Facilities maintenance employees’ priority of safety management practices

Facilities ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 35 (5/6) ◽  
pp. 319-334
Author(s):  
Saharani bin Jaafar ◽  
Weng Wai Choong ◽  
Abdul Hakim bin Mohamed

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify the facilities maintenance employees’ priority on safety management practices and relationship to safety performance. The study aims to increase the safety performance among the facilities maintenance contractor by implementing safety management practices. Design/methodology/approach The data were collected by distributing questionnaire forms to the employees of selected facilities maintenance contractors representing general workers, technicians and executive- and the management-level employees. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, t-test, one-way analysis of variance, Pearson correlation and multiple regressions. Findings The descriptive results revealed that the employee priority on safety management practices is fairly “low”. The correlation and regression analyses tested and satisfied that management commitment, workers involvement in safety, safety training, safety communication and feedback, safety rules and procedures, and safety promotion policies significantly and strongly correlate with the degree and level of satisfaction to the safety performance. Research limitations/implications This research focuses only on facilities maintenance contractors working in the Klang Valley, Malaysia. It is possible that respondents from other areas or states may allow comparisons across different locations. Practical implications There are many factors affecting safety performance. By implementing safety management practices, high safety performance can be achieved in the facilities maintenance organisations in Malaysia. Originality/value This paper presents empirical findings on the relationship between employee priority on safety management practices elements and safety performance.

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 226-244 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chandrakantan Subramaniam ◽  
Faridahwati Mohd. Shamsudin ◽  
Md. Lazim Mohd Zin ◽  
Subramaniam Sri Ramalu ◽  
Zuraida Hassan

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of safety participation as a mediator in the relationship between the six facets of safety management practices (i.e. management commitment, safety training, worker’s involvement, safety communication and feedback, safety rules and procedures, and safety promotion policies) and safety compliance. Design/methodology/approach A survey of 74 employees of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the northern region of Peninsular Malaysia was carried out. Self-reported measures were used to obtain data on workplace safety dimensions and safety behavior. The partial least square structural model analysis was used to ascertain the proposed relationships. Findings The present study found that only three dimensions of safety management practices (management commitment, safety training, and safety rules and procedures) were significantly related to safety compliance. Of these, safety participation mediated the link between management commitment and safety training and safety compliance. Research limitations/implications The small sample size may limit the generalizability of the findings. Second, the correlational nature of the study did not permit causation to be implied. However, despite these limitations, while safety performance can be theorized to trigger the establishment of safety management practices, such theoretical perspective tends to connote reactivity rather than proactivity of the decision-making process. Practical implications The study highlights the role of the voluntary behavior of employees in promoting a safe work environment. Business owners are recommended to provide safety training in which the employees are stressed on their crucial role in safety and use this knowledge to educate and convince their co-workers to work safely. Originality/value Literature indicates the lack of studies on safety research in SMEs. Furthermore, such studies are justified because SMEs are likely to have more risks of occupational accidents and injuries. More importantly, this research highlights the importance of the voluntary behaviors of employees (i.e. safety participation) in promoting a safe work environment. As SMEs tend to have limited resources to implement a comprehensive OSH management system, using the employees as the safety agents at work can be an effective way toward accomplishing safety performance.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (15) ◽  
pp. 4001
Author(s):  
Hazrat Hassan ◽  
Qianwei Ying ◽  
Habib Ahmad ◽  
Sana Ilyas

