• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

SafetyRisk.net

Humanising Safety and Embracing Real Risk

  • Home
    • About
      • Privacy Policy
      • Contact
  • FREE
    • Slogans
      • Researchers Reveal the Top 10 Most Effective Safety Slogans Of All Time
      • When Slogans Don’t Work
      • CLASSIC, FAMOUS and INFAMOUS SAFETY QUOTES
      • 500 OF THE BEST AND WORST WORKPLACE HEALTH and SAFETY SLOGANS 2023
      • CATCHY and FUNNY SAFETY SLOGANS FOR THE WORKPLACE
      • COVID-19 (Coronavirus, Omicron) Health and Safety Slogans and Quotes for the Workplace
      • Safety Acronyms
      • You know Where You Can Stick Your Safety Slogans
      • Sayings, Slogans, Aphorisms and the Discourse of Simple
      • Spanish Safety Slogans – Consignas de seguridad
      • Safety Slogans List
      • Road Safety Slogans 2023
      • How to write your own safety slogans
      • Why Are Safety Slogans Important
      • Safety Slogans Don’t Save Lives
      • 40 Free Safety Slogans For the Workplace
      • Safety Slogans for Work
    • FREE SAFETY eBOOKS
    • Free Hotel and Resort Risk Management Checklist
    • FREE DOWNLOADS
    • TOP 50
    • FREE RISK ASSESSMENT FORMS
    • Find a Safety Consultant
    • Free Safety Program Documents
    • Psychology Of Safety
    • Safety Ideas That Work
    • HEALTH and SAFETY MANUALS
    • FREE SAFE WORK METHOD STATEMENT RESOURCES
    • Whats New In Safety
    • FUN SAFETY STUFF
    • Health and Safety Training
    • SAFETY COURSES
    • Safety Training Needs Analysis and Matrix
    • Top 20 Safety Books
    • This Toaster Is Hot
    • Free Covid-19 Toolbox Talks
    • Download Page – Please Be Patient With Larger Files…….
    • SAFETY IMAGES, Photos, Unsafe Pictures and Funny Fails
    • How to Calculate TRIFR, LTIFR and Other Health and Safety Indicators
    • Download Safety Moments from Human Resources Secretariat
  • Social Psychology Of Risk
    • What is Psychological Health and Safety at Work?
    • Safety Psychology Terminology
    • Some Basics on Social Psychology & Risk
    • Understanding The Social Psychology of Risk – Prof Karl E. Weick
    • The Psychology of Leadership in Risk
    • Conducting a Psychology and Culture Safety Walk
    • The Psychology of Conversion – 20 Tips to get Started
    • Understanding The Social Psychology of Risk And Safety
    • Psychology and safety
    • The Psychology of Safety
    • Hot Toaster
    • TALKING RISK VIDEOS
    • WHAT IS SAFETY
    • THE HOT TOASTER
    • THE ZERO HARM DEBATE
    • SEMIOTICS
    • LEADERSHIP
  • Dr Long Posts
    • ALL POSTS
    • Learning Styles Matter
    • There is no Hierarchy of Controls
    • Scaffolding, Readiness and ZPD in Learning
    • What Can Safety Learn From Playschool?
    • Presentation Tips for Safety People
    • Dialogue Do’s and Don’ts
    • It’s Only a Symbol
    • Ten Cautions About Safety Checklists
    • Zero is Unethical
    • First Report on Zero Survey
    • There is No Objectivity, Deal With it!
  • THEMES
    • Risk Myths
    • Safety Myths
    • Safety Culture Silences
    • Safety Culture
    • Psychological Health and Safety
    • Zero Harm
    • Due Diligence
  • Free Learning
    • Introduction to SPoR – Free
    • FREE RISK and SAFETY EBOOKS
    • FREE ebook – Guidance for the beginning OHS professional
    • Free EBook – Effective Safety Management Systems
    • Free EBook – Lessons I Have Learnt
  • Psychosocial Safety
    • What is Psychosocial Safety
    • Psychological Safety
      • What is Psychological Health and Safety at Work?
      • Managing psychosocial hazards at work
      • Psychological Safety – has it become the next Maslow’s hammer?
      • What is Psychosocial Safety
      • Psychological Safety Slogans and Quotes
      • What is Psychological Safety?
      • Understanding Psychological Terminology
      • Psycho-Social and Socio-Psychological, What’s the Difference?
      • Build a Psychologically Safe Workplace by Taking Risks and Analysing Failures
      • It’s not weird – it’s a psychological safety initiative!
You are here: Home / Positive Safety Stuff / The Ethics of Safety

