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 well being, 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- V
ABSTRACT VI
TABLE OF
CONTENTS VII
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION PAGES
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,20 11) 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).