Systematic Review: Safety Management in Malaysian Hospitality

This report presents a systematic review investigating the effect of safety management practices on job performance within the Malaysian hospitality industry. The review analyzed various research articles, focusing on studies conducted between 2010 and 2018, to assess the impact of safety measures on employee performance, productivity, and overall organizational outcomes. The methodology followed the PRISMA guidelines, including a detailed search strategy, inclusion/exclusion criteria, data analysis, and extraction processes. The findings revealed three main themes: the influence of hotel type, consumer awareness, and the Malaysian food safety system on safety management; the impact of safety climate on organizational performance; and the relationship between rewards, job satisfaction, and employee retention. The review highlights the importance of safety training, education, and the development of comprehensive safety management systems to improve job performance and create a safer work environment within the hospitality sector. The report also provides insights into the challenges faced by the industry, such as high workplace accident rates and health and food safety issues, emphasizing the need for proactive safety management strategies.

Running head: PUBLIC HEALTH
Public health
Name of the student:
Name of the University:
Author’s note

1PUBLIC HEALTH
Table of Contents
Introduction or background:............................................................................................................2
Aim and objectives:.........................................................................................................................3
Method:............................................................................................................................................3
Search strategy:............................................................................................................................3
Inclusion and exclusion criteria:..................................................................................................4
Data analysis:...............................................................................................................................5
Data extraction:............................................................................................................................5
Results:............................................................................................................................................5
Outcome of systematic review.....................................................................................................5
Thematic analysis:.......................................................................................................................7
Discussion:.....................................................................................................................................11
Conclusion:....................................................................................................................................13
Endnote:.........................................................................................................................................15

2PUBLIC HEALTH
Title: Effect of safety management on job performance in hospitality industry in Malaysia: a
systematic review
Introduction or background:
Safety management is defined as the process or measures taken by organization to detect
safety risk and hazards in workplace and take adequate steps to mitigate risk or reduce exposure
to risk or hazards (Amyotte & Lupien, 2017). The key attributes of a safety management system
is to identify safety hazards, take remedial steps to maintain safety, conduct regular assessment
of safety performance and assess its impact on overall performance (Reinhold, Tint, & Paas,
2016). Safety management is an important priority in different work sectors due to its impact on
employee’s performance, productivity and overall profitability of an organization. However,
safety management becomes a challenging task for organization because of environmental
turbulence in the global market and its impact on operations of an organization (Surienty, 2012).
Focusing on the safety of employees is essential to achieve organization goals, however current
challenges that has increased challenge for hospitality industry in safety management is the rise
in injuries and other health and safety risk recently. It has magnified the level of hazard or safety
issue that an employee can face in work.
The hospitality industry in Malaysia continue to face challenge because of high
workplace accident rates and rise in incidents of health and food safety issues in hospitality
industry (Norizawati & Tarmiji, 2014). Other research evidence suggested that hazardous
incidence in workplace can be reduced if employees and employers are more sensitive to good
safety behavior and safety management practices. Effective implementation of safety
management practices is also beneficial to support employees in adapting good safety behavior

3PUBLIC HEALTH
and promoting work performance (Robertson, Jansen Birch, & Cooper, 2012). A suitable and
safe work environment influences employee’s attitude towards work and desire to perform.
Hence, the level of safety management can influence involvement or non-involvement of
employee’s in he production activities at workplace. As the hospitality industry of Malaysia is
growing, it is necessary to evaluate safety management practices in Malaysia and its impact on
work performance. The main purpose of systematic review is to evaluate research literature on
the effect of safety management on Job performance in Malaysia in the hospitality sector and we
also seek to find out the extent to which hospitality industry of Malaysia is ready to provide
suitable and effective workplace environment to workers.
Aim and objectives:
 To analyze how safety management practices affect job performance in the hospitality
industry
 To evaluate safety management practices in hospitality sector of Malaysia
 To determine the impact of safety management on job performance in employees
working in hospitality sector in Malaysia
Method:
Search strategy:
The systematic review process was guided by PRISMA checklist which is an evidence
based framework to accurately report systematic reviews. The PRISMA checklist helped in the
formulation of review protocol, search strategy, risk assessment and quality appraisal and data

4PUBLIC HEALTH
extraction process. The final list of articles obtained after applying search strategy has been
provided in the form of PRISMA flow diagram.
To get relevant and recent peer-reviewed research articles related to the research topic, extensive
search was done from ACU library data base. The search process was refined by the use of filters for
dates, resource type and subject. The date for literature search was set between 2010 and 2018. The main
rational for this was to get updated information on safety management practices in hospitality industry of
Malaysia. In addition, from the list of different resource types, only journal articles were taken and other
source like newspaper, online websites and reports were excluded. In addition, the search strategy for
retrieving relevant articles was to use specific key terms related to the topic. The search process was
limited to retrieving articles published in a peer-reviewed journal article. The key terms used for literature
search included ‘Safety management practices’, ‘Safety management practices in hospital industry of
Malaysia’ and ‘effect of safety management on job performance in Malaysia’.
Inclusion and exclusion criteria:
As per the guidelines for the conducting systematic review, certain inclusion and
exclusion criteria was also defined for systematic review. The key inclusion and exclusion
criteria for the literature review were as follows:
 Type of publication: Only peer-reviewed research articles published within 2010-2018
were included in the review.
 Research question: Another inclusion criteria was that all research articles must clearly
defined objective similar to the effectiveness of safety management and in the context of
practices in Malaysia.
 Population: The main population of interest in all studies should be workers in
hospitality industry or staffs of hospitality industry in Malaysia.