The Ethics of Safety

May 16, 2015 by Dr Rob Long 5 Comments

A very popular article by Dr Rob Long from the recent past:

The Ethics of Safety

Quote:

The key to the effectiveness of an ethic in safety is the humanization of others and the building of relationships. It is strange that the vice of intolerance is advocated in the workplace but we would never want such a vice in our home relationships. The challenge for the safety community is to understand the impact of negative ethics and seek positive ethics in the promotion of care, safety and the management of risk.

With the news of corruption within Leighton Holdings  and evidence of corruption in sport (football drugs scandal), unions  and political parties it is timely to raise the issue of ethics in relation to safety.

Most people in safety are familiar with the notion of a ‘code of ethics’ and professional standards, such codes and standards are the systematic articulation of the core values and principles by which individuals and organisations seek to act. At the foundation of ethics are moral principles by which human activity is judged as right or wrong. At this level the following beliefs are held: respect for persons, the value of humanity, environment and community, the non-exploitation of others, the humanization of people, the prioritization of human rights and common good. Unethical conduct generally demonstrates the misuse of power: for self, exploitation of others, dehumanization in outcomes and the oppression of others. Associated with the idea of ethical practice are virtues such as: justice, tolerance, love, generosity, acceptance, honesty, integrity, respect, courage, hope and wisdom. Vices such as: greed, slander, lust, violence, exploitation and selfishness are considered anti-human and ‘depraved’. In this article I will outline three popular ethical actions that are negative and three that are positive for consideration.

clip_image002Recent examples of corruption show that the ethic of ‘the end justifies the means’ (advocated by pragmatism and utilitarianism) is alive and thriving in the safety community. At the foundation of this ethic is the idea that outcomes and outputs justify process. So, as long as I have an honourable motive and achieve a (self defined) good outcome, the action is justified regardless of who is dehumanized in the process. This is how the ideology of zero justifies its absolutist claims over others and demands perfectionism of fallible others. Since when did intolerance become a virtue? In this ethic, the denial of self determination, denial of autonomy of others, the coercion of compliance and disempowerment of others is justified for a ‘greater’ good (no harm). The freedom of others, choice in risk and self determination in risk is of no value to the ideology of risk aversion. We see this often in the way safety people make choices to ‘save others from themselves’. It is strange that safety people seem delighted to override the self determination of others but don’t like when it is foisted on themselves. The assumption of this ethic is that all others are stupid, irresponsible and ignorant. Such an ethic has no notion of competing goals, psychology of risk or heuristics. This ethic is evident in the Victorian TAC road safety campaign where this week they have gone to new heights in Melbourne in insulting the public, soon the poster will come out that everyone is a friend of a bloody idiot, indeed we are all bloody idiots except the Victorian TAC.

Further read the article https://safetyrisk.net/whose-the-bloody-idiot/

Another ethic that seems to govern safety is the ‘ethic of entitlement’, in this ethic one assumes power and authority over others justified by regulation, legislation and some sense of superior good. What often results is a delusional sense of what is entitled to those in privileged positions and it doesn’t take long before ‘absolute power corrupts absolutely’. This is evident in the way politicians rort the system (http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-09-29/michael-smith-wedding-barnaby-joyce-george-brandis-expenses/4987502), unionists use credit cards and bribes are offered by big business to gain advantage over others who are ethical in business. The Leighton Holdings corruption shows that nothing was learned from the AWB oil for wheat scandal . When such an ethic is normalized in a culture, lessons from history don’t matter, entitlement creates a hubris that believes it is immune from fault. How is this ethic demonstrated in safety? There are countless ways that some safety people enjoy the power of the WHS Act to wield submission over others. It seems there is nothing so juicy as inflicting a major non-conformance on an organisation for something petty. The best at this is the Office of the Federal Safety Commissioner (OFSC). The number of ridiculous non-conformances issued by the OFSC, justified by power and safety, are chronicled by many of the construction companies I know. One was recently given a major non-conformance for not having a data sheet for a toner cartridge!

