Journal of Safety Research 70 (2019) 19–23

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Journal of Safety Research

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jsr

Communication in the workplace: Defining the conversations

of supervisors
Sharon Newnam, a,⁎ Natassia Goode b,c
a
Monash University Accident Research Centre, Monash Injury Research Institute, Building 70, Monash University, VIC 3800, Australia
b
Centre for Human Factors and Sociotechnical systems, University of the Sunshine Coast, Locked Bag 4, Maroochydore DC, QLD 4558, Australia
c
WorkSafe Victoria, 1 Malop St Geelong VIC 3220, Australia.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Background: Communications plays a central role in promoting the health and wellbeing of workers. Although
Received 19 February 2018 much literature has shown the positive benefits of safety communication in the workplace, research has yet to
Received in revised form 31 March 2019 explore the nature of these communication practices within supervisor–worker relationships. This study over-
Accepted 16 April 2019
comes this gap in the literature through objectively monitoring communication within the daily working lives
Available online 03 May 2019
of work-group supervisors in one organization. Aims: The aims of the research were to: (a) categorize communi-
Keywords:
cation in the workplace into three categories, namely task-related communication, relationship-related commu-
Communication nication, and safety-related communication; and (b) explore the frequency of these dialogs. Method: We
Occupational health and safety periodically recorded brief snippets of ambient (acoustic) sounds in supervisors' workplace environment by
Health promotion using an Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR). The EAR was run on an Apple iPod, with an application
Safety culture downloaded for free on iTunes (i.e., iEAR). The EAR was programmed to record for 30 s every three minutes
Safety climate for eight working hours a day of a five-day working week. Results: A total of 12.38 h of acoustic sounds from
five workgroup supervisors was useable for coding. The results found examples of task-related (productivity, ef-
ficiency, workflow, and human resources) communication, as well as relationship-related (greetings, personal
life discussions, workplace relations), and safety-related communication. We also found that the majority of
the communication recorded was task-related communication compared with relationship-related and safety-
related communication. Practical applications: This research provides preliminary insights into communication
practices in the workplace and avenues for future research.
© 2019 National Safety Council and Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction Gerras, 2003; Neal & Griffin, 2006; Zohar, 2000). Research has largely
focused on the concept of a safety culture, defined as the value and pri-
Safety is a major concern for organizations due to the human and fi- ority given to safety (e.g., Hofmann et al., 2003; Neal & Griffin, 2006;
nancial costs associated with unsafe behavior and safety-related events. Zohar, 2000). However, for the past 40 years, the safety culture litera-
In Australia, 337 people died from a work-related traumatic injury in ture has largely been focused at a conceptual level, with debates focused
2009–2010 (SafeWork Australia, 2012c). In the same period, 127,620 on either the difference between the concepts of culture and climate or
serious claims were accepted for workers' compensation that involved the sub-dimensions of safety culture.
a serious injury or disease, representing an incident rate of 12.6 serious Although this research has advanced our understanding of culture,
claims per 1000 employees (SafeWork Australia, 2012a). Furthermore, limited research has explored the safety practices that constitute a
the total economic cost of work-related injury in the Australian econ- safety culture. One reason for this approach is that safety culture has pri-
omy was estimated to be $60.6 billion (SafeWork Australia, 2012b). marily been measured through self-report surveys. The problem with
These statistics highlight the social and economic significance of work- this is that surveys provide limited understanding of the practices un-
place safety. derlying the dimensions (e.g., management commitment, interpersonal
Much attention has been given to determining the organizational communication) that create a safety culture. Research is required to
factors influencing workplace safety (e.g., Hofmann, Morgeson, & overcome this limitation so that countermeasures can be designed to
target the practices that facilitate and support a safety culture.
⁎ Corresponding author at: Monash Injury Research Institute, Building 70, Monash
The first step in achieving this objective is to reflect on the findings of
University, VIC 3800, Australia. past research. Two findings of particularly interest are that: (a) manage-
E-mail address: [email protected] (S. Newnam). ment commitment has consistently been identified as a sub-dimension

