Fixing a Weak Safety Culture at General Motors

Running head: FIXING WEAK SAFETY CULTURE                                        1

Fixing a Weak Safety Culture at General Motors

FIXING WEAK SAFETY CULTURE                                                        2

Abstract

Fixing a weak safety culture at General Motors or any other large organization can be a daunting

task for any management team that embarks on that mission, but the lingering question remains;

Can GM encourage Employees to the right thing and become whistle blowers without fear of

retribution?  In early April, following the news of faulty ignition switches and recall of more than 6 million cars, GM CEO Mary Barra announced a “Speak Up for Safety” program. “GM must embrace a culture where safety and quality come first,” Barra said at a company town hall meeting. “GM employees should raise safety concerns quickly and forcefully, and be recognized for doing so.” (Since April, the number of vehicles the company has recalled for a variety of reasons has doubled.)

Keywords: Weak culture, Retribution, Safety

FIXING WEAK SAFETY CULTURE                                                        3

Fixing a Weak Safety Culture at General Motors

Historically the unwillingness to give safety the priority it deserves by having an organization wide structured reporting allowing early detection of technical failures and the ability to avoid major company expenses in the form of  lawsuits, grievances settlements and deaths, the automobile industry as well as many others keep a recurrent norm of not compliance.  Censoring the messenger is the most common and only option and every effort is geared towards not filtering problems to higher management. On Monday, GM CEO Mary Barra apologized for 12 deaths and 31 accidents linked to the delayed recall of 1.6 million small cars with a defect in the ignition switches, saying the company took too long to tell owners to bring the cars in for repairs. The switches could, if bumped or weighed down by a heavy key ring, cut off engine power and disable air bags.

The unprecedented apology from Mrs. Barra represented a major milestone towards building a strong and powerful culture of change addressing safety at all levels at GM.  It just makes you wonder that in an industry that sells machines that transport human beings at fast speeds, would give you the notion that employees would be more safety savvy or at least concerned but in reality a complacent culture is in full effect and resistant to change.  This in turn is no way a simple challenge for large organizations such as GM.