Due to the significant change in business organizations, scholarly interest has diverted from studying the determinants of financial performance to understanding the environmental activities, sustainability practices, and health and safety management practices. Despite the extensive literature, it is yet to understand either internal or external factors that improve health and safety management practices in SMEs. This research examines the influence of the internal factors—intellectual capital, information technology capabilities (ITC), and entrepreneurial orientation, and the external capabilities—government financial support, institutional pressure, and managerial networking on six health and safety management practices: management commitment, staff training, worker involvement, safety communication and feedback, safety rules and procedures, and safety promotion policies. We researched 410 Pakistani SMEs from the food business industry. The results indicate that intellectual capital significantly improves management commitment, safety communication and feedback, and safety rules and produces; ITC significantly improves management commitment and safety communication and feedback; and entrepreneurial orientation significantly facilitates safety training and worker involvement only. In the external capabilities, government financial support has a significant influence on management commitment, worker involvement, safety rules and policies, and safety promotion policies. Institutional pressure has a significant influence on management commitment, safety training, safety communication, and feedback and safety promotion policies. Managerial networking significantly influences safety training, worker involvement, safety rules and procedures, and safety promotion policies of SMEs. Focusing only on the food industry is the major limitation of this research, this study recommends SMEs to give sufficient attention to their internal and external factors to enhance health and safety management practices. Further implications are discussed.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (2-2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdallah Mohammad Barakat Abuashour ◽  
Zuraida Hassan

Safety in the workplace is essential to ensure organization survivability, constant operation and best work quality specifically in among the countries at the developing stage such as Jordan. Relatedly, safety performance is very crucial for organization performance measurement and corporate existence to practice safety management at workplace, and every level of organization structure. Thus, the need for enhancing safety at the work setting has been proposed by most scholars, industry practitioners and relevant stakeholders. Workers are exposed to a hazardous event at the workplace through chemical, ergonomic and biological exposures. Consequently, various degrees of accidents, injuries, and fatalities happened in the organization and lead to multiple levels of challenges to the organization and serve as indicator of poor safety performance within organization. Improvements in safety performance indicators are critical as they can help in improving organizational performance. The impact from poor safety performance indicator could be seen in various forms such as high medical bills, insurance costs and productivity losses. This paper develops a proposed safety performance framework for understanding safety management practices dimensions such as cooperation facilitation, and safety communication and feedback as antecedents of the work environment – the relationship of safety performance based on perceived social exchange theory (SET).


2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 117-135
Author(s):  
Nishani Edirisinghe Vincent ◽  
Julia L. Higgs ◽  
Robert E. Pinsker

ABSTRACT The Securities and Exchange Commission's 2009 enhanced proxy disclosure requirements and the updated Committee of Sponsoring Organizations' (COSO) Internal Control Framework have caused organizations to increase their focus on risk management and consider the impact of information technology (IT) in enterprise risk management. Our study examines whether board involvement, board expertise, and top management's risk culture affect the maturity of IT risk management practices (maturity) in firms. We find that board involvement positively influences maturity while top managers' risk-taking behavior is associated with lower maturity. Even though board expertise influences maturity, board involvement is more important in explaining maturity. Maturity is higher in firms where risk oversight lies with a board-level, rather than a management, committee. However, the maturity of ITRM practices does not differ among firms whether risk oversight lies with the overall board, or any other board committee. The findings contribute to an under-researched area in IT governance.


2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (10) ◽  
pp. 2326-2346
Author(s):  
Abdul Qayoom ◽  
Bonaventura H.W. Hadikusumo

Purpose Previous research studies have testified that safety culture positively affects safety performance. However, the progression by which safety culture affects safety performance has not yet been examined. Also, how safety culture affects the overall safety performance at different levels of the organization is yet to be explored. In order to address this issue, the purpose of this paper is to study the effect of multilevel safety culture upon safety performance over time. Design/methodology/approach A conceptual causal-loop diagram is constructed using the group model building approach to establish the relationship between safety culture components (e.g. psychological, behavioral and situational) and the factors associated with safety performance (e.g. risk level, safety behavior, unsafe conditions, unsafe acts and incident rate). Considering the dynamic nature and intricacy of the safety management system, the system dynamics approach has been employed to develop the model. Findings The results indicate that the safety culture at the tactical level (middle management) and operational level is much more effective than strategic level (top management) in ameliorating the safety performance of the organization. Research limitations/implications The scope of this study is limited to the effect of multilevel safety culture on safety performance. The focus is on the dynamics of personal, behavioral and situational factors of top management, middle management and workers to reinforce the safety performance of the organization. Future research can be protracted to build other models of safety. Practical implications First and foremost, the findings summarized in this paper can be implemented by organizations to achieve the total safety culture to upgrade safety performance. Originality/value This paper presents the holistic view of multilevel safety culture in an organization’s hierarchy. It shows how multilevel level safety culture in an organization interacts with the safety management system to enhance the safety performance of the organization.