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsr.2019.04.009
0022-4375/© 2019 National Safety Council and Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
20 S. Newnam, N. Goode / Journal of Safety Research 70 (2019) 19–23

of safety culture (Zohar, 1980); and (b) leadership styles that promote productivity and efficiency is more likely to be prioritized over commu-
the health and wellbeing of the workforce strengthen the relationship nication intended to support and promote a safe and healthy workforce;
between supervisory safety practices and workers' safety culture per- this is based on the understanding that economic incentive is a strong
ceptions (Hofmann et al., 2003; Neal & Griffin, 2006; Zohar & Luria, motivator of individual and organizational behavior (i.e., Belzer &
2004). At a conceptual level, this research suggests that the practices Sedo, 2017).
of supervisors play a key role in creating and encouraging a safety These challenges suggest that the nature of communication is likely
culture. to be different across organizations. In this study, we explored this issue
The communication practices of supervisors have received some at- through defining communication practices within supervisor–worker
tention in the academic literature (e.g., Cigularov, Chen, & Rosecrance, relationships. We hypothesize two types of communication in the
2010; Newnam, Lewis, & Watson, 2012; Zohar, 2002; Zohar & workplace:
Polacheck, 2014). This literature has identified that supervisors play a Task-related communication describes dialog related to the produc-
key role in conveying the importance of safe working practices through tivity and efficiency elements of the work-role task.
encouraging participation in safety management and ensuring vigilance Safety-related communication describes interactions related to artic-
and motivation among team members. Research has identified that ulating compliance activities that need to be carried out by individuals
modifying the verbal exchanges between supervisors and their em- to maintain workplace safety (e.g., technical aspects of safety, linked
ployees through increasing the frequency and prioritization of safety- to OHS policies and procedures).
related messages over productivity positively influences the groups' There is also likely to be a third type of communication practice.
safety culture perceptions and safety behavior (Zohar, 2002; Zohar & Research has clearly identified a division of behaviors directly related
Polacheck, 2014). Indeed, intervention such as the Behavior-Based to safe working practices (i.e., safety compliance) and those behaviors
Safety approach (BBS; Geller, 2001, 2005) that identifies communica- that support the overall safety of the organization (i.e., safety participa-
tion as one element of intervention, acknowledges that positive and tion; Griffin & Neal, 2000). This research was also aligned with SET in so
constructive communication plays a key role in promoting a safe and far as there are likely to be communication practices that support the
healthy workplace. broader social environment as well as maintenance of the overall safety
Communication practices can have a significant impact on the qual- system, as opposed to those that are prescribed as part of the work-role
ity of relationships developed within the workplace. An understanding task (safety-compliance communication). Thus, the third type of com-
of this issue can be gained through Social Exchange Theory (SET). SET munication practice can be defined as:
describes the interactions between individuals and the development Relationship-related communication describes dialog that defines the
of relationships (Blau, 1964) and has been used to explore the relation- social environment of the workplace and reflects sincere concern for
ships that develop between individuals and the larger organization worker health and wellbeing.
(Eisenberger, Fasolo, & Davis-LaMastro, 1990), The social environment
in the workplace reflects the atmosphere of social interaction and is ob-
1.1. Research questions
served in the behavior of workers and the quality of socialization be-
tween team members. According to Blau (1964), the satisfaction
The objective of this research was to explore interpersonal commu-
experienced when individuals perceive fair returns for their expendi-
nication in the workplace, with the aims to: (a) identify examples of
tures is reflected in a quality social exchange. An example of a fair return
task-related communication, relationship-related communication, and
is positive or constructive feedback communicated by workgroup su-
safety-related communication in the workplace; and (b) explore the
pervisors to workgroup members (e.g., Geller, 2005; Hofmann &
frequency of task-related compared with relationship-related and
Morgeson, 1999; Hofmann et al., 2003; Newnam et al., 2012; Zohar &
safety-related communication in one organization.
Luria, 2004).
The nature or features of communication practices between
supervisors and workers can be largely dependent on the workplace en- 2. Method
vironment. There are unique challenges in enacting particular commu-
nication practices in the workplace. The first challenge relates to the Participants: Recruitment for this study was sought through a sci-
workplace context. A distinctive characteristic of many organizations ence and technology company in a state in Australia. A recruitment let-
is in their workplace structure; in particular, the level of visibility be- ter was distributed by the leader of the OHS department to 12
tween supervisors and their workers. The level of visibility refers to supervisors within the organization. Following this process, six work-
the extent to which the layout of the workplace enables a supervisor group supervisors (two males and four females) agreed to participate
to directly observe worker performance (Luria, Zohar, & Erev, 2008). in the study; however, data from one supervisor were subsequently de-
Research has shown that level of visibility has a significant impact on leted from the final analysis. Workgroup supervisors were defined as
safety-related behavior (Luria et al., 2008; Newnam et al., 2012; those who monitor and regulate workers in their performance of
Newnam & Oxley, 2016). This impact is best represented in high-risk in- assigned tasks. These supervisors were responsible for overseeing lab-
dustries, such as the transportation industry where the driving task is based experiments and the development of products and services for
conducted independently of management supervision (Newnam et al., their key stakeholders. There was an average of four employees within
2012). In such workplaces, it is difficult for supervisors to objectively each supervisory workgroup.
communicate information on workers' safety-related performance. Measures: In this project, we periodically recorded brief snippets of
Thus, communication is more likely to focus on task-related perfor- ambient (acoustic) sounds in the supervisors' workplace environment
mance, given it is measured against tangible indicators, such as comple- by using an Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR; Mehl, Pennebaker,
tion rates. Crow, Dabbs, & Price, 2001). The EAR was run on an Apple iPod, with
The second challenge relates to competing priorities. Conflict among an application downloaded for free on iTunes (i.e., iEAR). The supervi-
priorities is an intrinsic feature of organizations, and integrating contra- sors were asked to wear the device in a visible location, such as attached
dictory priorities has been acknowledged as a core function of leader- to their belt or on a lanyard around their neck. The EAR was pro-
ship (Barnard, 1968). Safety has often been identified as a source of grammed to record for 30 s every three minutes for eight working
conflict with demands for profitability (i.e., efficiency). One reason for hours a day of a five-day work week. A total of 17.88 h of acoustic
this is that profitability and safety are both essential priorities but sounds was originally recorded. However, one supervisor requested
often make competing demands upon limited resources (Rasmussen, that the research team delete her data due to the confidential nature
1997). In practice, this means that communication related to of the recordings; thus a total of 12.38 h of recordings were coded.
 S. Newnam, N. Goode / Journal of Safety Research 70 (2019) 19–23 21

