultaneously a knowledge management challenge for the firm and a process of identifying stakeholder salience.FindingsThe safety management system model presented classifies the organization's stakeholders critical to each stage of the strategy setting process. Clarifying stakeholders' power, legitimacy, and urgency is essential in prioritizing and developing those stakeholders' safety knowledge. This decision model should improve the prospect of managers implementing successful safety management system strategies.Originality/valueThe societal and financial costs of workplace safety management system failures diminish organization's effectiveness. This model provides a new approach to implementing knowledge based safety strategies from the organization's stakeholders.