Quality and Safety — The Siamese Twins
Most organizations, including those dealing with projects, have a functional organization structure. In a functional organization, there are various verticals/departments, each supposed to be an expert in its own function. HR, Finance, Operations, Procurement, Quality and Safety etc. would be typical functions in an organization. This implies that Quality and Safety are different areas of specialization. While this is true to a great extent, these two functions are similar in many more ways than we realize. This article explores the similarity between these functions, in the context of the construction industry, and try to find if the similarities can be utilized to make both functions more effective and better aligned.
Treated as staff function: One of the first and fundamental similarity between these functions is that these are (unfortunately) treated as a ‘staff function’ and not a ‘line function’! On the other hand, strangely and unfortunately, they get blamed for problems related quality of construction and any safety related incident. Except in highly evolved organizations, the Management also holds the Quality/Safety function accountable for defects and accidents. We should realize that producing high quality construction and creating a safe work environment are primarily the responsibilities of the execution (operations) team. The Quality Manager and Safety Manager are at best an expert advisor to the Construction Manager. In most organizations, these two functions have responsibilities without authority. This leads to disillusionment and scepticism in the Quality and Safety professionals.
To summarize, organizations can recognize these similarities in Quality and OHS function and leverage the information in more effective and efficient utilization of their resources in managing these functions.
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