Procedure: On the first day, participants were thoroughly informed Table 2

about the EAR procedure. We undertook a number of processes to en- Definitions of communication.

sure privacy and confidentiality of the data. First, the data extracts Communication Category Definition of discussions
were short enough to capture only a small amount of contextualized type
personal information. Second, before the investigators accessed the Task Productivity Conduct of work-role tasks (e.g., setting up
data, all participants were given the opportunity to listen to their iEAR for a work experiment)
recordings and delete any parts they did not want on record (all record- Efficiency Physical surroundings that support the
conduct of work-role tasks (e.g., booking a
ings were retained following this process). Third, in the coding process,
room)
any personally identifying information was omitted from the tran- Workflow Factors that facilitate the operation of
scripts. Fourth, all employees in the workplace were notified of the re- work-tasks (e.g., time-tabling and work
search and the investigators encouraged the participants to wear the meetings)
device visibly and to readily mention the EAR in conversations with Human Administration of work-tasks (e.g., work-role
resources expectations and performance progress)
others; this process ensured the confidentiality of other workers' Relationship-related Greetings Acknowledgment of co-workers
utterances. Personal Life outside the work context (e.g., activities
Analysis: The snippets of ambient sounds were transcribed verbatim discussions on the weekend, children)
by a member of the research team. Following this, a trained research of- Workplace Landscape of the workplace culture (e.g., staff
relations politics)
ficer coded the acoustically detectable features of supervisors' moment-
Safety-related Workplace Safety in the conduct of work-role tasks (e.g.
to-moment behaviors, social environments, and conversations. This safety wearing safety goggles)
coding was conducted using thematic analysis (Miles & Huberman,
1994). We used open coding, whereby the conversations were
reviewed and fragments of dialog were identified based on fit within communication. Examples of all three types of communication were
each of the communication categories. That is, dialog related to produc- identified. Table 2 presents a definition of the different communications
tivity and efficiency elements of the work-role task were coded as task- identified in this study, and Table 3 presents example quotes for each
related communication; dialog related to the core safety activities that category of communication.
need to be carried out by individuals to maintain workplace safety The second aim of this project was to assess the frequency of task
were coded as safety-related communication and; dialog that reflected communication compared with relationship and safety-related com-
upon the social context of the workplace were coded as relationship-re- munication. Table 4 presents an overview of the frequency of the utter-
lated communication. ances based on communication type and category. The results show that
Categorization of the data were facilitated through a process of con- the majority of communication were task-related (58%). In comparison,
stant comparison whereby themes within each communication cate- relationship-related communication was identified in 10% of the utter-
gory were closely scrutinized for similarities and differences with ances and safety-related communication in only 2.9% of the conversa-
themes in the other categories. For example, four themes were identi- tions (i.e., 29.3% of utterances included 3rd party conversation and/or
fied as mutually exclusive within the category of task communication no speech was recorded).
(i.e., productivity, efficiency, workflow, and human resources). The Productivity communication (28.6%) was the most frequently
final list of themes within each category were verified by a second ana- recorded type of task communication, and this was followed by
lyst with any differences (b 10%) in themes reached through consensus.

