csa shared leadership

10/12/21

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Using shared leadership to enhance workforce health and

safetyNatalie Schwatka, PhD

Assistant Professor, Department of Environmental & Occupational healthDirector, Certificate in Total Worker Health

Member, Center for Health, Work & Environment

[email protected] @nvschwatka

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Home to:

• NIOSH Mountain and Plains Education and Research Center “MAP ERC”

• NIOSH Total Worker Health®

Center of Excellence

This presentation was supported by the following grants U19OH 011227 and K01OH011726, funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the Department of Health and Human Services.

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Take home messages

1. Enhance employee engagement in health and safety efforts by having a business strategy and culture that supports the business strategy in practice

2. Leadership development should be a key feature of a business's health and safety efforts

3. Who is being trained matters – consider developing the S&H leadership of many

4. Provide traditional leadership development PLUS execute leadership via shared/distributed leadership strategy

5. This method of leadership promises to benefit the S&H leads as well as the business


Working environment

Employee engagement dependent on the working environment

Business strategies

Leadership

Climate Behavior

INTERNAL motivation“I want to do it”

IDENTIFIED motivation“I do it b/c it’s good for

me”

EXTERNAL motivation“I have to do it”

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10/12/21

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We can use this information to categorize businesses into groups that represent different approaches to workforce health.

We can then determine which approaches are most associated with high employee engagement.

Using this information to identify organizational approaches to TWH


Combination of business strategies, leadership, and climate are all important indicators of the health and safety working environment and are associated with employee engagement

33% of businesses

Beginner

27% of businesses

Business strategy focused

31% of businesses

Business culture focused

9% of businesses

Business strategy & culture focused

Employee engagementWhich approach do you think is the most common?

Consider which approach your organization uses right now.

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33% of businesses

Beginner

27% of businesses


31% of businesses


9% of businesses


Employee engagement



33% of businesses

Beginner

27% of businesses


31% of businesses


9% of businesses


Employee engagement

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Successful businesses have a business

strategy in place as well as the leadership

commitment to support it and the climate that supports it use in day-

to-day practice

But leadership and climate are the factors that drive employee engagement.


• ~50% report senior executives are champions for health

• They understand health from the business perspective

• Employees are sometimes viewed as a barrier to program success

• They understand the value of leading by example

Leadership is important, but not always understood or practiced

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Leadership should be demonstrated at all levels

Senior management

Supervisor

Employees

Supervisor

Employees

Supervisor

Employees

Health and safety

Develop & manage S&H

Implement S&Hwith teams

Provide feedback on & utilize S&H policies and programs to support their co-workers

Sets the stage


• Mostly focused on mid-level mangers/supervisors

• No training, but on-goingfeedback on safetyCommunication

• 1 / 3 / 20 / 180 day trainings• Lecture• 360 feedback• On the job practice• Worker involvement

Observed outcomes:• Leader

• Safety attitudes• Self-efficacy• Intentions to promote safety• Leadership practices

• Worker• Safety communication• Safety climate

S&H Leadership development – What’s studied in the academic literature?

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S&H leadership development studies with Colorado employers

Senior management

Supervisor

Employees

Supervisor

Employees

Supervisor

Employees

Health and safetyFoundations for

Safety Leadership

Study

Small+Safe+WellStudy


• Leaders reported greater understanding and increased practice of safety leadership skills as well as safety practices at 2- & 4-weeks after the FSL training

• No change amongst control group

• No change in worker-reported outcomes

Safety leadership training for construction industry supervisorsFoundations for Safety Leadership Study

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Total Worker Health® Leadership Development Program for small business owners & other senior leadersSmall+Safe+Well Study

• Self-reported TWH leadership improves, but work-related stress increases

• Attending the training with someone else in their organization facilitated coordination of a shared vision for TWH in the organization

• No change in worker-reported outcomes


Integration of findings

• Businesses need and value leadership training

• Safety and health leadership topics resonate with both senior management and supervisors

• When trained – they self-report improved safety and health outcomes• Leaders enjoy working with others in their company during leadership

trainings

• Challenges• Training transfer to the job• Observing impact on worker-reported safety & health outcomes

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Opportunity for shared/distributed leadership for safety & health at work

to overcome challenges of demonstrating

consistent leadership for

S&H on the job

and ensure the effectiveness

of S&H policies and programs



33% of businesses

Beginner

27% of businesses


31% of businesses


9% of businesses


Employee engagement

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Vertical leadership• Hierarchy where some have

authority and influence over others

• Formal appointments to leadership roles

• Leadership research generally focuses the influence of a formal leader on a follower

Shared/distributed leadership• Influence is shared across

multiple team members

• Anyone can be a leader

• Actions of collective more important than the action of a single leader

Opportunity for shared/distributed leadership for health and safety at work


Shared/distributed leadership is a product of multiple team members working together to achieve a common goal/objective, not a style in and of itself.

