Task performance and occupational health and safety management systems in the garment industry of Bangladesh

PurposeThis study investigates the relationship between individual task performance of garment workers and occupational health and safety management systems (OHSMS) in the garment industry of Bangladesh.Design/methodology/approachFollowing a quantitative research approach and using a four-stage cluster sampling technique, data collected from 610 workers of twelve garments supplier factories using a structured questionnaire. Mean, standard deviation, correlation and stepwise multiple regressions performed to understand the relationship between task performance and OHSMS.FindingsThe study results demonstrate that occupational health and safety (OHS) policy, benchmarking, worker participation, OHS training, communication, emergency response, preventive and protective action, monitoring and review are the significant predictors of individual task performance of garment workers; and OHS policy contributes most substantially to the variance of task performance in the garment industry of Bangladesh.Research limitations/implicationsThis study’s findings contribute to operations management, human resources management and the health and safety management literature by demonstrating a link between operational performance, human resources management and OHSMS.Practical implicationsThis study could be beneficial for garment suppliers to understand how effective OHSMS can reduce production costs by increasing worker efficiency.Originality/valueThis is a unique research attempt as it considers the task performance dimension of an individual garment worker from the OHS management perspective.