Group Report Topic

Your group has been hired as a team of consultants to provide some theoretically sound and practical advice to the Chief Executive Officer of Plum Smallgoods. Founded in 1920, the Plum family of farmers and butchers had a dream to provide the Australian public with the finest quality meat, cured using traditional Italian recipes. In 2020, the Plums are a major supplier of smallgoods to the Australian market. The product range spans across traditional Italian salami, ham, bacon and smallgoods. The family-owned company has state-of-the-art facilities located in Bundoora, Victoria and employs over 250 workers. The company has a very flat organisational structure – the CEO reports to a Board of Directors (made up of members of the Plum family). Each department has a manager, with the production department having supervisors who directly manage the production line workers.

In a recent independent health and safety investigation, the auditor found ‘multiple instances of lax safety practices by front line workers’ and ‘a poor attitude towards safety amongst front line staff, supervisors and middle management’. However, the auditor commended senior management on their general commitment to the safety of workers, but found ‘this has not translated into safe working practices on the factory floor’. The auditor cited several examples of dangerous practices he witnessed on the production line, including workers reaching into meat mincers to remove blockages whilst the mincer was operating; poor manual handling practices; workers not wearing their personal protective equipment; dangerous use of forklifts; equipment such as knives not being put away properly; and safety barriers on machines being removed to speed up the production process.

In his recommendations, the auditor suggested that Plum Smallgoods ‘work towards developing a culture of safety within the organisation’.

John Plum, the CEO, is concerned about his workers’ safety. In a private meeting, he commented “It’s just a matter of time before someone is seriously injured or dies on the factory floor. What can I do? We have good procedures. We have spent a lot of money on making sure the factory is safe. But, I can’t make the supervisors and employees follow our safety procedures…..I can’t watch them all the time”.

John has hired your group to come up with five recommendations as to how he can create a ‘safety culture’ within Plum Smallgoods. He has asked for a comprehensive Report that he can give to the Board of Directors. The Report should:

1. Briefly outline the legal responsibilities that employers have to ensure a safe workplace
2. Define the term ‘safety culture’ (drawing on appropriate academic literature)
3. Explain how a safety culture can improve safety behaviours of employees (drawing on appropriate academic literature)
4. Identify five recommendations that Plum Smallgoods should implement to improve the safety culture within the organisation. These recommendations may incorporate multiple HRM functions, including performance management, rewards, training and development, recruitment and job

design. For each recommendation, a clear explanation about how this will lead to improved safety behaviours should be provided.

Group Report Submission Requirements

All reference material must be appropriately cited in the text of your Report. Include a separate reference section that includes the full citation information. Follow the style guidelines for the Academy of Management Journal. Note that Wikipedia and similar websites are NOT acceptable sources for this assignment.

Your Report must be typed and have standard margins on all sides. Double-spacing is preferred.

It is essential that your Report be written in a neat, professional, and engaging manner. Check your writing for accuracy in spelling, grammar and punctuation. Convey your ideas in a clear, concise manner, and use appropriate transitions between ideas and sections. La Trobe University has many resources to help you develop your writing skills. Please see your Tutor if you need help.

Please remember that the University takes a very serious view with regard to plagiarism, and you are strongly advised to read the University’s policies on academic integrity at the following website: http://www.latrobe.edu.au/students/academic-integrity. Please be aware that plagiarism is a form of serious academic misconduct and will be penalised accordingly. Plagiarism detection and prevention software (i.e., Turnitin) is used to aid in identifying possible incidences of plagiarism in written assignments (see http://www.latrobe.edu.au/students/it/teaching/turnitin).

Reports are due by 5pm on the due date. Extensions will only be given in documented cases of severe illness or emergency, and will be managed through the University Special Consideration process. Such applications must be accompanied by documentation (i.e., doctor’s certificate). Special Considerations should be submitted no more than three days before and no more than three days after the due date. Please refer to the Subject Learning Guide, your Tutor or the Subject Coordinator if you require further information.

The assignment is to be submitted by one group member via the Assignment submission link in the LMS. To ensure that all group members receive a mark for the assignment, you must include the names and student codes of each group member on the cover page of your assignment. The assignment will be entered into Turnitin automatically when submitted. You can submit the assignment as many times as you like prior to the submission date/time. However, please note that the second and subsequent times you submit the assignment, the originality report from Turnitin will take up to 24 hours to be released.

