Occupational health and safety management perceptions in Malaysian public hospitals: implications for the implementation of standardized management systems

Abstract

All industries in Malaysia, including government organizations, have had to comply with the Occupational Safety and Health Act 1994 to fulfill their responsibilities as an employer to ensure that workers have a safe workplace. The Occupational Safety and Health Act 1994 requires employers to perform minimum duties to ensure the safety, health and welfare of their workers, thus, the joint responsibility between employer and employees in the government organizations are expected to ensure the safety of a workplace. Although this regulation binds employers, the Social Security Organization (SOCSO) statistics showed a fluctuation in industrial accidents, from 114,134 accidents in 1995 to 85,338 accidents in 1998, then the accidents increased to 92,074 in 1999, 95,006 in 2000, and subsequently the accident was reduced to 85,926 in 2001 until 56,339 in 2007. As a consequence, the adoption of an effective OHS management system as a tool to assist in meeting legal obligations should ensure the development of a safety culture and provide the best approach to reduce accidents in an organization. Thus, government organizations need to transform the philosophy of the Occupational Safety and Health Act 1994 into reality and the implementation of an OHS management system will assist in resolving OHS problems successfully and is also a means to legal compliance. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the information about current OHS practices that can influence the development and implementation of an effective OHS management system and provide a systematic process for the implementation of a OHS management system to enable the Malaysian public hospital sector to meet its OHS obligations.This study used a correlation quantitative non-experimental investigation, i.e. survey, where the study focused on collecting and analyzing the data in a single study. Proportionate stratified random sampling was used in selecting the respondents. 418 employees from three state hospitals in the northern region of Malaysia participated in this study and that gave a response rate of 43.15%. The questionnaire was adapted from the Safety Climate Assessment tool, where it was to identify perceptions of the hospital employees regarding several OHS management elements and implication towards their OHS performance. Analysis of data was done using SPSS version 12 and AMOS 4.0 and the outcomes of the data were evaluated and recommendations were made on the strategies to introduce an effective implementation of an OHS management system in the hospital sector in Malaysia.From the structural equation modeling, this research demonstrated that a direct relationship existed between the independent variables and dependent variables. The reliability results revealed that the measurement constantly assesses what it is intended to measure and all the scales shown reasonable validity in determining how well the concept is defined by the measures. The findings of this study revealed that the general view of employees with regard to their OHS practices was in the range of low to medium, indicating a mixture of "disagree" to "almost agree". Based on the perceptions of employees to have effective OHS practices in the workplace, this study also disclosed evidence that the critical elements of occupational health and safety management were accident and injury procedures, leadership style, management commitment, health and safety objectives and safety reporting procedures, and safety training. In addition, the findings of this study reported five elements including health and safety objectives, safety reporting, management commitment, the role of the supervisor, and leadership style were seen to support the implementation of an effective OHS management system, however, safety training was not significant but lack of safety training might hinder the effective management of OHS. In sum, the significant results of this study were (1) management commitment; (2) health and safety objectives; (3) training and competence; (4) role of supervisors; (5) safety reporting; (6) leadership style; and (7) safety incidents: accidents and injuries in the workplace. It seems that all elements of OHS management and one dependent variable that are safety incidents were critical to ensure good practices of OHS in the workplace.Lastly, some implications of this study were this survey's instrument can be an effective measurement tool to demonstrate improvement and to reflect on how to improve problematic areas in their workplace. Furthermore, employees' perceptions are vital as a realistic approach of determining whether an organization has attained an acceptable level of safety in their workplace.