ABSTRACT
Organization safety management is a
function that hinges on the human resource department of every organization in
the current realities of business life. This study looks at how safety
management is used not only to promote workers wellbeing, but as a way of
increasing their efficiency towards their work and to motivate them in putting
their best into their work and also to bring about all round improvement in
their performance as related to productivity. This study also examines the
impact of labour laws and legislation on the practices of occupational safety
in the workplace and how best organizations have been adhering to the labour
standards and factories Acts. A survey research method was adopted using Wempco Ltd, Lagos as a case study.
Questionnaire was the major instrument used for the study. A sample size of one
hundred and fifty-two (152) was selected using stratified sampling procedure.
Four hypotheses were used at 0.05 alpha level. Data were analyzed with the use
of Regression analysis.
The findings show that, there is a
significant relationship between occupational safety management and employee’s
job commitment. Among the sub-variable of independent variable, safety training
has a strong significant effect on employee’s job commitment. It was however,
recommended that management should intensify efforts towards creating an
enabling environment that is hygienic, safe and comfortable to employees
TABLE
OF CONTENTS
PAGES
TITLE PAGE I
CERTIFICATION II
DEDICATION III
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT IV
ABSTRACT VI
TABLE OF CONTENTS VII
CHAPTER
ONE: INTRODUCTION
1.1
Background
to the Study 1
1.2
Statement
of the Problem 4
1.3
Research
Objectives 5
1.4
Research
Questions 6
1.5
Research
Hypotheses 6
1.6
Significance
of the Study 7
1.7
Scope
and Limitation of the Study 8
1.8
Definition
of Terms 8
CHAPTER
TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Introduction 10
2.2 Conceptual
Framework 10
2.3 Current
Literature Review 13
2.3.1 Organizational
Safety Policy 13
2.3.2 Occupational
Strategy in Nigeria 14
2.4 Occupational
Accident 16
2.5 Risk
and Risk Management 18
2.6.1 Impact
of Occupational Safety Programme 21
2.6.2 Safety
at Work 22
2.6.3 Safety
Training 23
2.6.4 Building
an Effective Safety Management System 23
2.6.5 Occupational
Safety Measurement 25
2.6.6 Occupational
Safety Legislation 26
2.6.7 Duties
of Employers and Employees in Safety 30
2.7
Challenges of Industrial Safety Management in Nigeria 31
2.8 Employee’s
Job Commitment 32
2.9 Theoretical
Framework 34
2.10 Summary 37
CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLGY
3.1 Introduction 39
3.2 Research Design 39
3.3 Population of the Study 40
3.4 Sample and Sampling
Techniques 40
3.5 Research Instrument 41
3.6 Validity and Reliability 42
3.7 Method of Data Analysis 43
CHAPTER FOUR: DATA PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND
INTERPRETATION
4.1 Introduction 44
4.2 Data Analysis and
Presentation 44
4.3 Respondent’s Characteristics
and Classification 45
4.4 Test of Hypotheses 60
4.5 Discussion on Findings 66
CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND
RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 Introduction 68
5.2 Summary 68
5.3 Conclusion 70
5.4 Recommendations 71
5.5 Suggestions for Further
Studies 72
Appendixes
References 74
Questionnaires 78
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
Safety and health principles are universal, but how much action is
needed will depend on the size of the organization, the hazards presented by
its activities, the physical characteristics of the organization, products or
services, and the adequacy of its existing arrangements.
Many of the features of effective safety management are analogous to the
sound management practices advocated by proponents of quality management,
environmental protection, and business excellence. Commercially successful
companies often excel at safety and health management as well, precisely
because they apply the same efficient business expertise to safety and health
as to all other aspects of their operations.
On an average day, 17 US workers are killed and 16,000 are injured in
work- related accidents, resulting in a cost to industry of more than USS 110
billion annually (Barr, 1999). This injury rate is increasing. Traditional
safety efforts have focused on the engineering aspects of safety; however,
relatively few accidents (10%) are a consequence of unsafe mechanical or
physical conditions.
While most on-the-job accidents and injuries appear to result from
employees’ unsafe acts, incidents typically are not caused by single operator
errors, but are end-events in a chain of interacting factors on several systems
levels (Wilpert, 2004). While many unsafe acts are committed, very few will
penetrate an organization’s defenses to result in accident or injury (Reason,
2004).
It is becoming increasingly apparent that it is restrictive to discuss
failures of large- scale technological systems solely in terms of the technological
aspects. Individuals, their organizations, groups, and cultures are
all-important factors in the design, construction, operation, and monitoring of
technological systems. Until recently, this issue has been described in the
related literature of error.” While human error does contribute to accidents,
the behavioral causes of failure are often found to be far more subtle when
incidents are of a technological system (Pidgeon, 2011).
Many expectations are built into the current Nigeria health and safety 1e2islation
that specifies the responsibilities of managers and employees with regard to
safe working practices. These suppositions are more likely to be fulfilled if a
positive cultural attitude toward safety exists. The costs of failure to comply
with these expectations are increasing.
As workers become more educated, they are more likely to expect safer
working conditions; a more safety and environmentally conscious public is
increasingly willing to express its disapproval of companies that are perceived
to behave carelessly. This public reproach was evident during the American
consumer boycott of Exxon gasoline following the Valdez oil spill (Turner,
2001). Researchers have found that safety performance is affected by
organization’s socially transmitted beliefs and attitudes toward safety
(Ostrom, Wilhelrnsem, & Kaplan, 2009).
