THE IMPACT OF BEHAVIORAL SAFETY PROGRAMME AMONG EMPLOYEES

THE IMPACT OF BEHAVIORAL SAFETY PROGRAMME AMONG EMPLOYEES

ABSTRACT

The  aim  of  this  study  was  to  assess  the  impacts  of   the impact ofbehavioral safety programme among employee. The study covered Obong Victor Attah International Airport, Akwa Ibom State. A case  study  approach  was  used   and  31  respondents  were  sampled,  however  23  responses  were  received.  Semi-structure  interviews  and  self-administered  questionnaire  with  both  open-ended  and  close-ended  questions  was  used  to  collect  data.  Data  was  analyzed  using  Microsoft  excel  and  presented  by  frequency  tables,  charts  and  description. The  results  from  the  analysis  of  respondents  revealed  that  there  was  a  reasonable  impacts  of  occupational  health  and  safety  programme  to  the  organization.  However,  there  were  challenges  which  hinder  the  100  percent  of  successful  occupational  health  and  safety  at  Obong Victor Attah International Airport.  Training   and  education,  involvement  of  Senior Staff,  conforming  to  the  budget,  and  motivation  were  recommended  by  the  researcher.

 

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Safety naturally has to do with the provision of safe and accident free working environment for employees. A suitable work environment influences workers attitude to work and the desire to participate in the training processes within the working environment. It also deals with staff interest at the workplace. Therefore, it could undermine their involvement or non-involvement in the production activities which operates at the work place.  Staff translates technology and skills into production to consumers at the workplace.

The concept of ‘behaviour based safety’ has only in recent years been the focus of work environment research. It entails the understanding of how either individual attitudes and behaviour or management action is related to safety in the work place (McDonald, Hrymak 2002, p.1). Employee behaviour in the working environment is important. If a staff experiences the work place as a safe, healthy, happy place with supportive resources and facilities for working for optimal production, he or she tends to participate more than expected in the process of production (Alisimo, 2003). However, despite this strategic importance of the work place safety, most working environment is fraught with safe issues (John 2010.). As the obvious need to manage health and safety proactively, some establishment do not give it the priority it deserves. This may be due to a lack of knowledge, skills and motivation or to limited staff resources. Cost is also an important issue with companies feeling that they lack the capital necessary to make proper investment in health and safety and failing to appreciate the importance of this investment. Likewise, few establishments measure or understand the costs of safety failures in their establishment. This failure to understand how investment in safety may affect the establishment in terms of measureable outcomes is partly due to the challenges inherent in establishing exactly how effective safety management is related to establishment and employees performance.

According to Anju ( 2003), employers in are prone to accident such as burns, fingers, fractures, nose bleeds, fainting, shocks, scalds, gassing and suffocation. One of the main agenda is to address human development issues, Cotton (2005), noted that the agenda is achievable by the provision of infrastructure for services and employment through the hospitality industry of health and safety on workers are improved to promote and sustain efficiency. The maintenance and promotion of health is achieved through different combination of physical, mental and social well-being, together sometimes referred to as the “health triangle” generally, the content in which an individual lives is of great importance for his health status and quality of life. It is increasingly recognized that safety is maintained and improved not only through advancement and application of health science but also through the efforts and intelligent life style choice of the individual and society

1.2  Statement  of  the  Research  Problem

The  overall  research  problem   that  was  addressed  in  this  study  was  that  despite  an  increase  in  the  effort  to  bring about a healthy working environment, most organizations fall short of this primary responsibility. Lack of health and safety policies for employees in organization  leaves them exposed to high risk work hazards resulting in injuries which affect morale towards work, levels of teamwork spirit, and consequently, employee commitment towards work has deteriorated, this manifest itself in the form of lack of initiative and existence of counter productive work behaviours..

Rapid  advancement  in  modern  technology  and  rapid  increase  in  the  use  of  hazardous  chemical  substances  in  industry  and  commerce  have  increased  the  chances  that  significant  numbers  of  people  both  employees  and  members  of  general  public,  could  have  their  health  and  safety  endangered  by  workplace  hazards (Agola 2009).

