Occupational Health and Safety

This article discusses the concept of occupational health and safety, its importance in the workplace, and the implementation of health and safety measures. It explores the impact of leadership and management styles, behavior-based safety systems, and the role of occupational psychology in promoting a good safety culture.

Running head: OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY
OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY
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Introduction
As opined by Howard (2017), an important trend seen within the spectrum of the
modern-day business world is the fact that the business enterprises need to take into the
health and safety parameters stipulated or mandated by the national government of the
nations of their operation. Li et al. (2015) are of the viewpoint that the primary purpose
behind the usage of the different kinds of health and safety measures is to ensure that the
workplace in which the individuals are required to work is a safe and secure one and no
substantial amount of risk or threat is being posed to the safety or the wellbeing of the
employees. This is important because in the recent times the number of workplace health and
safety accidents or hazards had increased in a substantial manner and this in turn had
enhanced the cost that the enterprises are required to bear for the treatment and the
compensation which are being offered to the employees in such instances (Wright 2016).
According to Hofmann, Burke and Zohar (2017), the end result of this is that the
enterprises are required to develop an effective organisational psychology which will take
into account the safety and the wellbeing of the employees and thereby reduced the cost
incurred by the enterprises due to health and safety hazards. More importantly, these health
and safety hazards also pose a substantial amount of risk to the property or the tangible assets
or the enterprises it is seen that in cases of safety hazards chances are high that the enterprises
can incur financial losses through the destruction of their property or assets (Carayon et al.
2015). This in turn also adversely affects the work of the enterprises and thus it becomes
important for the enterprises to integrate health and safety concerns within its organisational
psychology. This paper will analyse the concept of occupational health and safety and its
diverse aspects through the usage of adequate theories.

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Organisational Psychology and Occupational Safety
Kim, Park and Park (2016) are of the viewpoint that there are various factors which
affect the integration of the health and safety concerns within the organisational psychology
of the different business enterprises and also to make the effective usage of the same. As
stated by Shea et al. (2016), the governmental policies, employee perception, behaviour,
attitude, the financial losses by the disregard of the same and others are some of the major
factors affect the usage of the different health and safety measures by the business
enterprises. As per the Hse.gov.uk (2019), the business enterprises in the nation of the United
Kingdom are required to comply with the stipulations of “Health and Safety at Work Act”
and thereby adequate measures to ensure the safety as well as the wellbeing of the employees
of their workplace. On the other hand, it is seen that because of the ever-increasing instances
of work health and safety hazards or issues have become prone to in the present times and
also the damage that they are causing to the health or the wellbeing of these individuals it is
seen that these individuals have become concerned regarding their health and safety in the
workplaces (Hammer et al. 2016). These in turn had led to development of a positive health
and safety attitude or psychology among the workers in the workplaces of the different
enterprises of the nation of UK. In addition to these, it had been observed that the different
kinds of health and safety hazards which had become a part of the contemporary workplaces
take a toll on the financial resources of the enterprises. For example, it is seen that because of
these hazards the enterprises end up incurring a substantial amount of financial strain on the
score of the compensations, medical treatment charges and others they have to bear (Holt and
Allen 2015). These in short are some of the major factors which have made it imperative for
the business enterprises to take into the different health and safety measures to ensure the
safety as well as the wellbeing of their employees.

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Leadership and Management Functions and Occupational Health and Safety
Nordlöf et al. (2017) have noted that the kind of management or leadership style
which is being followed by the enterprises have a profound impact on the organisational or
the workplace culture of the same and thereby greatly influence the behaviour of the
employees of the concerned enterprises. For example, it is seen that if the managers or the
leaders of an enterprise have positive attitude towards the safety and health concerns of the
workers of the concerned enterprise then it is more likely that the employees of the enterprise
are also likely to take them in a serious manner and use them as well. More importantly, the
managers as well as the leaders of the enterprises are required to take active initiatives for the
formulation and the effective implementation of the different kinds of health and safety
measures which are not only likely to benefit the employees of the enterprise but also the
enterprise itself (Taris 2017). Furthermore, recent researches have clearly revealed the fact
that the enterprises which take into account the health and safety requirements of the
employees or for that the enterprises wherein the employees feel safe and have adequate level
of wellbeing, the employees are being able to perform as per the need or the expectation of
the enterprise (Beehr 2019). This is important not only from the perspective of the employees
for the enhancement or improvement of their performance but at the same time from the
perspective of the financial returns earned by the enterprises as well. Thus, it can be said that
the management or the leadership styles or approaches taken by the enterprises have a
substantial effect on the safety and health psychology of the entire enterprise itself.
Behaviour Based Safety Systems
Several organisations have safety improvement initiative in place, and this helps them
in monitoring the safe and unsafe actions of their employees. Behaviour-based safety
program or approach is one of the ways to ensure the same. It is to note that various accidents
are caused by improper and inappropriate behaviour. Behavioural safety approach is used to