The concept of safety culture (Pidgeon, 2011) was developed as a result
of the 1986 Chernobyl accident, which focused attention on the human and
organizational elements contributing to the unsafe operation of technological
systems. The goal of a safety culture is to develop a norm in which employees
are aware of the risks in their workplace and are continually on the lookout
for hazards (Ostrom et al., 2003). A safety culture motivates and recognizes
safe behavior by focusing on the attil4ides and behaviors of the employees. It
is a process not a program; it takes time to develop and requires a collective
effort to implement its many features (Ban, 2008).
In order for employees to be active participants in a safety program,
they must receive occupational safety training. Several issues affect: the
perception of risk levels and should be understood when training employees in
occupational safety. People tend not to
use the likelihood of injury in their judgments of product safety; rather, the
severity of injury plays the foremost role in decisions to read warnings and
act cautiously (Young, Brelsford, 2007).
In today’s competitive world, every organization especially construction
company is facing new challenges regarding occupational safety and creating
committed workforce. Organizations can perform at peak levels only when
employees are committed to the organization’s objectives. Hence, it is
important to understand the concept of commitment and its feasible outcome
(Wogalter, 1990).
Vredenburgh and Cohen (2005) found that the level of perceived danger
increased compliance to warnings and instructions; therefore, it is critical
that all employees are trained to identify the hazards associated with their
workplace.
Finally, experience and knowledge of issues in workers protection have
led to a greater appreciation of how safety management is directly related to
employee’s job commitment.
1.2 STATEMENT
OF THE PROBLEM
Safety management as a practice is very sacrosanct for the functional wellbeing
of any organization. Often times, it has
been observed that occupational hazard is surprisingly common in all sectors of
the economy. Studies in the past have revealed that organizations do not (or
partially) take proper consideration of the well-being of its employees, and it
has led to lower commitment from the workers. Usually, this is a result of
insufficient safety measures in factories and lack of personal protective
‘equipment and there has never been a form of payment to the injured employees.
Also, there has never been any form of programmes regards to safety training
which will enable individual employees or workers to be conscious of any
occupational hazardous as related to their operations at the workplace.
The effect of the job related injuries go far beyond the economic loss
to the organization and extend to long-term consequences to workers, their
families and their friends. Instead, they were focusing or seeking for more
profit margins at least cost. When the workers have known that their lives are
not secured in terms safety and well-being, they would not be able to exert
more effort to their jobs or not frilly committed to their jobs.
1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The objective of the research is to examine the relationship between
occupational safety management and employees’ job commitment in WEMPCO
Industries Limited. The specific objectives are:
1. To examine the various approaches
in achieving the wellbeing of employees by managing the work environment.
2. To find out organizational
efforts towards hazard control and management.
3. To examine the relationship
between safety practices and employee’s
job commitment.
4. To offer suggestions on how well the safety of staff at work could
be managed towards enhancing the employees’ job commitment.
1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
The following research questions should guide this research study:
1. To what extent does occupational safety management
affect employee’s job commitment?
2. Does safety training influence employee’s
participation?
3. Would occupational safety policies have impact on
employees’ job commitment?
4. To what degree does a safety practice affect
employees’ job commitment?
1.5 RESEARCH HYPOTHESES
The following hypotheses will be tested to verify the relationship
between the subject matters variables under consideration;
H01:
There is no significant relationship
between occupational safety management and employee’s job commitment.
H02:
There is no significant relationship
between safety training and employees job commitment.
H03:
There is no significant relationship
between occupational safety policies and employees’ job commitment.
H04:
There is no significant relationship
between safety practices and employees job commitment.
1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The study aim towards enabling organizations to entrench s principles in
a way that will reduce the large numbers of serious and fatal accidents and
cases of which occur eve year in the construction Industry.
There are many organizations with many workers in their
employ, yet maintaining little or haphazard attention to safety program. They
may see such program as a wasteful venture without considering the negative
cost implications of such perception. This Research revealed that greater
percentage of organizational success is based on the maintenance of effective
safety management system. Therefore, to enable management reduce hazards,
accidents and effect of disasters in the work place, in order to reduce costs
associated with unsafe work environment in organizations, recommendations will
be made in this study which will help management develop a safe place of work
and effective safety policy and ensure its effective implementation within the
organization.
Also, it would enable employers and employees know their rights and
responsibility within the workplace in relations to safety management.
Therefore, the findings of this study will be of significant to policy
makers especially government and its agencies in charge of labor administration
and productivity in Nigeria. Besides, the study will be relevant to
organization development and change agent who may conduct similar studies in
the future on safety management and on how it should be effectively managed.
1.7 SCOPE
AND LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
The coverage of this study will not extend beyond the occupational
safety management as related to employees’ job commitment.
The study is however limited to WEMPCO Industries Limited located at
Ibafo along Lagos-express way, as a case focus.
1.8 DEFINITION
OF TERMS
INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENT: An unfortunate incident that happens unexpectedly
and unintentionally, causing damages or injuries or death at work place.
EMPLOYEES’ JOB COMMITMENT: It is a force that binds an employee to a course
of action at work. It entails the level at which employees are committed to
their jobs in an organization.
OCCUPATIONAL HAZARD: It is anything that causes harm electricity, nail
etc.
HUMAN ERROR: An act or condition of ignorance or imprudent deviation from a code of
behavior in a given task or sub element of task.
OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY MANAGEMENT: This is an area concerned with protecting the
safety of people engaged at work effectively.
RISK: It is the chance, large or small, of harm actually being done by the
hazard.
SAFETY: It is the state of being certain that adverse effect will not be
caused by some agent under defined conditions.
SAFETY CULTURE: This is an organization’s norms, beliefs, roles, attitude and practices
concerned with minimizing exposure of employees to workplace hazards.
SAFETY TRAINING: It can be described as a short term systematic process through which
an employee acquires technical skills and consciousness of being safe at
workplace.
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