The  effects  of  work place  hazards  are  not  confined  to  organizational  premises  alone;   they  can  often  do  cause  injuries  and  deaths  to  members  of  the  general  public  as  well.  The   importance  of   healthy  and  safe  policies   and  practices  is,  sadly,  often  underestimated  by  those  concerned  with  managing  businesses  and  by  individual  managers  within  those  businesses.  It  is  commonly known  that,  there  is  an  inherent  conflict  between  the  employer’s  need  to  increase  output,  and  efficiency  and  employee’s  needs  to  maintain  good  health  and  be  protected  from  hazards  at  workplace.  If  this  left  to  go  its  way,  it would  be  difficult  for  many  organizations  and  employees  to  realize  the  value  for  money,  because  employees  will  spend   their   earnings   treating  job- related  diseases,  injuries,  and/   or  death occurrence  at  large  number,  while  organizations  will  be  busy  paying  compensations  and  reparations,  fines  to  authorities,  repair  of   buildings   and   machines  cracks  and  broken  due  to  accidents   and   hazards.

1.3 Research Objectives

The  general  objective  of  this  study  was  to  examine  the  impacts  of  occupational  health   and  safety  programmes  to  the  performance  of   Arusha  airport  authority.

The  specific  objectives  of  this  study  was:

i          identify potential hazards in the industry

ii         investigate safety management procedures adopted in work places in Nigeria.

i          identify common occupational hazards in Nigeria.

ii         investigate safety management procedures that are being adopted in work places in Nigeria

 

1.4 Research Questions

The    research  questions  to be addressed in this work include:

i          What are the common occupational hazards in Nigeria?

ii         What are the  safety management procedures adopted in work places in Nigeria?

iii        What is the influence of safety management on job performance?

 

1.5  The  Significance  of  the  Study

This research hope to make a notable contribution in impacting the relevance of safety management on job performance among the employees in hospitality industry and by revealing also how safety management can affect the growth and development of the industry in Nigeria also it will be of great use to all, especially to those in the field of hospitality, it will also be of immense benefit for researchers that will be carrying out similar research in future

1.6  Scope  of  the  Study

The  study  focused on the  impact of behavioral safety programme among employee.    The    study was conducted at Victor Attah International Airport, Akwa Ibom State..  The  study  was  more  inclusive  as  it  picked  respondents  from  all  departments  and  Junior Staff   within  the  organization  premise  to  get  results  which  will  be  real  to  the  actual  different  circumstances.

1.7 Limitations of the Study

The following factors limits or hinders the study of the project and the possible means to overcome these problems were explained in the project work. However, the researcher while conducting the research work experienced financial problem couple with time factor. Again it was not easy to travel to all states for first-hand information. Most of the findings are based on the experiences from the case study, which of the purpose at this study has been taken as a proper representation of the state in the country.
More to that, most of the workers interviewed do not keep up to date statistic or record of data needed, whereas, some employees of Unilever Nigeria Plc were reluctant to provide the researcher with the needed information due to fear and ignorance of the research work. At the preliminary library research carried out by the researcher, it was discovered that the way up to date, material literature on the employee’s health in the country could not be found easily. Above all, lack of handy transport facilities renders the researchers movement limited to Victor Attah International Airport, Akwa Ibom State..

1.8 Organization  of  the  Study

This  research  is  attributed  in  five  chapters.  The  first  chapter  is  used  to  portrait  what  really  the  research  is  all  about  by  giving  introduction  of  the  topic  information,  existing  problem  and  objectives  of  the  research  so  far.

The  second  chapter  is  all  about  going  through  the  literature  of  other  writers  and  researchers  on  the  relevant  research  topic  to  see  what  they  have  done,  and  what  have  been  missing  in  their  work  that  this  research  can  help  to   close  that  gap.  In  this  chapter  is  where  the  researcher  formulate  conceptual  framework  of  which  tries  to  link  different  ideas  to  get  the  whole.  Also,  the  theoretical  framework  is  constructed  here  by  seeing  the  relation  between  theories  and  behavior  of  people  in  adopting  and  implementing  safety  and  health  programmes  to  support  organization  performance.  The  third  chapter  deal  with  research  methodology.  It  discuss  the  research  approach,  research  design,  location  of  the  study,  sample  size  and  targeted  population.  It  look  on  the  methods   and  tools  for  data  collection,  the  validity  and  reliability,  and  ways  of  data  measurement  and  analysis.

The  fourth  chapter  describe  the  characteristics   of  the  findings  and   analyze  the  facts  in  order  to  understand  the  reality.  It   pass  through  the  facts   according  to  the  responses  of  each  research  question  as   highlighted  in  chapter  one.  And,  the  fifth  chapter  is  all  about  the  conclusion  and  recommendation  of  the  research’s  finding  analysis.

THE IMPACT OF BEHAVIORAL SAFETY PROGRAMME AMONG EMPLOYEES

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