Another more recent prominent ethic is ‘justification by volume’, something is deemed right because it is supported by volume and traffic. We see this in the Dumb Ways to Die campaign, the dehumanizing of anyone who commits suicide as ‘dumb’ justified by the number of hits on Youtube. Not only has this program been ineffective in outcomes (https://safetyrisk.net/dumb-ways-to-measure-effectiveness/) it has germinated a whole desensitization campaign to the plight of suicide, particularly youth suicide. The DWTD campaign has currently 60 million hits in 12 months on Youtube, Miley Cyrus nude has 184 million hits in 1 month. This shows the absurdity of this ethic, this simplistic ethic seems to think that something is ‘good’ regardless of human outcome. Youth suicide is such a great tragedy and ought not to be promoted or young people desensitized to its destructiveness. The idea that some safety people think this ad is ‘cute’ and ‘effective’ is alarming.

There are three critical ethics that should apply to the enactment of safety.

  1. When it comes to safety ‘the ethic of humanizing others’ should be paramount. One can have quite honourable motives such as not wishing anyone to be harmed, but this doesn’t justify the dehumanization of others in the process. Two wrongs don’t make something right. The idea that zero leads to tolerance, understanding and self determination is a nonsense, ‘absolutes corrupt absolutely’. Zero is not an ethic for safety. The priming of the ideology, the cynicism it generates, the incongruence it fosters and the skepticism driven by its absurd targets and discourse are all culturally destructive. For example, the current rate of fatalities on Victorian roads is higher than the 5 year average and yet the insulting and unethical bloody idiot campaign continues. How does a negative parading of insults create a positive culture? The Vision Zero Road Safety Campaign for Victorian roads looks more like a joke than something people can believe in. (http://www.monash.edu.au/miri/research/reports/papers/visionzero.html) Charged by simplistic binary opposition thinking, such a campaign and ethic denies the realities of competing goals and human fallibility.

clip_image0042. In safety one needs an ‘ethic of longsightedness’ and have some sense of the trajectory of values. For example, in the ACT where ACT Worksafe is on a blitz of fines and punitive blindsidedness they seem to think that people will also speak up about safety (http://www.worksafe.act.gov.au/page/view/3455)? This is the kind of simplistic stuff that comes about by short-sightedness and not understanding competing goals and ethical trajectories. The ethic of short-sightedness most often leads to naivety about long-term consequence, this was what Essendon might have learned when they lost their place in the finals. Short-sightedness doesn’t see the big picture and justifies injustice over competitors, for the sake of a flag.

  1. An approach to safety ethics ought to consider the ‘ethic of reciprocation’, that is, acting towards others as you yourself would like to be treated. This is why bullying is so harmful. It is also interesting that the psychological harm and mental unhealth generated by the over-powering of others and dehumanization of others in the workplace is not counted by the zero harm advocates? It seems if you can’t see the harm, there is no harm. The same ethic of lack of transparency governs the nonsense policy to not report boat arrivals in northern Australia. If we don’t hear about the boats we will think the government has stopped the boats. Secrets and a lack of transparency have no place in safety, the elevation of punishment will simply encourage underreporting and delusion by silence.

The ethic of reciprocation is concerned about oppression, victimization, bullying and intolerance, such may seem good for ‘other’ people but when we make a mistake we expect forgiveness, understanding and compassion.

The key to the effectiveness of an ethic in safety is the humanization of others and the building of relationships. It is strange that the vice of intolerance is advocated in the workplace but we would never want such a vice in our home relationships. The challenge for the safety community is to understand the impact of negative ethics and seek positive ethics in the promotion of care, safety and the management of risk.

  • Bio
  • Latest Posts
  • More about Rob
Dr Rob Long

Dr Rob Long

Expert in Social Psychology, Principal & Trainer at Human Dymensions
Dr Rob Long

Latest posts by Dr Rob Long (see all)

  • Not Just Another ‘Hazard’ - February 3, 2023
  • How to Be Oriented Towards Psychosocial and Mental Health in Safety - February 2, 2023
  • Free Download – Real Risk – New Book by Dr Robert Long - February 2, 2023
  • ISO 45003 and What it Cannot Do - February 1, 2023
  • Harming People in the Name of Good - January 31, 2023
Dr Rob Long
PhD., MEd., MOH., BEd., BTh., Dip T., Dip Min., Cert IV TAA, MRMIA Rob is the founder of Human Dymensions and has extensive experience, qualifications and expertise across a range of sectors including government, education, corporate, industry and community sectors over 30 years. Rob has worked at all levels of the education and training sector including serving on various post graduate executive, post graduate supervision, post graduate course design and implementation programs.