5PUBLIC HEALTH
 Type of evidence: Only primary research articles and literature review related studies
were taken for the review.
 Intervention: The interventions implemented in selected research articles must be within
the context of safety management practices.
 Language: Only those articles were taken which were published in English language.
Data analysis:
The internal validity and quality of each research articles were judged by considering
research rigor, potential source of bias and confounders. The studies were also evaluated
according to level of evidence criteria. These two strategies were useful in extensively analyzing
methodological approach and scientific rigor in studies.
Data extraction:
For each study, data were extracted related to year of publication, industry, country,
intervention, comparison group, independent variables and dependent variables. This process
helped in selection and categorization of research evidence according to the research question
and objective of the study.
Results:
Outcome of systematic review
By the assessment of research articles on the basis of inclusion and exclusion criteria, a
total of 20 articles were screened for eligibility. The initial search was done by use of key terms
and a total 80 articles were retrieved. However, after assessment for duplicates, only 50 articles
were included for further analysis. Finally, the review of research articles on the basis of
inclusion and exclusion criteria resulted in inclusion of 20 articles for review. Out of this, 8 full-

6PUBLIC HEALTH
text articles were excluded as it did not have links with hospitality industry after reading the full-
text of the article. On the whole, 10 low to moderate quality research articles were included for
systematic review and analysis. The research designs for the studies mainly included longitudinal
study, randomized controlled trial and cross-sectional interview method. The summary of
included studies and risk of bias assessment has been provided in Table 1 and Table 2.

7PUBLIC HEALTH
Records identified through
database searching
(n = 80)
Additional records identified
through other sources
(n = 15 )
Records after duplicates removed
(n = 50 )
Records screened
(n = 40 )
Records excluded
(n = 10 )
Full-text articles assessed for
eligibility
(n = 20 )
Studies included in
qualitative synthesis
(n = 5 )
Studies included in quantitative
synthesis (meta-analysis)
(n =5 )
Full-text articles
excluded, with
reasons
(n = 20 )
Figure 1: PRISMA diagram or PRISMA flowchart related to search process and selection of
articles for the review

8PUBLIC HEALTH
The quality of selected research articles were judged by identifying limitations in study
design, present confounding factors, potential for bias, hierarchy of evidence, generalisability of
findings and research rigor. Out of 10 research articles, five articles were high quality paper and
others were found to be of low to moderate quality because of methodological limitation. All
research studies were done in Malaysia and two of them gave idea about safety management
practices by evaluating perception of culinary workers and managers respectively. Two articles
explored relation between work condition and job performance and another article gave insight
into employee’s perception toward safety management practices. Other five articles specifically
covered details about important elements that promotes safety management practices and affect
job performance in hospitality industry.
Table 1: Summary of included studies
Author of
included studies
Year Country Aim Main findings
Fernando & Yusoff 2014 Malaysia To investigate the
characteristic of
food companies
and their food
safety
improvement
activities
Difference in
perception to
improve product
quality and lower
risk of food safety
Haslam et al. 2016 UK To investigate
about the impact
Employees in
proactive

9PUBLIC HEALTH
of organizational
approaches to
occupational
safety and health
management on
organizational
performance
organization more
committed to work
and have greater
job satisfaction
level
Idris & Dollard 2014 Malaysia To evaluate
relation between
climate construct
and psychosocial
safety as a
precursor to job
characteristics
Psychosocial
safety reduces
psychological
problems in
workplace
Ismail et al., 2009 Malaysia To evaluate the
impact of
occupational stress
on job
performance
Inclusion of
emotional
intelligence
necessary to
improve job
performance
Jaafar 2017 Malaysia To identify
perception of
facilities
maintenance
employee’s
towards safety
The priority
towards safety
management
practices is low

10PUBLIC HEALTH
management
practices
Jeinie et al. 2016 Malaysia To evaluate
effectiveness of
food safety and
hygiene practices
among restaurants
in Malaysia
Effectiveness
depends on type
of hotel and
location
Chan 2015 Malaysia To evaluate
employment
structure and its
impact on human
resource
development
Multi-dimension
strategy needed to
solve issues related
to HR
Bustamam, Teng &
Abdullah
2014 Malaysia To investigate
relationship
between rewards
and job
satisfaction
Rewards positively
influence job
satisfaction
Terera & Ngirande 2014 South Africa To assess the
impact of job
satisfaction on
employee retention
Employee rewards
lead to employee
retention
McFadden et al. 2016 U.S To investigate
about the effect of
Safety climate is
an indicator of

11PUBLIC HEALTH
safety climate on
safety outcomes
management
commitment to
workplace safety
Table 2: Risk of bias assessment
Study Validity Relevance of result Quality
Fernando & Yusoff Yes Yes High
Haslam et al. Yes Yes High
Idris & Dollard Yes Yes Moderate
Ismail et al., Yes Yes High
Jaafar Yes Yes High
Jeinie et al. Low Yes Moderate
Chan Yes Yes Moderate
Bustamam, Teng &
Abdullah
No Low Low
Terera & Ngirande Yes Low Moderate
McFadden et al. Yes No Moderate
Thematic analysis:
After the review of research articles, three main themes emerged regarding the impact of
safety management on job performance in hospitality industry. These themes were generated by
coding key statements or common ideas from selected research articles. This process of coding