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:
- To what extent does occupational safety management affect employee’s job commitment?
- Does safety training influence employee’s participation?
- Would occupational safety policies have impact on employees’ job commitment?
- 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.