Please share our posts

  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)

Related

Filed Under: Positive Safety Stuff, Robert Long, Safety Leadership, Simplistic Safety, Social Psychology of Risk, Zero Harm Tagged With: corruption, ethics, safety culture, Zero Harm

Reader Interactions

Do you have any thoughts? Please share them below Cancel reply

Primary Sidebar

Search and Discover More on this Site

Never miss a post - Subscribe via Email

Enter your email address and join other discerning risk and safety people who receive notifications of new posts by email

Join 7,500 other subscribers

RECOMMENDED READING

viral post – iso 45003 and what it cannot do

Introduction to SPOR – FREE!!

Psychosocial Safety and Mental Health Series

Not Just Another ‘Hazard’

Psychosocial Safety, Is it possible to make it culturally normal?

How to Be Oriented Towards Psychosocial and Mental Health in Safety

ISO 45003 and What it Cannot Do

The KISS of Death in Safety

Behavioural Safety is NOT a Foundation for Tackling Psychosocial and Mental Health

The Worst Approach to Psychosocial Problems is an Attitude of ‘Fixing’

The Language of ‘Hazards’ and Psychosocial, Mental Health

Welcome to the Nightmare, Safety Creates its Own Minefield (as usual)

No Good Reason to Follow Reason

More Posts from this Category

NEW! Free Download

Please take our 2 minute zero survey

Recent Comments

  • simon p cassin on Psychosocial Safety, Is it possible to make it culturally normal?
  • simon p cassin on Psychosocial Safety, Is it possible to make it culturally normal?
  • Rob long on How to Be Oriented Towards Psychosocial and Mental Health in Safety
  • Rob Long on Psychosocial Safety, Is it possible to make it culturally normal?
  • Rob Long on Psychosocial Safety, Is it possible to make it culturally normal?
  • Matt Thorne on Psychosocial Safety, Is it possible to make it culturally normal?
  • simon p cassin on Psychosocial Safety, Is it possible to make it culturally normal?
  • Hurak Learning on How to Be Oriented Towards Psychosocial and Mental Health in Safety
  • Rob Long on An Advanced Understanding of Culture – A Video
  • Paul Gentles on An Advanced Understanding of Culture – A Video
  • Brent Charlton on The KISS of Death in Safety
  • Rob Long on The KISS of Death in Safety
  • Brian Edwin Darlington on The KISS of Death in Safety
  • Brian on The Language of ‘Hazards’ and Psychosocial, Mental Health
  • Jaise on The Language of ‘Hazards’ and Psychosocial, Mental Health
  • Rob Long on Posture Myths and Holistic Ergonomics
  • Linda McKendry on Posture Myths and Holistic Ergonomics
  • Rob long on Welcome to the Nightmare, Safety Creates its Own Minefield (as usual)
  • Matt Thorne on Welcome to the Nightmare, Safety Creates its Own Minefield (as usual)
  • Anonymous on Welcome to the Nightmare, Safety Creates its Own Minefield (as usual)

FREE eBOOK DOWNLOADS

Footer

VIRAL POST – The Risk Matrix Myth

Top Posts & Pages. Sad that most are so dumb but this is what safety luves

  • 500 OF THE BEST AND WORST WORKPLACE HEALTH and SAFETY SLOGANS 2023
  • Proving Safety
  • Free Safety Moments and Toolbox Talk Examples, Tips and Resources
  • Road Safety Slogans 2023
  • CATCHY and FUNNY SAFETY SLOGANS FOR THE WORKPLACE
  • ISO 45003 and What it Cannot Do
  • NATIONAL SAFETY DAY/WEEK IN INDIA 2023
  • Download Safety Moments from Human Resources Secretariat
  • How to Be Oriented Towards Psychosocial and Mental Health in Safety
  • 15 Safety Precautions When Working With Electricity

