Current Stock:

Educator Access

A review copy of this case is available free of charge to educators and trainers. Please create an account or sign in to gain access to this material.

Permission to Reprint

Each purchase of this product entitles the buyer to one digital file and use. If you intend to distribute, teach, or share this item, you must purchase permission for each individual who will be given access. Learn more about purchasing permission to reprint.

Abstract:
The federal Occupational Health and Safety Administration, created by Congress in 1970 to curtail what was viewed as a still-alarming level of industrial accidents, had, 20 years later, become a lightning rod for controversy. Its advocates viewed it as a bulwark of the defense of sale working conditions but opponents portrayed it as abusively intrusive, creating bureaucratic nightmares for employers. With that backdrop -- and with dwindling manpower and other resources -- OSHA officials in Maine, in 1991, try a radically different approach to their task, targeting 200 businesses which data has told them are the state's most important to bring into compliance. OSHA hopes both to avoid diluting the inspection capacity it has -- and to find ways to persuade, rather than to coerce through the law, business to make improvements. The apparent success of the Maine 200 program comes at a time when the new Clinton Administration is eager to find such government "reinvention" programs it can widely replicate.

Learning Objective:
This case allows, first, for analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the Maine 200 effort as an example of gaining compliance through a new form of enforcement, and, second, for discussion of the complications, and advisability, of taking a small program "to scale."

Other Details

Case Author:
Harvey Simon
Faculty Lead:
Malcolm Sparrow
Pages (incl. exhibits):
11
Setting:
United States
Language:
English