Involvement of Senior DOE and Contractor Managers

DOE-HDBK-1148-2002

6.2

Involvement of Senior DOE and Contractor Managers

As specified in the Criteria for the Department's Standards Program (DOE/EH/-0416), DOE line

management and contractor management are to implement necessary and sufficient sets of

standards to provide protection during the accomplishment of work, including all requirements

imposed by law. Central to management involvement in the N&S Process is the awareness and

acceptance by managers of the fundamental role of the proper standards on the managers'

success in meeting the ISMS objective: Doing Work Safely. Senior managers are expected to

demonstrate their safety ownership by:

being knowledgeable and involved in their commitment to the safety culture;

aligning resources (fiscal, personnel, and time) to meet agreed-upon standards;

assigning recognized leaders of the organization to safety culture strengthening

activities;

ensuring the presence or assistance of experts and knowledgeable participants;

interacting personally with Stakeholders and Interested Parties; and

insisting on accountability for improved safety performance.

Experience has shown that proper discharge of the management responsibility and

accountability for this Process may necessitate significant organizational and work practice

restructuring to clearly identify the ownership of safety by line management and to make explicit

where accountability resides. For this reason, Process leadership and the Convened Group are

expected to attend, throughout the Process application, to actions needed to make

implementation of the WSS set feasible. Where necessary, managers should take the initiative

and direct these reorganizations. Reorganization can be essential in clarifying roles,

responsibility, and accountability among the organization components. Such clarification is

essential for an organization to conduct work safely.