3. Results Table 3
Examples of communication.
3.1. Descriptive data
Communication Category Quotes
type
Table 1 presents an overview of the data collected. The total number
Task Productivity “you can probably even put them [vials] with
of files recorded over the data-collection period was 660. The partici- those, or you can put them with the
pants were encouraged to wear the device as much as possible. How- contaminated waste, yeah.”
ever, they were advised that they could turn off the device if they “now we've got two serum free medias, so it will
perceived the situation was not suitable to be recorded (i.e., confidential be interesting to see whether four of them are
dead ducks”
meetings). As a result, the percentage of all files recorded ranged from
Efficiency “So Tuesday next week, ummm, 1:30, if we
17% to 100%. From the files recorded, the number of files containing could have a room somewhere”
voice ranged from 19% to 74%. These data were used to address the ob- “... because that's, it's much easier for me to do
jectives of this study. that [picking up a work vehicle.”
Workflow “…I've discussed it with you and we'll come to a
mutually agreeable time, ok?”
3.2. Analysis “…make sure she takes the time to explain, on
the board, exactly what she's testing.”
The first objective of this study was to identify communication in the Human “I still haven't got a approval for a new staff
workplace and classify them into three categories, namely task commu- resources member, so she still hasn't started.”
“It's a lot easier to get into those levels and
nication, relationship-related communication, and safety-related
positions”
Relationship-related Greetings “Hi guys!”
Table 1 “G'day”
Number and percentage of files recorded. Personal “That's alright, ‘cos I hate [name of AFL team], I
discussions don't mind [name of AFL team] but I hate [name
Number of % of ALL files Number of files % of voice files
of AFL team]. And I hate [name of AFL player], I
files recorded recorded* containing voice recorded
can't stand him, he's real slime.”
Supervisor1 274 42% 89 32% Workplace “Oh, I get angry at that [job positions]. It's not
Supervisor2 137 21% 102 74% relations fair, it's not right.”
Supervisor3 660 100% 267 40% “Does [colleague] go to congresses overseas?”
Supervisor4 112 17% 21 19% Safety-related Workplace “Here's your safety glasses, lab coat,”
Supervisor5 303 46% 140 46% safety “We need to bring a few safety glasses to her”
22 S. Newnam, N. Goode / Journal of Safety Research 70 (2019) 19–23

