The interaction between the implementation of an occupational health and safety management system and safety culture:a case study in the rubber industry

A prominent theme emerging in Occupational Health and Safety (OSH) is the development of management systems. A range of interventions, according to a prescribed route detailed by one of the management systems, can be introduced into an organisation with some expectation of improved OSH performance. This thesis attempts to identify the key influencing factors that may impact upon the process of introducing interventions, (according to B88800: 1996, Guide to Implementing Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems) into an organisation. To help identify these influencing factors a review of possible models from the sphere of Total Quality Management (TQM) was undertaken and the most suitable TQM model selected for development and use in aSH. By anchoring the aSH model's development in the reviewed literature a range ofeare, medium and low level influencing factors were identified. This model was developed in conjunction with the research data generated within the case study organisation (rubber manufacturer) and applied to the organisation. The key finding was that the implementation of an OSH intervention was dependant upon three broad vectors of influence. These are the Incentive to introduce change within an organisation which refers to the drivers or motivators for OSH. Secondly the Ability within the management team to actually implement the changes refers to aspects, amongst others, such as leadership, commitment and perceptions of OSH. Ability is in turn itself influenced by the environment within which change is being introduced. TItis aspect of Receptivity refers to the history of the plant and characteristics of the workforce. Aspects within Receptivity include workforce profile and organisational policies amongst others. It was found that the TQM model selected and developed for an OSH management system intervention did explain the core influencing factors and their impact upon OSH performance. It was found that within the organisation the results that may have been expected from implementation of BS8800:1996 were not realised. The OSH model highlighted that given the organisation's starting point, a poor appreciation of the human factors of OSH, gave little reward for implementation of an OSH management system. In addition it was found that general organisational culture can effectively suffocate any attempts to generate a proactive safety culture.

An evaluation of certain aspects of an occupational health service

This thesis has been concerned with obtaining evidence to explore the proposition that the provision of occupational health services as arranged at the present time represents a misallocation of resources. The research has been undertaken within the occupational health service of a large Midlands food factory. As the research progressed it became evident that questions were being raised about the nature and scope of occupational health as well as the contribution, in combating danger at work, that occupational health services can make to the health and safety team. These questions have been scrutinized in depth, as they are clearly important, and a resolution of the problem of the definition of occupational health has been proposed. I have taken the approach of attempting to identify specific objectives or benefits of occupational health activities so that it is possible to assess how far these objectives are being achieved. I have looked at three aspects of occupational health; audiometry, physiotherapy and pre-employment medical examinations as these activities embody crucial concepts which are common to all activities in an occupational health programme. A three category classification of occupational health activities is proposed such that the three activities provide examples within each category. These are called personnel therapy, personnel input screening and personnel throughput screening. I conclude that I have not shown audiometry to be cost-effective. My observations of the physiotherapy service lead me to support the suggestion that there is a decline in sickness absence rates due to physiotherapy in industry. With pre-employment medical examinations I have shown that the service is product safety oriented and that benefits are extremely difficult to identify. In regard to the three services studied, in the one factory investigated, and because of the immeasurability of certain activities, I find support for the proposition that the mix of occupational health services as provided at the present time represents a misallocation of resources.

Aspects of health among an employed population

This survey collected information on aspects of health amongst an employed population, employees in 14 different organisations in the West Midlands Regional Health Authority; and was a stratified sample of senior managers, middle managers and operatives. Nine hundred and sixty questionnaires were distributed asking for both quantitative and qualitative information on 58 questions covering health, work, family, leisure activities and life-style. A response rate of 48% (459 returned questionnaires) came from 290 men (63%), 165 women (36%) and four people (1%) who did not answer the gender question. The initial findings from this study are unique in that there has not been a specific review of the health of people at work. In answer to the main research questions, 92% felt they were healthy. Compared to others of a similar age, 34% felt their health was `above average', 58% `average', and 7&37 `below average'. Thirty two percent of respondents had visited their GP in the past 1-2 months; the highest reason given was disorders of the respiratory system, 20%. People's perceptions on the effects of work on their health were: good effect, 13% fair effect, 20% no effect, 27% poor effect, 27% and bad effect, 7%. The effects of leisure activities on health were thought to be more positive: good effect, 46% fair effect, 20% no effect, 21% poor effect, 3% and bad effect, 2%. The perceptions of effects of life-style on health were considered to be: good effect, 32% fair effect, 32% no effect, 20% poor effect, 9% and bad effect, 1%.  In this survey, leisure and life-style were seen by employees to have more beneficial effects on health than work. Future implications include a review of occupational health as a major policy development area within primary care. There is a need to influence the education and training of health care practitioners in order to affect their ability to practise effectively in this new and challenging area of work.