Group Report Structure & Expectations

The following information is provided to assist your group with the writing and production of Assessment 2, the Group Report on case study Plum Smallgoods. For specific information about the actual Assessment 2 requirements, please refer to the Subject Learning Guide and the relevant tabs under Assessments on the LMS.

1 Use the following report structure

• Title page
• Executive Summary (no more than 300 words)
• Table of Contents
• List of Figures (if required)
• Introduction to the Report [outlining the legal responsibilities that employers have to ensure a safe workplace]
• Findings and discussion [defining key concepts such as safety culture or climate; summarising the main findings in the literature about how to improve safety outcomes in organisations, drawing on appropriate academic studies and Government reports]
• Recommendations [and justification for each recommendation]
• Conclusion
• Appendices [if required]
• References

There are many different resources available to help you with how to structure your Report. Use the LTU services available by searching on the La Trobe website, ask the Library, search online, or ask your tutor if they have a structure to recommend.

2.  What are the expectations?

In completing this Report, you must support your arguments and recommendations with relevant academic literature, including reference to a minimum of twelve academic, peer-reviewed journal articles.

All reference material must be appropriately cited in the text of your Report. The Report should represent your understanding of the literature – so, please ensure that you write the Report in your own words, and acknowledge the source of the information and evidence you are presenting. Direct quotes should be kept to an absolute minimum.

Follow the style guidelines for the Academy of Management Journal.

Note that Wikipedia and similar websites are NOT acceptable sources for this assignment - only scientific studies (reported in academic journal articles), commentaries by eminent academics or Government Reports.

It is essential that your Report is written in a neat, professional, and engaging manner. Check your writing for accuracy in spelling, grammar and punctuation. Convey your ideas in a clear, concise manner, and use appropriate transitions between ideas and sections. La Trobe University has many resources to help you develop your writing skills. Please see your tutor if you need help.

3.  A step-by-step guide to meeting these expectations

Regardless of whether you are studying Human Resource Management, Tourism, Sport Management, Marketing, Events, or any other Business degree, you will need to be accountable for your decision- making in your professional life. The easiest way of ensuring you can justify your actions is through evidence-based decision-making.

The Report is an introduction to using evidence to justify a position or decision. John Plum will decide whether to implement your recommendations based on the information you provide to him and his Directors. In order to be accountable for your decision-making you will need to look at the evidence from the literature and use it to justify your recommendations. You have to persuade him that your recommendations will improve safety outcomes in his factory.

Step 1: Develop a general understanding of the key literature on creating a safe working environment The first thing you need to do is to identify and find the literature on improving safety outcomes in organisations. So, you might want to start by looking at Health and Safety legislation, to examine the responsibilities of employers and employees. You might then move on to research studies that examine how to build a safety culture/climate - find studies that show that by building a safety culture/climate, we can improve safety outcomes. Then look to see how these safety cultures/climates were built and sustained. Use this literature and get ideas that we know work.

You need to read and analyse the literature and synthesize the information.

Step 2: Think about the specifics of the Plum Smallgoods factory

There are some specific problems the company has - it seems that workers and supervisors are not adhering to safety policies, but senior management is very committed to safety in the workplace. So, this is something that you need to address.

Step 3: Generate your recommendations

Don't forget to justify your recommendations to John Plum. You have to persuade him that your recommendations will work - and you will do this by citing evidence that your recommendations have worked elsewhere.

Think about how you can use HRM functions to support safety outcomes - things like training, rewards, performance management and so on.

4.  Suggested literature for safety culture/safety climate

Clarke, S. (1999) ‘Perceptions of organizational safety: Implications for the development of safety culture’. Journal of Organizational Behaviour, 20(2): 185.

Cox, S. and Flin, R. (1998) ‘Safety culture: Philosopher’s stone or man of straw?’ Work and Stress, 12(3): 189-201.

Dollard, M., Bailey, T., McLinton, S., Richards, P., McTernan, W., Taylor, A. and Bond, S. (2012) ‘The Australian Workplace barometer: Report on psychosocial safety climate and worker health in Australia’. Report for Safe Work Australia,

http://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/sites/swa/about/Publications/Documents/748/The-Australian- Workplace-Barometer-report.pdf.

Saksvik, P.O. and Quinlan, M. (2003) ‘Regulating systematic occupational health and safety management: Comparing the Norwegian and Australian experience’. Relations Industrielles, 58(1): 33-59.

Zohar, D. (1980) ‘Safety climate in industrial organisations: theoretical and applied implications’. Journal of Applied Psychology, 65(1): 96-102.

http://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/