Table 4 safety management as effective in encouraging safety behavior, and

Frequency and percentage of recording based on communication type and category. promoting a safe and healthy workplace (Newnam et al., 2012; Zohar,
Communication type Category Frequency Percentage 2002; Zohar & Polacheck, 2014).
Task Productivity 177 28.6%
These results offer recommendations for future research to explore
Efficiency 10 1.6% workers' perceptions of safety leadership styles and the incentive to en-
Workflow 148 23.9% gage in safe working practices. Although “reactive” approaches to safety
Human resources 28 4.5% management, such as learning from safety incidents (e.g., rewarding
TOTAL 363 58.7%
safe working behavior; Griffin & Talati, 2019) and reinforcing corrective
Relationship-related Greetings 16 2.6%
Personal discussions 34 5.5% actions is considered an effective form of safety leadership, safety lead-
Workplace relations 13 2.1 ership is likely to be optimized if there are also a focus on practices, such
TOTAL 63 10.2% as safety-related communication, that promote a culture where health
Safety-related Workplace safety 18 2.9% and wellbeing of the workforce is at the forefront of safety efforts.
TOTAL 18 2.9%
TOTAL 444 71.8%*
Such efforts have been advocated within BBS approaches (see Geller,
2000). In the absence of more “proactive” safety leadership styles, it is
* 29.3% of utterances included 3rd party conversation and/or no speech.
likely that employees perceive a workplace environment that promotes
efficiency through “getting the job done” as opposed to increasing pro-
conversations regarding workflow (23.9%). In the category of relation- ductivity through investing in employee health and wellbeing.
ship-related communication, the majority of the dialog related to “life
outside the workplace’” (i.e., personal discussions, 5.5%). Only a small 4.1. Recommendations
percentage of recordings were identified as safety-based communica-
tion (2.9%). The unique contribution of this research was that relationship-re-
lated communication was identified as a distinct form of communica-
4. Discussion tion, separate from communication regarding compliance with safety
policies and procedures and task-related practices. This finding provides
This research explored communication practices in the workplace preliminary support for the development of an OHS assessment tool
by defining the type and frequency of communications. This objective that goes beyond mandatory requirements guided by OHS laws and reg-
was achieved through periodically recording brief snippets of ambient ulations (e.g., communication regarding the appropriate use of safety
(acoustic) sounds in the workplace environment of supervisors, using equipment), and incorporates indicators focused on specific communi-
an iEAR. This research is unique in that communication relevant to cation practices. This recommendation would align with current gov-
safety has typically been assessed through self-report methods (e.g., ernment priorities (e.g., Australia) to develop a set of indicators that
Cigularov et al., 2010; Hofmann & Morgeson, 1999) which has limited can be used to benchmark within and across industry to actively im-
understanding of how the behaviors operate in practice. This informa- prove OHS.
tion is important as the results of this research can be used to encourage The findings of this study provide opportunities to further research
the adoption of a Behavior-Based Safety (BBS) approach to safety man- in workplace safety and communication. First, the EAR could be used
agement within the workplace. to evaluate if modifying particularly types of communication (i.e.,
The literature has well established that communication in the work- safety-related and relationship-related) leads to improvement in safety
place consists of dialog related to work-role tasks and safety compliance outcomes. This research could also explore if the frequency of trade-offs
(Geller, 1991; Newnam et al., 2012; Zohar, 2002; Zohar & Polacheck, of task-related communication over safety-related and relationship-re-
2014). However, this is the first study to define a third element of com- lated communication has a negative impact on safety behavior in the
munication that captures the broader social environment. That is, we workplace.
identified three different types of relationship-related communication,
including greetings, life outside work discussions, and discussions relat- 4.2. Limitations
ing to workplace relations. It is argued that relationship-related com-
munication represents an element of the social exchange within the Although this research presented a unique method for exploring in-
workplace and a potential avenue whereby managers can go beyond terpersonal communication in the workplace, certain limitations of the
safety and actively invest in the health and wellbeing of their workforce study need to be acknowledged. First, this research had a small sample
(Mearns, Hope, Ford, and Tetrick, 2010). Based on SET, this investment size. Due to the sensitive nature of this method, recruitment was chal-
could be enacted through establishing trust and respect within work- lenging. We found that senior-level management was unwilling to sup-
place relations, particularly within the leader-member exchange rela- port the recording of conversations in the workplace, supervisors were
tionship. In support of this argument, past research identified that uncomfortable with being recorded, or staff working in the same areas
employees are more likely to approach their supervisor about safety as supervisors were unwilling to (verbally) consent to the process.
risks in the workplace (e.g., fatigue) if there is a quality supervisor– Objectively monitoring communication in the workplace presents a
worker relationship (Hofmann et al., 2003). positive direction forward in advancing countermeasures in this field;
The data collected in this study also allowed us to objectively assess thus, future research should identify complementary approaches to re-
the frequency of task communication compared with relationship and cruitment using the iEAR. For example, one possible approach could be
safety-related communication. The results showed that more than 50% monitoring conversation at set times of the day. Future research could
of the utterances were task communication, while the combined also validate the communication of supervisors through examining
frequency of relationship and safety-related communication was workers perceptions of the meaning or objective of the communication.
identified in only 13% of the utterances recorded. Examples of task com- It should also be noted that there was some disparity in the number
munication included productivity, efficiency, workflow, and human re- of files containing voice recordings, with the number of recordings ob-
sources. Safety-based communication was the least communicated tained from supervisors ranging from 21 to 267. To illustrate this
dialog. These findings suggest that BBS training could be an effective issue, supervisor #3 represented 30% of the total number of files con-
strategy within the organization participating in this study. This training taining voice recordings. This means that the results identified in this
could focus on modifying the verbal exchanges of supervisors in the study may be biased by the communication practices of this supervisor.
workplace to increase safety-related communication in their exchanges A more homogenous number of recordings would be needed to ensure a
with their employees. Previous research has identified this approach to greater representation of communication practices.
 S. Newnam, N. Goode / Journal of Safety Research 70 (2019) 19–23 23

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