Abstract
Work safety in organizations has been the most debated issues recently. Strict laws ensure that employers devise plans to minimize errors and reduce chances of any fatalities or injuries. There is another aspect of the workers safety issue; it is the alarming increase in the number of voluntary or involuntary cases of Unsafe Acts being committed by the employees. Firms have employed many Error management tools like Tripod- Delta and Reviews to handle the issue. Airlines and Railways where Unsafe acts can lead to massive losses both human and monetary; these methods try to investigate the root cause of Unsafe Acts, primarily the environmental and psychological factors. Lead indicators indentify factors like fatigue, lack of motivation and ignorance can pose technological and physical risks. Proper training and frequent break intervals with moderate exercise can reduce stress and unsafe acts committed by the employees.
Developing a culture of safety in Organizations has become a crucial and indispensible responsibility. Still the numbers of non-fatal workplace injuries are increasing continuously; according to the Bureau of Labor statistics, in 2003 4.4 million workers got injured due to unsafe acts. Occupational safety is becoming increasingly important; it includes not only the people involved in production processes within various organizations, but also their colleagues. (Viscusi, 2008). Initially Lost Time Injuries (LIT) measured safety but the now the concept is a more defined and comprehensive one. As emphasized by the World Health Organization (ND), taking preventive measures and avoiding possible hazards is one of the most important aspects of occupational safety. Organizations today have devised safety outcome measures that assist in gathering data and setting safety targets. Thesis: “Despite the measures taken by firms, there are many instances of unsafe acts being committed. Rather than blaming the person; understanding the situation and formulating ways to change it can improve the scenario.”
There are several dimensions to this problem; there is a plethora of ways in which people can commit unsafe acts. The most common reasons behind it are lack of adequate training, complacent attitude, bad habits and resistance to changes. The employers have a hard task dealing with these issues. According to Della-Giustina (2000), employers are responsible for developing proper safety programs for their employees. It is important to understand, that safety related issues oftentimes lead to the employee’s being permanently or temporarily unable to perform their duties. This definitely results in the losses for the employers.
The most prominent way in which people can commit unsafe acts are forgetting to wear their personal protective equipment (PPE), ignoring safety checklists, and disinterest in safety compliance and participation. The given factors increase technological risks like dangerous production equipment; which may cause physical injuries especially under the influence of chemicals used at work place. Risk may be caused by a complex integrity of all of the factors mentioned above or any number of such factors combined (Concha-Barrientos, 2004). Such factors require consideration and ways of avoiding them. Technological risks usually cause physical damages to a worker. And unfortunately, there are numerous industries within which avoiding such risks is absolutely impossible. An attempt to classify such industries is made by the International Labor Organization (ND) in a document, named “Hazardous Work” published on the organization’s official web site Such industries include construction, building, mining and agriculture. (Edmonds, 2013).
Employment of children is one of the factors, which increases the likelihood of emerging unsafe situations and even cases of physical injuries. This is one of the reasons why full time employment of children is forbidden in many countries. In countries like Philippines, China, India and Vietnam, Child Labor is very common. Children are made to work under pathetic conditions and commit unsafe acts; and are very prone to deadly injuries. The child workers in the embroidery industry of India suffer from temporary to permanent blindness due to unsafe work conditions and practices. They continue to work in inhuman conditions as they are unaware of laws and want to make money to buy drugs.
The workers in many industries are used to working with outdated and risky machineries. The reason behind it is their resistance to changes; they do not want to learn the latest procedures as the monetary incentive is absent. Industries like agriculture, manufacturing, mining and a number of others contain moving elements. Such elements are moving fast with great power. They can cause significant threat to the health of the operator. Such a machine can easily damage the operator’s body, as remarked by International Labor Organization (ND) in their International Hazard Datasheets on Occupations (HDO)". It is particularly emphasized in EU OSHA (ND), that underestimation of such risks, failing to understand the importance of preventive measures, and thus, trying to find shortcuts to avoid taking such measures and thus saving time, oftentimes leads to the most unfortunate cases.
Bad Habits like ignorance about the safety and health standards increases biological risks; it includes coming in contact with bacteria, viruses and other similar factors. A doctor, who works with infectious patients and does not take proper preventive measures, In Vietnam there are numerous cases of doctors being infected with deadly diseases as they ignore taking basic safety precautions like washing their hands after examining a patient or wearing safety gloves. The same refers to a lab specialist, who will not take proper safety measures and thus would expose himself to the risk of being infected with viruses or bacteria operated.
There are certain psychosocial factors that lead to unsafe acts at work. Long work hours can lead to fatigue and voluntary ignorance of safety standards. In hospitals where nurses are overworked and get insufficient sleep can give inappropriate medication or treatment to the patients. Negligence on the part of the overworked hospital staff can lead to fatalities in the hospital. Fatigue and disinterest at work are lead indicators that act as an alarm before any mishap. This indicator can allow changes to be made before the situation gets out of control. It is also important to understand that economic and social state of the employee also affects his performance and rule abidance. In the final score neglecting or underestimating such risks may result in psychological or in some cases even psychiatric injury or disease. The results may even go as far as causing physical illnesses. The most widely recognized risk factors, which belong to the number of psychosocial ones, are; violence at the work place, stress related to the work activity.
