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6 Emp. Resp. & Rts. J. 1 (1993)

handle is hein.journals/emprrj6 and id is 1 raw text is: Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal, Vol. 6, No. 1, 1993 Safety Issues Beyond the Workplace: Estimated Relationships Between Work Injuries and Available Supervision Foster C. Rinefort' and David D. Van Fleet2 This study reports the results of an investigation of the relation between one measure of the performance of firms, work injuries, and the number of first level supervisors for 140 chemical, paper, and wood product manufacturing firms. Additional numbers of supervisors were found to be associated with lower work injuries in most cases, and the cost of such additional supervision was found to be partially justified in terms of the reduced costs of work injuries, although there was considerable variation across industry. KEY WORDS: safety; work injuries; span of control; downsizing; supervision. INTRODUCTION In the literature on personnel and human resources, safety is frequently dealt with as a workplace level phenomenon involving the design of equipment, the de- sign of jobs, attitudes, awareness, and the like (see, for example, Duhon, Knouse, Reber, & Wallin, 1989, and Kelly, 1983). Safety is also occasionally dealt with at an organizational level involving the presence or absence of unions, type of industry, and so on (see, for example, Kochan, 1982, and Taylor, 1986). Between these two lies yet another level of analysis for safety issues, which involves organizational ar- rangements just above the workplace level-namely, that of available supervision. A great deal of attention is being paid to decreasing the numbers of levels in organizations as a tactic for reducing overall costs and, hence, becoming more competitive. Such level reductions involve increases in the span of management. And, while increasing the span and decreasing levels of organization may lead to decreases in administrative costs (burden or overhead), one question that has not been asked is, what impact such changes, which reduce the amount of supervision, 'Eastern Illinois University, Charleston, Illinois 61920. 2Business Programs, Arizona State University West, Phoenix, Arizona 85069-7100. 1 0892-7545/93/0300-0001$07.00/0 © 1993 Plenum Publishing Corporation

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