Food Safety

A Roadmap to Success

Gary Ades, Ken Leith, Patti Leith

• Publisher: Academic Press
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9780128031056
• Topic: Medicina
• Subtopic: Microbiología y parasitología médicas

Food Safety: A Roadmap to Success is a hands-on book that discusses the key pieces of the food safety puzzle, culture, management commitment, organizational structure, implementation, and the glue that holds it together, communication/education/training, influence, accountability, and metrics.

By utilizing this information, food safety professionals can protect their companies' brands, customers, and consumers, and get the resources (people, money, and departmental cooperation) they need to effectively do their jobs and be successful.

• Provides practical information that helps readers determine which culture they currently have in their workplace
• Offers a framework to greatly reduce food safety risks
• Presents pertinent information in tables, outlining differences in approach by size and food industry segment
• Includes solid recommendations and further resources applicable to all levels within an organization to ensure success
• Covers fundamental principles of change management through open communication, education, and measurement implementation

Section I

Developing a Strong Food Safety Culture

Outline

Chapter 1 What Is an Effective Food Safety Culture?

Chapter 2 What Gets in the Way? Barriers and Solutions

Chapter 3 How Does Culture Come to Be? A Roadmap

Chapter 4 What Can You Do? Your Role and Its Impact on Positive Culture Change

Chapter 1

What Is an Effective Food Safety Culture?

Abstract

In order to manage culture, you must first understand it. In short, it is “What happens when nobody is looking.” Culture is shaped by “What’s rewarded around here?” That being said, many things create and shape culture, including history, experience, norms, fears, goals, and dreams. Culture is both fragile and strong at the same time. It can change without warning. It can be influenced by change in the organization and by things your team experiences, such as changes in strategic direction or organizational structure or ownership. It is greatly impacted by mergers, acquisitions, and advances in technology. Culture can provide a strong, solid guide for everyone’s actions and how they should be delivered. It can be shaped to work for you by rewarding the behavior that you want.

Keywords

Food safety; culture

Chapter Outline

What Is Culture? The Big Picture 3

How Is Culture Changed? The Methodology 4

What Is an Effective Food Safety Culture? The Desired End State 5

A Case Study—What Is Missing? 6

Company A: Medium Sized, Food Production 6

What Can You Do, Now? 8

What is Culture? The Big Picture

In order to manage culture, you must first understand it. In short, it is “What happens when nobody is looking.” Culture is solely shaped by “What’s rewarded around here?”

That being said, many things create and shape culture, including history, experience, norms, fears, goals, and dreams. Culture is both fragile and strong at the same time. It can change without warning. It can be influenced by change in the organization and by things your team experiences, such as changes in strategic direction or organizational structure or ownership. It is greatly impacted by mergers, acquisitions, and advances in technology. Culture can provide a strong, solid guide for everyone’s actions and how they should be delivered. It can be shaped to work for you by rewarding the behavior that you want.

Culture is patterned after what people talk about, but it is shaped by what is measured and rewarded. Positive change happens when you tell people what will be different, measure the things you are trying to change and hold people accountable for their part in achieving results. If an employee who does excellent work gets recognized, rewarded, or promoted, the message is that excellence matters. But if someone is recognized, rewarded, or promoted who has been allowed to take shortcuts, the message is that excellence is not important. The culture begins to accept mediocrity. If allowed to continue, the message can encourage careless risk-taking and noncompliance.

How is Culture Changed? The Methodology

Proactively, your team of top leaders and managers can make a planned culture shift to support the company’s goals. In order to do that, your leadership team has to plan for the change, but all managers have to be made aware of what is happening and be ready to respond.

Think about playing a game. The game is played according to established and known rules. They are explained up front to the players. In most games, points are accumulated when players score. In organized games, there is usually a referee to be sure people are following the rules and a coach to help people play more effectively. In most games, the scores enable the win.

With culture, you must set the rules of the game to be played the way you want it to be played. These are established expectations that must be communicated to all members of your organization. They should be told what to do, why they are being asked to do it and be given specific instructions as to how it should be done. This will likely include education and training.

Goals must then be established that are linked to incentives. This is the way that scores will be kept. The plan should incent, reward, and recognize players to achieve the goals. Remember, scores enable the win, and in an organization, goal achievements should be recognized. Incentives/rewards can be tangible, such as raises to base compensation, bonuses, and other financial rewards. They can also include promotions, recognition awards, prizes, or perks. Incentives/rewards can also be intangible, such as better job satisfaction, less confusion, and making their jobs easier. Whatever the reward, it should guide behavior to meet the goals. The people making the change should be very clear on what behavior is desired. Metrics come into play here, as that is how an organization keeps score. When culture is linked to metrics, people do more of what is rewarded and less of what is not.

Now, let’s look at the game personnel responsibilities. The referee is the one who points out when a person is not playing by the rules. This is a function of leadership and should be done by everyone in your organization who manages others. The coach is the one who helps players get better. This is also a function of leadership and every...