Abstract
This chapter aims to provide an integrated perspective on the relationship between employees' health and safety and sustainable leadership (SL) and on the measurement of company performance in terms of employees' health and safety, according to the international standard—the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Standards. This work consists of two parts. The first part reviews the extant literature on the intertwining of health and safety issues with other issues—and, in particular, with sustainable leadership. The chapter utilises the SL foundation practices of Avery and Bergsteiner's model to propose an original model that connects SL practices with policies and practices regarding workers' health and safety, according to a measurement system—The International GRI Standards. The second part focuses on a business case which has validated the proposed model. This work can thus serve as a corporate reporting suggestion of employee health and safety initiatives, examined in a broader view of SL and corporate social responsibility.
TopIntroduction
The COVID-19 pandemic, the worldwide disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus and identified as such by the World Health Organization, has underscored the importance of corporate practices promoting employees’ health and safety as well as the measurement of these practices within a holistic framework. The pandemic marked a turning point not only for the economy and social interaction but also for the internal organization of and working conditions within companies. This created a ‘before and after’ perspective towards occupational health and safety while also highlighting the need to review health and safety policies within the overall framework of corporate behavior.
The pandemic arose at a time of a decades-long trend of general improvement in employee working conditions, which was also encouraged by developments in the fields of technology and science and increasing cultural awareness (Kim et al., 2016).
However, the reduction of accidents and the general improvement of workers’ conditions are not equally distributed across all parts of the world. Furthermore, even in countries where physical health and safety conditions have improved, the psychological well-being of workers has sometimes worsened. This means that the focus on health and safety must be viewed in a broader perspective, which the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted.
Indeed, COVID-19 has made it clear not only how the prevailing working conditions in the company had the potential to spread or contain the infection among employees and, through them, in society (Hao et al., 2020), but also how a culture of health and safety can help to face the risks of such an anomalous event and how it can help companies to seize the opportunities after Covid (Fabius & Phares, 2021; Hamouche, 2021). Consequently, it has made clear the need to frame the health and safety of workers in a broader framework of leadership and culture according to participatory and sustainable approaches (Brown et al., 2021; Jankelová et al., 2021), which can facilitate and promote health and safety conditions; to achieve this, it is important to be able to refer to a holistic measurement system of health and safety policies undertaken by companies.
For decades, the literature has been addressing important issues highlighted by the pandemic regarding employees’ health and safety, including corporate culture and, specifically, the culture surrounding employee safety, human resource management, and leadership.
The literature has been dealing with the issue of employee health and safety for decades, with increasing attention given to aspects of human resource management, leadership, climate, etc. (Barling, Loughlin and Kelloway, 2002; Guest, 2017; Kim et al., 2016; Ramli, Watada, & Pedriez, 2009) as well as legal and technical aspects (Badri, Boudreau-Trudel and Souissi, 2018; Camuffo et al., 2013; Geldart et al. 2010; Thibaud, Chi, Zhou and Piramuthu, 2018).
The relationships between leadership and employee health and safety have been addressed with a focus on various types of leadership, such as transformational leadership, servant leadership, and ethical leadership, which promote occupational health and safety.
In recent years, the study of these issues has been intertwined with the demand for sustainability, especially social sustainability, as well as the international practices and standards for measuring responsible and sustainable corporate performance.
Key Terms in this Chapter
COVID-19: Pandemic disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus and identified by the World Health Organization as Covid-19.
Health and Safety Measurement: The measures present in international standards (SA 8000, ISO 26001, GRI) that can measure company policies on employee health and safety.
Health and Safety Policies: The set of decisions and actions taken by the company to protect the health and safety of employees and to spread the culture of prevention.
Sustainable Leadership Foundation Practices: The practices that identify, incorporate, and summarize many of the operational and behavioral aspects attributable to SL, according to the Avery and Bergsteiner’s (2011) model. The foundation practices are the following: developing people continuously; amicable labor relations; long-term relations with staff; internal succession planning; ethical behavior; long-term perspective; considered organizational change; independence from financial markets; environmental responsibility; social responsibility; stakeholders’ approach; strong shared vision.
Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Standards: An international standard based on standard disclosures, including indicators. The GRI Standards are structured as a set of interrelated standards focused on specific topics. The GRI, through the application of indicators, thus facilitates the definition of a global framework for sustainability reporting.
Health and Safety Leadership: The leadership that promotes and facilitates a culture of employee health and safety.
Sustainable Leadership: A style of leadership that promotes learning, does not cause damage, and generates positive effects for stakeholders. SL concerns behaviors, practices, and sustainable systems that increase value for all stakeholders – internal and external, current, and future.