The key is to get employees involved in the process. In this article I want to talk about generalization. This is a heavily-researched phenomenon in behavioral science with important safety ramifications.
Generalization has to do with the spread of behaviors, and it occurs two ways.
Stimulus generalization describes how a behavior can carry over from one stimulus setting or environment to another. Response generalization refers to how one behavior can lead to another, related behavior. Response generalization occurs when an increase in one safety behavior, such as vehicle safety belt use, is accompanied by an increase in another task-related behavior, perhaps turn signal use. You can see that generalization is a desired goal of safety efforts. Let's use theory and research to discuss ways to increase generalization.