Assessment of a Healthcare Biotechnology Firm’s Safety, Health, & Environmental Department through an Organizational Development Lens
Journal Title: International Journal of Interdisciplinary and Multidisciplinary Studies (IJIMS) - Year 2017, Vol 4, Issue 3
Abstract
There have been several articles printed in the peer-reviewed literature regarding the use of organizational development methods or combination of organizational development and applied behavioral sciences methods in organizational safety. However, there is a gap in the literature of case study assessments and evaluations of organizational safety and environmental health departments. There are numerous reasons given by researchers, subject matter expert practitioners, and authors for effective or ineffective occupational safety and health programs. We posit that organizational occupational safety programs, including safety culture programs, cannot be maximally effective if the Safety, Health, and Environment (SHE) departments in the larger organizations are not effective themselves. As such, this paper discusses a case study during which an organizational assessment was performed via action research on an SHE department in a large biotechnology manufacturing and research firm. The results exhibit organizational flaws and failures identified during an organizational design and effectiveness assessment using established organizational development tools and methods, and makes recommendations for interventions. It is evident in the assessment results that SHE departments suffer identical organizational problems as other organizations, thus themselves affecting organizational effectiveness in general. The lessons learned from this assessment, including the tools used for assessment, can be used by other SHE departments and by I/O Psychologists or Organizational Development professionals to perform similar organizational assessments and interventions.
Authors and Affiliations
Anton Shufutinsky
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