An Israeli safety study looked at a practice termed “Management by walking around” (MBWA). This practice has aroused much interest in management science and practice. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the adaptation of this practice to safety management. We describe a three-year-long case study that collected empirical data in which a modified MBWA was practiced to improve safety in a semiconductor fabrication facility. The main modification involved integrating an information system with the MBWA to create a practice that would generate safety leadership development and an organizational safety learning mechanism while promoting employee safety participation. The case study results demonstrate that the SMBWA practice facilitated thousands of tours in which safety leadership behaviors were practiced by managers and employees (employees performed five times as many tours as managers). The information system collected information about safety behaviors and conditions that could not be obtained. Thus, this study presents a new organizational safety practice SMBWA and demonstrates how SMBWA may improve safety in organizations.
