Strategic Leadership Research

Researchers from Dalhousie, Manitoba, Technion, Toronto, and Waterloo Universities will work with strategic leaders in Manitoba to help study what makes safety a sustainable organizational priority. The aim of this research is to acquire and share knowledge of the techniques to reduce workplace injury and illnesses. If contacted by the research team, please consider sharing your time to advance this goal.

Each year the WCB of Manitoba awards research grants under the Community Initiatives and Research Program (CIRP). One of this year’s new projects is this joint research. Like all university research projects, your participation in voluntary. We do encourage those contacted to participate, as the researchers have a strong track record of maintaining confidentiality and providing insightful advice.

Previous research has shown that the safety performance of companies can be significantly related to the safety orientation of the leaders in that company. This project is focused on the strategic leaders, and how their commitment to workplace safety can be fostered in their organization. This research project has an overall goal of improving the understanding of the facilitators and inhibitors of management commitment to workplace safety. 

To learn more about the CIRP and this project, please review the CIRP's 2007 annual report.

Confidentiality

The WCB has provided contact information for 1,450 firms to the research team. From this group, 90 to 150 firms may be contacted through a sampling process established by the researchers. The WCB has no role in selecting who will be approached for this project. This is done at the discretion of the research team, and is done in confidence from the WCB. The WCB has no way of knowing whether or not you have been approached, nor whether you choose to participate. Only one WCB employee had access to the list of firms provided to the researchers. This was necessary to secure the information from our files.

What you will be asked to do: 

Initially, 40 strategic leaders from the roster of 1,450 candidate firms will be selected to conduct interviews in person or by phone. Participation is voluntary and you may withdraw from the project at any time. These interviews will assist the researchers to construct a Strategic Leadership Survey (SLS) which seeks to measure management’s commitment to safety in the workplace.

Upon completion of the survey development phase, approximately an additional 50 firms will be surveyed by the researchers. Up to 150 strategic leaders (CEOs and their direct reports, e.g., Chief Operating Officers, Human Resource Directors, and Chief Financial Officers) will be asked to complete two web-based research surveys:

1.  the newly created Strategic Leadership Survey (SLS) and

2.  a pre-existing, well established Safety Climate Survey (SCS).

Additionally, the researchers would ask participating senior leaders to consider allowing the research team to administer the Safety Climate Survey (SCS) to all of their employees. This survey would be conducted by a research team member at the workplace, and would require the organizational and navigational support of each firm’s Joint Occupational Health & Safety Committee (JOHS). Only firms that volunteer to have their employees surveyed and can ensure and enable a confidential survey administration setting will be chosen to participate. 

If you and your firm choose to participate, you will receive reports of the results. Every measure possible will be taken to ensure your anonymity, confidentiality, and security of the data. To protect the confidentiality of the firms and individuals that participated in the survey, a copy of the comprehensive report will be made available through the WCB website in 2009. Additionally, to explore the preliminary findings and protect the confidentiality of those who participated, a University of Manitoba workshop on safety climate and the role of strategic leaders will be held in September 2008. The results of the study will be placed on the WCB website for downloading and briefings offered to the joint occupational health and safety committee of firms participating in the safety climate survey - approximately five firms.

Manitoba WCB registrants will be invited to the University of Manitoba workshop. At that time the preliminary results of the project will be shared and participants invited to explore if and how this information might assist firms in advancing injury and illness prevention. No personal or firm level identifiers will be released either during the workshop or in the report. If you are invited to participate, you can expect communication from the research team to ensure that you have received this information and answer any of your questions as they explore your interest in participating in this research.

For more information, please feel free to contact the researchers directly: 

Gordon Tate, Research Coordinator, (204) 480-8535                

Additionally, should you have any questions, you can contact the following ethics offices:

University of Toronto

Jill Parsons, Research Ethics Officer, Health Sciences

jc.parsons@utoronto.ca

(416) 946-5806

Dalhousie University

Pat Lindsay

Patrica.Lindley@dal.ca

(902) 494-1462