Site managers and safety leadership in the offshore oil and gas industry

Management commitment to safety is recognised as a fundamental component of an organisation's safety culture (Reason, 1997. Managing the Risks of Orga nisational Accidents. Ashgate, Aldershot, UK). However, the role and experi ences of site managers in relation to safety have rarely been examined. A s urvey questionnaire was conducted of 200 Offshore Installation Managers (OI Ms) from 157 offshore oil and gas installations belonging to 36 organisatio ns operating on the United Kingdom Continental Shelf. The questionnaire gat hered data relating to OIMs' level of experience and style of leadership as well as their knowledge and experience of safety and leadership within the industry. The aims of the study are twofold. The first aim is to investiga te the relationship between managers' level of experience and style of lead ership with their safety attitudes and behaviour. The second aim is to inve stigate managers' perceptions of best practice in safety leadership and the ir beliefs about the key outstanding safety issues. Findings suggest that e xperience is not the dominant factor in determining leadership style or att itudes to safety, however, the less experienced OIMs and those with more di rective styles of leadership were found to overestimate their ability to in fluence and motivate the workforce. It seems that although managers are awa re of best practice in safety leadership, they do not always act in ways co nsistent with this. They report having considerable difficulty in motivatin g and controlling some safety crucial aspects of workforce behaviour such a s getting workers to accept ownership of safety and getting workers to repo rt near misses. In terms of outstanding safety issues, it appears that impr ovements still need to be made in a number of areas such as the standardisa tion of safety culture; the harmonisation of safety practices and procedure s across the industry; improved workforce competency and increased workforc e involvement in safety activities and decision making. (C) 2001 Elsevier S cience Ltd. All rights reserved.