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mitigate the risk of such type of, and as opined by Wright (2016), it is a proven vehicle for
workforce participation and management. This approach can help in improving the visibility
of the organisational managers and at the same time, helps in managing the actions and the
behaviours that are influence the corporate culture through perceptions and attitudes.
According to Wong, Dawson and Van Dongen (2019), behaviours generally determine
system performance. Under this approach, the safe and the unsafe behaviour is defined, and
all the involve observation of behaviour within the workplace is examined. With the same,
this approach also calls for providing feedback while reinforcing safe behaviour and re-
educating the unsafe one. It is to note that these feedbacks range from types of feedbacks like
on-the-spot discussion and input to the personalised general data. As opined by Carayon et al.
(2015), this approach of identifying and measuring the safe and the unsafe behaviours that are
taking place within the workplace and managing them is the most effective approaches of all
that promote excellent safety performance. It is to note that the traditional approach for
combating human error and managing staff performance was not very useful. Human error is
inevitable, and it takes place for several reasons. These reasons might reside with the
organisational or the individual system and often takes place because of the misunderstanding
of the task or the task demand or the knowledge and capability, leadership or culture, lack of
communication or human dynamics, unclear goals and lack of proper information (Kelloway,
Nielsen and Dimoff 2017).

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Figure 1: Behaviour Base System (BBS)
Source: Carayon et al. (2015)
The main advantage that the behaviour based safety approach has in place is that it
ensure adequate communication as it involves discussion of safety in the workplace. Also, it
helps in identifying the dangerous situation and has the potential of providing leading
indicators for safety performance. However, there are certain pitfalls of this approach, as
well. As stated by Kvorning, Hasle and Christensen (2015), the behaviour based safety
approach and programs are quite challenging to maintain. For ensuring that it is useful,
behaviour based safety approach requires full support from the top organisational
management and at the same time, also needs to be continuously used and evaluated. With
the same, many of the times, it has been seen that this program has inadvertently placed
"blame" on the employees.
As opined by Shea et al. (2016), behaviour-based safety is a continuous four-step
improvement process. It involves defining the behaviour or behaviours to target, observing

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for collecting the baseline data, intervening for influencing the target behaviour and testing in
order to measure the impact of the intervention. According to Li et al. (2015), it is “the
application of the science of behaviour change to real world safety problems”. It focuses on
what people do and analyses the reason behind why they do so. After then, it applies an
intervention strategy that is research-supported and then uses a research-supported
intervention strategy for improving what people do. It is to note that this theory or program
helps in encouraging employee participation in the workplace. Howard (2017) in this context
has claimed that behaviour-based safety systems encourage full participation among all its
employees. This approach is aimed towards providing a clear picture of what is working and
what is not in terms of the safety. As per Nordlöf et al. (2017), behaviour-based safety in real
terms cannot function in the absence of the participation and involvement of employees from
all the levels of the organisation. With the same, it has also been claimed that the behaviour-
based safety program makes use of positive reinforcement. For workplace safety, a little
positivity can go a long way. The topic of "safety" is not everyone's favourite topic in the
workplace. Most of the employees fear to go to get training and sit through the safety
meetings. Putting forward a positive spin on safety could help in improving the overall
culture of safety in the workplace.
Occupational Psychology and Good Safety Culture
Different people consider the concept of ‘safety culture' differently, and this
subsequently influences their efforts of improvement. Providing clarity along with the
essence of safety culture is that it reflects the proactive attitude of improving occupational
safety and revealing the ways in which people think and behave according to security. As
claimed by Kim, Park and Park (2016), the theory of behaviour based system helps in
improving the visibility of the organisational managers and at the same time, helps in
managing the actions and the reactions that are influence the corporate culture through

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perceptions and attitudes. Under this approach, safe and unsafe behaviour is defined, and all
the involve observation of behaviour within the workplace is examined. It also calls for
providing feedback while reinforcing safe behaviour and re-educating the unsafe one.
Furthermore, it helps in ensuring proper communication in place as it involves discussion of
safety in the workplace. Also, it helps in identifying the dangerous situation and has the
potential of providing leading indicators for the safety performance.
Conclusion
Hence, from the above analysis, it can be concluded that the concept of occupational
health and safety had become an important one because of the large number of workplace
hazards or accidents that the individuals have to face in the workplaces of the enterprises.
Furthermore, it is seen that the effective usage of different kinds of health and safety
measures had become an important one for the business enterprises to follow so as to ensure
the safety of their employees and also the assets of their own enterprise. Moreover, behaviour
based system is one of the practical organisational behavioural approaches that help in
ensuring and promoting excellent safety performance by the employees. It is also to mention
that effective implementation of behaviour based system approach needs meticulous
planning, employee support and long-term commitment from the parts of the organisational
leaders and employees. Furthermore, for achieving changes in the behaviour, a change in the
system, procedures and policy also require some adjustments. These changes cannot be done
in the absence of the support and buy-in from the involved candidates in the decision making
process.

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