2017 ◽  
Vol 49 (5) ◽  
pp. 213-230 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven H. Appelbaum ◽  
Aleksey Cameron ◽  
Floris Ensink ◽  
Jahnabi Hazarika ◽  
Raid Attir ◽  
...  

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the factors that impact the success of an organizational change within an organization under study. Design/methodology/approach Five hypotheses were developed to investigate independent variables as possible factors affecting employees’ commitment to change. The research is based on a three-step process consisting of a literature review and field research through survey and interviews. The literature review served to establish an important foundation for understanding the problem. The field research involved employees taking part in the change completing a survey. Individual interviews were also conducted with management level employees actively involved in the change process. The paper is an empirical-based case analysis. Findings The results demonstrate that employees’ commitment to change, in this organization, can be improved through increasing formal and informal communication, creating adaptive organizational systems and enhancing the role of transformational leaders during the change. Research limitations/implications Sample size was affected due to the limited availability of employees during a specific organizational cycle. Increased sample size would allow further investigation about employees’ commitment to change. Additional research could be done on how the company’s systems and practices can be adapted to change. Practical implications The success of a change project is critical for its future strategy and major project implementation. It is crucial that a systematic process be followed to implement this change. It is suggested that the John Kotter’s “eight” step change management model be adopted as a framework to the implementation plan. Social implications New behaviors are subject to degradation if they are not ingrained in social norms and shared values, i.e. if they do not become part of the culture. Managers emphasized that, even though they are creating a new team, they recognize the importance not to create a “Monster” or a new alien culture. Leaders must make sure that all new behaviors required for the integration become part of the existing culture. Originality/value The paper provides insight in some of the factors that lead to a successful organizational change and team integration. The paper recommends four steps to address communication, organizational systems and culture to improve employees’ commitment to change.


2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (6) ◽  
pp. 837-851
Author(s):  
Zul-Atfi Ismail

Purpose The purpose of this study is to develop a new information and communication technology (ICT)-based approach for optimising safety transportation according to the needs of the current industrialised building system (IBS) building construction schemes. The improper handling and information management of road transport workers appears to be a major problem in the safety of the IBS building construction industry. Transportation activity is particularly problematic for IBS building construction projects in which traffic incident and safety management level are not in good condition to match with construction specification. Design/methodology/approach A new ICT-based approach is suggested for optimising safety transportation in accordance with the needs of the current IBS building construction schemes. As a precursor to this work, the concept of road transport workers practices is reviewed and the main features of ICT tools and techniques currently being used on such projects are presented. Findings The sophisticated road transport workers system solutions is described as an essential component of this optimisation to promote long-term safety and quality improvements of IBS building construction projects. Originality/value Finally, the potential for a research framework for developing such a system in the future is presented.


2019 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhangming Ma ◽  
Heap-Yih Chong ◽  
Pin-Chao Liao

Purpose Human error is among the leading causes of construction-based accidents. Previous studies on the factors affecting human error are rather vague from the perspective of complex and changeable working environments. The purpose of this paper is to develop a dynamic causal model of human errors to improve safety management in the construction industry. A theoretical model is developed and tested through a case study. Design/methodology/approach First, the authors defined the causal relationship between construction and human errors based on the cognitive reliability and error analysis method (CREAM). A dynamic Bayesian network (DBN) was then developed by connecting time-variant causal relationships of human errors. Next, prediction, sensitivity analysis and diagnostic analysis of DBN were applied to demonstrate the function of this model. Finally, a case study of elevator installation was presented to verify the feasibility and applicability of the proposed approach in a construction work environment. Findings The results of the proposed model were closer to those of practice than previous static models, and the features of the systematization and dynamics are more efficient in adapting toward increasingly complex and changeable environments. Originality/value This research integrated CREAM as the theoretical foundation for a novel time-variant causal model of human errors in construction. Practically, this model highlights the hazards that potentially trigger human error occurrences, facilitating the implementation of proactive safety strategy and safety measures in advance.


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