Metaphors we’re safe by: analysing conceptual metaphors within corporate safety reporting

Abstract

Organisations are increasingly required to publicly disclose their safety performance through their corporate reports. Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) reporting is an essential element of corporate transparency and responsibility, enabling investors and other stakeholders to understand a firm’s management of its significant risks. The language used in these reports shapes the meaning that may be inferred. Lakoff and Johnson’s Conceptual Metaphor Theory was applied to the publicly available safety reports of 23 firms operating within high and low hazard sectors to examine how metaphors were used to signal their safety performance. Across sectors eight different categories of metaphor were identified which have different implications for interpretation. Half of these categories of metaphor were different to those used in financial reporting. The findings show that metaphors were used similarly between sectors but were more frequently used in reports from organisations operating in high hazard than low hazard settings. Building on the existing understanding of the use of numbers as a form of impression management, we argue that language is also used within corporate reporting to construct an epistemology of safety that is performative and overly optimistic. This presents challenges for external stakeholders relying on an organisation’s reporting as an indication of their safety performance and could present significant ethical and integrity dilemmas for Occupational Health and Safety practitioners.