The position of organizations on their “safety space” is dependent on their intrinsic resistance to their operating hazards. In coal mines workers at times ignore the basic safety precautions like wearing their helmets or taking their masks along. To earn an extra buck they are willing to endanger their life by entering a coal mine that is deadly and is identified as an illegal mining area. Such mines hardly provide basic safety standards; the casualties and accidents are numerous. The consumption of alcohol and drugs at work is another example of disregarding safety rules. It increases the chances of human error, leading to fatal accidents. At construction sites, workers consume alcohol to overcome fear while working on huge buildings and undertaking life threatening jobs.
The problem has to be dealt with to ensure safe working environment for the workers and the organizations. Lead Indicators need to be identified to classify factors that can cause accidents. Robust and strong systems need to be developed to stop further unsafe acts. Airlines have a special department that indentifies the lead factors that can cause accidents. This involves critical examination of past accidents and the reasons that lead to it. The black box in aircrafts is studies post crashes to evaluate the behavior of the pilot before the accident. By setting up a strong Defense System that sets safety goals for the workers; the situation can be improved. When all workers are aware of the system and how they can contribute to it; the accidents at work will witness a downfall. Developing proactive guidelines will ensure compliance to safety standards. To avoid consumption of alcohol at work; all workers should pass through the alcohol test before entering the premises. Arranging a health routine for them before work hours can increase productivity and will create a positive environment. Many organizations have started with simple breathing exercises and Yogic postures’ that improve concentration and mental alertness.
The organizations should have frequent small break intervals to lessen fatigue and boredom. In these breaks senior management can have informal communication with the workers and the staff. This will motivate the employees and will improve inter department communication also. A strong Reactive procedure that defines what to do in an emergency will help the workers in minimizing the injury and looses. All employees should have basic knowledge about the physical layout of the premises, the emergency medical aid kits and training to improve and stabilize their responses. Reactive Error Management Tools Like Tripod Beta is utilized by Aircrafts to reduce the dangers associated with human errors. It conducts incident analysis for complex and high risk incidents; being a visual methodology it analyses the human element in errors. Frequent mock drills will ensure that concepts can be put into practice whenever needed. In shopping malls the mock drills are a part of daily routine to ensure that all employees irrespective of their designation know how to handle tough situations. When all employees work together in these drills; the differentiation of work-cadre is minimized and motivations level is increased as all of them are equally responsible for their safety.
Identification of weak areas within the organization can help in avoiding a tragedy before it occurs. During staff rotation the chances of error are maximum; as change of duties takes place. The handing over process should be overseen by an expert to ensure safety. To boost the psychological and mental quotient of the employees healing music can be played at fixed intervals; this will reduce boredom and recharge the workers. There is nothing more dangerous than a complacent and de-motivated employee. Arranging for psychological sessions and seminars by experts within the office or factory ensures that the employees share their concerns about safety practices. These talks will act as a proactive measure to foresee any areas of concern.
The main reason of the unsafe behavior of workers in their working places is lack of understanding of the importance of safety measures and possible results. The Health and Safety measures should be considered during the designing phase of the organization. Unfortunately, such measures are too often seen as pure formalities, and as such are often avoided by the workers. In order to avoid more risks it is important to first of all inform the workers about the importance of observing all safety instructions and possible results of neglecting them. This needs to become one of the most important concerns of senior managers (Paton, 2008), who need to make safety education one of the most important concerns at the work place instead of seeing safety related issues only as a pure formality.
All factors like the management, cultural, technical and procedural should be considered while designing the safety factors for the organization. The workers should be an indispensible part of the entire process. Error reduction and management should be a separate stream that conducts frequent drills within different processes to highlight the most error prone arrears. Blaming should be replaced by collective responsibility; an accident or injury harms the entire firm rather than one particular employee. Proactive Error Management tools like Tripod Delta help utilize organizational factors that determine the influencing environment that affects an individual. It is a checklist based approach; it evaluates the role of human behavior in errors. The environment that a workers works in improvised or changed to reduce accidents and errors. Aircrafts maintenance and Railway Operations use Managing Engineering Safety Health (MESH) and Human Error Assessment & Reduction Technique as error management tools to motivate the workers and limit injuries.
The reasons that lead to unsafe acts should be classified into psychological factors and an expert should be hired to explore the reasons behind callous acts or the so called human errors. Getting hold of the situation is a better option than controlling the people behind it as human failing has its own limits. Identifying threats and errors is not enough; the situations that lead to those threats should be analyzed and controlled. The Japanese have replaced humans with Robots in processes that require automated work; this not only increases speed but reduces chances of injury as humans are prone to fatigue by repetitive and monotonous work. It is up to the design teams of organizations to meticulously understand the real importance of preventing risk during the design phase, the planning stage and finally the execution step.
References
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