Recent Posts

  • Not Just Another ‘Hazard’
  • Psychosocial Safety, Is it possible to make it culturally normal?
  • How to Be Oriented Towards Psychosocial and Mental Health in Safety
  • Free Download – Real Risk – New Book by Dr Robert Long
  • Proving Safety
  • ISO 45003 and What it Cannot Do
  • Harming People in the Name of Good
  • An Advanced Understanding of Culture – A Video
  • Risk and Safety Maturity
  • The KISS of Death in Safety
  • SPoR, Metanoia and a Podcast on Change with Nippin Anand
  • Behavioural Safety is NOT a Foundation for Tackling Psychosocial and Mental Health
  • The Worst Approach to Psychosocial Problems is an Attitude of ‘Fixing’
  • SPoR Comes to Vienna June 2023
  • The Language of ‘Hazards’ and Psychosocial, Mental Health
  • Welcome to the Nightmare, Safety Creates its Own Minefield (as usual)
  • The Visionary Imagination – Louisa Lawson
  • Heaven ‘n Hell and the Safety Religion
  • Confirmity in Conformity
  • Numerology and Psychic Numbing
  • Thinking of Mortality
  • Safety is the Wrong Anchor
  • Foresight Blindness, Hindsight Bias and Risk
  • Getting the Balance Right in Tackling Risk
  • What is SPoR?
  • How Bias Inhibits Learning in Safety
  • Afraid to Let Go of What Doesn’t Work in Safety
  • When You Don’t Know What to do in Safety, Have Another Blitz!!!
  • Gloves and Glasses Compliance
  • A Case of Desensitisation – What Would You Do?
  • How to Leave the Safety Industry
  • The Mythic Symbology of Safety
  • Dark Waters, The True Story of DuPont and Zero
  • 400,000 Free Downloads
  • Am I stupid? I didn’t think of that…
  • Don’t Look Now Safety, Your Metaphor is Showing
  • Ratio Delusions and Heinrich’s Hoax
  • To Err is Human, You Better Believe It
  • Culture as a Wicked Problem, for Safety
  • Safety Leadership Training
  • Cultural Orientation in Risk
  • The Stanford Experiment and The Social Psychology of Risk
  • Objectivity, Audits and Attribution When Calculating Risk
  • Records of safety activities: evidence of safety or non-compliance?
  • Zero, The Seeking of Infinity
  • Safety Leadership Essentials
  • What Can Indiana Jones Tell Us About Culture
  • Safety as a Worldview
  • The Loathing of Limits
  • Culture Cannot be Framed Through Safety

VIRAL POST!!! HOW TO QUIT THE SAFETY INDUSTRY

FEATURED POSTS

The Advisor as Skilled Helper

Due Diligence Workshop Sydney 20,21 February 2019

Online Inductions and Safety Effectiveness

Rituals in Risk Management – Podcast

The Lexicon of Safety Gibberish

Sayings, Slogans, Aphorisms and the Discourse of Simple

3 Things I learned about Safety from Buddhism

Just Hangin’ Out…

Don’t Make Safety a Habit

Military Metaphors in Safety

The Risk Aversion Delusion

What Does Misinformation Do in Safety?

Is Risk and Safety Perfectionism a Disorder?

Essential Preparation for a Safety Job

Incident Investigations and the Einstellung Effect

The Psychology of Conversion – 20 Tips to get Started

Courage to Challenge the Great TRIFR and LTIFR Delusion

The Tyranny of Metrics

What is the Mind of Safety?

Envisioning and Creativity in Safety

Selling Out Safety

The Paradox of Positivism for Safety

How Do We Know?

A Great Comparison of Risk and Safety Schools of Thought

Holistic Ergonomics

I DON’T KNOW

Zero as Morally Wicked

The Challenge of Social Sensemaking in Risk

A Critique of Pure Reason

Human Dymensions Newsletter September 2016

What Are Observation-Conversation Skills?

The Sully Effect

Focus on ‘Meeting’ people, not legislation – a path to risk maturity

Free Safety and Risk Lunch n Learn

Tensions and Faultiness in Risk

WARNING: Not Your Typical Safety Nonsense

Zero ‘Arm

I’m Not Playing Any More

How Groupthink Works

Critical Thinking At Risk

More Posts from this Category

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address and join other discerning risk and safety people who receive notifications of new posts by email

Join 7,500 other subscribers

How we pay for the high cost of running of this site – try it for free on your site

WHAT IS PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY?

What is Psychological Safety at Work?


WHAT IS PSYCHOSOCIAL SAFETY