Sara Willis

Senior Lecturer in Organisational Psychology

Sara's research focuses on leadership in the context of health and safety, and she is interested in understanding what business leaders can do to promote wellbeing and safety in the workplace.

As she explains: "If you look at the statistics, whilst there have been gains over the past decades in making workplaces safer, in recent years the number of workplace fatalities has actually remained fairly static in the UK and is still too high. So there clearly remains progress to be made."

Wellbeing and safety research

Talking about integrating research on wellbeing and safety, she says there has been a lot of research into wellbeing and stress at work. At the same time there has been continued research on physical safety and into the psychosocial reasons behind accidents at work.

"In the past these research areas have been quite separate, but now the two are coming together more. Wellbeing and safety are not independent and it makes sense to understand how they link to each other. For instance, if you have a strong culture of workplace safety then staff in that organisation will be prepared to speak up if they see something wrong, and that might have a beneficial impact in terms of both physical safety and mental wellbeing across the organisation. So, we need to research further how wellbeing and safety influence each other and how organisations can capitalise on this. We don't have to weigh one against the other. They are both priorities that need to be addressed."

For example, she points to one of her studies that tested a short stress measurement tool that allows businesses take a quick look at workplace conditions and outcomes related to health. "It's a bit like taking their workforce's pulse in terms of workplace stress."

Leadership

Sara says that leaders play a crucial role in workplace safety and wellbeing.

"They often have to manage their teams in various contexts and situations, for example if a project moves into a different phase. What works in one context might not necessarily be equally effective in another situation and it is important to understand how leaders can best promote safety and wellbeing across such differing contexts. In one study we found that it is important for leaders to take the risk context into consideration and be adaptable in their management style."

Another leadership concept Sara is studying is the idea of ‘paradoxical leadership' which looks at the competing demands managers often face at work and the trade-offs to be made such as between bottom line profit and spending budgets for safety and wellbeing.

"Again, what we are saying here is that when it comes to these trade-offs it doesn't have to be an either/or for business leaders. How can they respond to market pressures while at the same time ensure workers are healthy and safe? Sometimes it is about going back to the drawing board with managers thinking about how they can do things entirely differently in order to integrate demands that, on the surface, appear incompatible. The key here is the skillsets and mindsets of leaders. Can they create synergies, and do they have the right mindset to spot the opportunities in the first place?"

Culture

Sara says a combining theme for all these research areas is the importance of organisational culture.

"It is the culture that sets the framework of behavioural norms and standards within any organisation."

For instance, Sara has been working on the issue of safety culture with the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR). She adds: "Regulators such as the ONR are today looking much more closely at the wider safety culture within their specific industries which means they are looking at the whole atmosphere around safety rather than just technical, formal procedures."

In particular, Alliance Manchester Business School designed training for ONR inspectors that has acted as a springboard for the development of culture assessment guidance and which is now having an impact across the wider industry.