The use of expert manpower in health and safety in France

The thesis examines the system of occupational health and safety in France. It analyses the use of expert manpower in the field with a view to establishing the possibility of a profession in health and safety. An input-output model is developed to bring together the necessary elements of prevention of accidents and occupational diseases. The role of institutions concerned with health and safety is analysed with reference to this model. The research establishes the need for a health and safety specialist role. The recognition and status of this role are found to be subject to other criteria including the acceptance by institutions of such a specialist role. The model is also used to define the role of this specialist as expected by the various institutions intervening in the field.

The Evaluation of health and safety auditing systems

The specific objective of the research was to evaluate proprietary audit systems. Proprietary audit systems comprise question sets containing approximately 500 questions dealing with selected aspects of health and safety management. Each question is allotted a number of points and an organisation seeks to judge its health and safety performance by the overall score achieved in the audit. Initially it was considered that the evaluation method might involve comparing the proprietary audit scores with other methods of measuring safety performance. However, what appeared to be missing in the first instance was information that organisations could use to compare the contrast question set content against their own needs. A technique was developed using the computer database FileMaker Pro. This enables questions in an audit to be sorted into categories using a process of searching for key words. Questions that are not categorised by word searching can be identified and sorted manually. The process can be completed in 2-3 hours which is considerably faster than manual categorisation of questions which typically takes about 10 days. The technique was used to compare and contrast three proprietary audits: ISRS, CHASE and QSA. Differences and similarities between these audits were successfully identified. It was concluded that in general proprietary audits need to focus to a greater extent on identifying strengths and weaknesses in occupational health and safety management systems. To do this requires the inclusion of more probing questions which consider whether risk control measures are likely to be successful.

Substances hazardous to health:the nature of the expertise associated with competent risk assessment

This research investigated expertise in hazardous substance risk assessment (HSRA). Competent pro-active risk assessment is needed to prevent occupational ill-health caused by hazardous substance exposure occurring in the future. In recent years there has been a strong demand for HSRA expertise and a shortage of expert practitioners. The discipline of Occupational Hygiene was identified as the key repository of knowledge and skills for HSRA and one objective of this research was to develop a method to elicit this expertise from experienced occupational hygienists. In the study of generic expertise, many methods of knowledge elicitation (KE) have been investigated, since this has been relevant to the development of 'expert systems' (thinking computers). Here, knowledge needed to be elicited from human experts, and this stage was often a bottleneck in system development, since experts could not explain the basis of their expertise. At an intermediate stage, information collected was used to structure a basic model of hazardous substance risk assessment activity (HSRA Model B) and this formed the basis of tape transcript analysis in the main study with derivation of a 'classification' and a 'performance matrix'. The study aimed to elicit the expertise of occupational hygienists and compare their performance with other health and safety professionals (occupational health physicians, occupational health nurses, health and safety practitioners and trainee health and safety inspectors), as evaluated using the matrix. As a group, the hygienists performed best in the exercise, and this group were particularly good at process elicitation and at recommending specific control measures, although the other groups also performed well in selected aspects of the matrix and the work provided useful findings and insights. From the research, two models of HSRA have been derived, an HSRA aid, together with a novel videotape KE technique and interesting research findings. The implications of this are discussed with respect to future training of HS professionals and wider application of the videotape KE method.