PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE FOR SAFETY SUCCESS, PART 3 How to Inspire Self-Motivation & Empowerment

摘要

This third article of our three-part series introduces evidence-based techniques for motivating people to implement the safety-improvement processes explicated in the first two articles of this series: implementing effective behavior-improvement coaching and analyzing incidents proactively for leading indicators to prevent injuries. The safety success of these critical safety-success processes increases as a function of the number of employees engaged in accomplishing them. People are more likely to initiate and sustain focused contribution to a process when they are self-motivated and feel empowered. Self-motivation increases when people perceive a sufficient degree of choice, competence and community with regard to a particular safety-improvement procedure.People feel empowered to contribute to an injury-prevention intervention when they perceive self-efficacy ("I can do it"), response-efficacy ("It will work") and anticipate a beneficial outcome ("It's worth it"). Plus, behavioral goals are empowering when they are challenging but attainable, relevant to achieving a worthwhile mission and are expected to result in desirable consequences. While self-motivation, empowerment and goal setting precede the performance of relevant behavior, each of these human dynamics includes an expectation of a desirable consequence and therefore activates motivation to perform.