Example styles• Transformational• Transactional• Authentic• Servant• Authoritative• Directive• Empowering• Etc.

Shared/distributed leadership

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• No one is automatically a leader, it must be negotiated with team members

• Cross-hierarchy negations of roles and jointly agreed framework for activities

• Develop expertise by working together

Shared/distributed leadership for health and safety at work

Senior management

Supervisor

Employees

Supervisor

Employees

Supervisor

Employees

Health and safety


• Solve complex problems

• Interdependence of job functions and policies/programs

• Find creative solutions

• In the middle of developing or executing projects

Most appropriate times to use a shared/distributed style of leadership

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Health and safety at work is an ideal activity for shared/distributed leadership

• A common task that teams can focus on, drawing upon their organization’s values

• Formal leaders should seek to utilize all expertise and willingness to influence health and safety

• Potentially effective method of achieving health and safety goals

• Leverages resources of others and social support to shoulder the burden and increase effectives


• Someone is formally responsible for health and safety

• Management buy-in – top management and supervisors

• Safety and health committees

• What else?

What does this look like now in workplace health and safety?

What are some of the ways your organization

already shares/distributes

leadership for H&S?

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• Safety/health climate

• Safety/health training

• Shared purpose for safety/health at work

• Supervisor and social support –relationships matter

• Voice in workplace health and safety issues

Conditions that set the stage for shared/distributed leadership


Conditions that set the stage for shared/distributed leadership – cont.

• Team members must be interested in being a leader and other team members must be supportive

• Team must be willing to rely on leadership from multiple people

• Power – must define limits of decision-making power and empower people to take initiative

• Formal leaders display high quality leadership themselves and are ok with sharing responsibility

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The role of shared/distributed leadership in safety & health program life cycle:

Who should be involved in leading each activity?

Set vision

Develop

Execute

Evaluate

Refine

Execute

Evaluate

Refine


How to develop shared/distributed leadership

1. Individual leadership development2. Execute leadership

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Formal leaders need to learn how to share influence while not feeling a loss of control

In-formal leaders need to learn how to be comfortable influencing

Step 1: Leadership development


Major content areas

• S&H business strategy

• S&H culture – the employee perspective

• Leader’s own S&H

• Consider training format that best fits your organization

• Teach to multiple styles of leadership, emotional intelligence, social/peer support all to encourage a cohesive environment

• Consider reward systems that incentivize shared/distributed leadership

Step 1: Leadership development – cont.

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• Team members have received leadership training

• Task now is to execute what has been learned while sharing responsibility for influencing S&H

Step 2: Execute leadership


Formal leader designs the team, sets the stage, secures resources, and sets a positive tone for the team

Set the vision

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• Develop and articulate a shared vision and mission for the team based on organization and individual values

• Negotiate responsibilities for influence – leadership network

• Allow for roles to evolve overtime

Form the team that will be responsible for executing S&H leadership


Examples of how to apply styles of leadership via a shared/distributed processShared leadership employs many styles

Examples from S&H at work

Directive leadership Team works together to assign responsibilities for upcoming safety audit

Transactional leadership

Establishing key performance metrics for safety program responsibilities and distributing rewards based on metrics

Transformational leadership

Create a shared strategic vision for safety program

Empowering leadership

Peer support and encouragement when encountering obstacles in safety program

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Team meetings

• Team meetings should focus on collaborations and check-ins about distribution of influence, not just about technical issues

• Leave formal roles at the door• Everyone is responsible for developing, communicating,

and articulating vision daily

• Learn how to disagree and how to come together to decide


Barriers

• Lack of interest in sharing leadership

• Do not see non-formal leaders as ‘leaders’

• Team members are allowed to demonstrate leadership, but not given authority

• External team coaching as a way to overcome barriers:• Supportive coaching for encouraging instances when team display

shared leadership, self-competence, team independence• May be important when the team lacks purpose, has low

participation, no social support

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For the S&H leads• Buy-in

• Professional development

• Reduced stressed

• Increased social support

For the business

• Buy-in

• Program relevance

• Program effectiveness

The promise of shared/distributed leadership for S&H at work


Take home messages

1. Enhance employee engagement in health and safety efforts by having a business strategy and culture that supports the business strategy in practice

2. Leadership development should be a key feature of a business's health and safety efforts

3. Who is being trained matters – consider developing the S&H leadership of many

4. Provide traditional leadership development PLUS execute leadership via shared/distributed leadership strategy

5. This method of leadership promises to benefit the S&H leads as well as the business

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Join me to contribute to knowledge about how to

share leadership for S&H!

Contact

Natalie Schwatka, PhD

[email protected]

303-724-4607


chwe.ucdenver.edu @CHWENews@CHWENews

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