An improvement of staffs’ motivation/satisfaction for safety activities in a railroad operation department-based upon investigation on staffs’ consciousness /understanding about safety management for 3 years (2009-2011)

In railroad companies, to realize the ideal safety, human error management is critical issue that should not be neglected. Human error triggers various accidents, threatens the security of staffs, and blocks providing secure service. However, it is so difficult to progress the human error management smoothly. One of important problems is a gap of the value sense on the safety activities between managers and staffs. When the gap grows larger, the staffs cannot understand the intension of several safety activities. Furthermore, the staffs' motivation become lower, and the effects of the activities are shrunk. Therefore, based upon basic concept of PDCA management cycle, we aimed to propose strategies that can bridge a gap of the value sense in a railroad operation department. The contents of four stages in PDCA cycle to improve staffs' motivation/satisfaction on the safety activities are considered. In some case studies, we obtained following problems; insufficient communication in the team, vague knowledge about safety, 'Only I am all right' consciousness, too strong professional awareness, and so on. Against these problems, throughout discussion with a chief manager and a director in the railroad company, we proposed some strategies. As a result of having executed some strategies, gaps of the value sense between managers and staffs became small, and various safety activities were activated. The effects of the proposed PDCA management cycle were also confirmed by plural questionnaires for staff’s in an operation department. In the future, we will continue to investigate the effects of the actions, and will review the details of the actions.