HOW A SAFETY CULTURE Will IMPROVE EMPLOYEE SAFETY BEHAVIOR

When it comes to human resource management, culture is a critical topic. The first thing to consider about religion is that it encompasses all of the events that occur in the context of a mission. Most humans are influenced by culture; there is no place where life could live without religion. Managers must understand all aspects of their employees’ cultures in order to ensure that activities run smoothly in an organization. On the other hand, behaviors related to how individuals view problems in society. Different people have different practices when it comes to particular subjects, which makes sense. A manager needs to have it in mind that once he/she assumes that office is obliged to deal with different characters and behaviours (Beirne, 2013 pg. 125).

So, in what ways can employees be diverse? Well, there are many sources of diversity, as shown in this figure.

Perhaps the two which gain most attention in the Australian context are age and gender. As we know, Australia has an ageing population. There is a great concern in Government about the impact of an ageing population will have on the workforce in Australia over the next ten years. After the Second World War, there was a baby boom.

A Baby Boomer is a somebody born amid 1946 and 1964 in Australia, United Kingdom, Canada and the United States. After WW II, these countries experienced a spike in birth rates, known as the baby boom.

In Australia, 1950s migration brought many Boomers and significantly impacted demographics and political thinking. In 2006 there were 5.3 million Boomers in Australia (26% of the population). Boomers were in their formative years (teens and early twenties) in the 60s and 70s which made them radical thinkers, consumers and travellers. Baby Boomer’s spending habits and lifestyles, therefore, have a powerful influence on the economy. Over the next 16 years, this considerable generation will all sail past 60 and ease out of the workforce potentially leaving a very significant labor and management void in Australian companies. Therefore, the Australian Government is attempting to encourage baby boomers to keep working past the traditional retirement age. Another significant source of diversity is gender. Over the past period, Australia has made several improvements in female workforce participation, with the rate rising by just over 4%, primarily due to older women re-joining the workforce. However, there is still considerable room for improvement.

Other sources of diversity include race and ethnicity, religious diversity, sexual orientation, the socio-economic background of workers and capabilities and disabilities. We will discuss these implications of such diversity later (Hougaz, 2015 pg. 100).

The way of dressing also is another area that needs closer observation in the Austrian culture. Some people are reserved in that they put on decently while others don’t care. In an excellent organisation, it is the work of the manager to ensure that the type of dressing recommended by the company is observed. Putting on of certain clothes should be discouraged at all cost and workers need to respect the code of dressing (Li, Xu, Tu, and Lu, 2014, pg. 140).

Men continue to dominate the majority of Australia’s top management spots conferring to new Gender Pointer statistics unconfined currently by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). It embraces senior positions of non-public sector employers, the judiciary, federal and state politicians and directors in the Australian Public Service.

Gender Displays, Australia, carries together a variety of ABS and non-ABS data and explores the differences between men and women in our society, and how these differences are changing over time.

“In 2013-14, just 26 percent of Key Management Personnel, 24 percent of Board Directors and 17 percent of CEOs were women,” said Lisa Conolly from the ABS. “Latest data also shows 35 percent of Commonwealth justices and judges and 23 percent of all State Ultimate Court of law and Court of Appeal judges were women.

The AWAs worked like this: An employer who was a corporation as defined by the constitution could negotiate directly with an employee on terms and conditions (not breaching the minimum standards of the safety-net). Once agreed, these agreements would be registered with the Office of the Employment Advocate. These transactions could not be recorded if they failed the no-disadvantage test – the Office of the Employment Advocate would compare the AWA to the relevant award and had to be satisfied that the proposed agreement did not disadvantage the employee.

The introduction of individual agreements saw a decreased role of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission, and Unions more generally. Employers enjoyed the ability to negotiate with workers, which increased flexibility and managerial prerogatives.

The Act strengthened the Freedom of Association provisions, allowing employees to be able to join, or not join a union.

Finally, the Howard Government narrowed the scope of awards to include only 20 core employment conditions.

The safety net is a set of minimum employment standards to protect employees from exploitation in the labour market. The safety net provided by awards was deeply compromised during the years of the Howard Government. It could be argued that the Howard Governments challenge to the traditional safety net in Australia was ultimately one of the main reasons the it lost office in the 2007 federal election.

Reference list

Beirne, M., 2013. Interpretations of management and modernization at the UK Royal Mail: shifting boundaries and patterns of resistance?. New Technology, Work and Employment, 28(2), pp.116-129.

Hougaz, L., 2015. The Families in the Case Studies and Their Business. In Entrepreneurs in Family Business Dynasties (pp. 73-140). Springer International Publishing.

Li, Y., Xu, J., Tu, Y. and Lu, X., 2014. Ethical leadership and subordinates’ occupational well-being: A multi-level examination in China. Social Indicators Research, 116(3), pp.823-842.