Vassie, Luise
Health and Safety Management Group, University of Leicester, 154 Upper New Walk, Leicester LE1 7QA UK.
44 1162 525784 lhv1@le.ac.uk
ABSTRACT
This paper reports on a questionnaire study to elicit the views of health and safety professionals and operational managers on health and safety management in their organisations and the performance of health and safety professionals and operational managers in relation to health and safety management. The results indicate that both groups recognise the importance of understanding aspects of each other’s discipline and a lack of operational management understanding of the business impact of poor health and safety management. This, and differences in views between the groups, suggest the there is a gap, which may be filled by education, training and professional development.
KEYWORDS
Health and safety professionals, operational managers, health and safety management
INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
Corporate governance requires organisations to develop a system of internal control for the management of significant risks (Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, 1999). Therefore, where health and safety issues present a significant business risk, these risks should be incorporated into the organisation’s system of internal control. As a result, there is a need for managers to have an appreciation of a much wider range of risks than just financial risks. An understanding of issues such as, hazard identification, risk assessment, risk control, risk perception and risk communication is required to appreciate the requirements for managing health and safety risks.
Effective health and safety management requires the development of health and safety management competences and capabilities at both the operational and the strategic levels of an organisation’s management. At the board level a strategic approach is required and therefore health and safety professionals must be able to communicate at this level in order for their views to be heard and valued (Hudson, 2001). In particular, health and safety professionals must be able to consider the wider context of business risk management. Of equal importance however, is for operational managers to understand the impact that failures in health and safety can have on the short and long term viability of an organisation and to recognise their responsibilities in relation to these issues (Health and Safety Executive, 1996).
In order to achieve high standards of health and safety management, in private and public sector organisations, groups of health and safety professionals and managers must cooperate. Each group must understand the problems of the other group and each must appreciate the fallacy of addressing their own issues in isolation of the
other’s (Van Dijk, 1995, Shaw, 2001). This initial study seeks to assess the perceptions amongst operational managers and health and safety professionals of the way in which health and safety risks are managed in their organisation and, in particular, of the role of health and safety professionals and operational managers for the management of these risks. This information provides useful insights into the effectiveness of health and safety management in the context of corporate governance.
METHOD
Two sample populations from a cross section of UK and Irish organisations were involved in the study: i) health and safety professionals and ii) operational managers. The samples were drawn from the organisations represented by health and safety professionals who have studied/were studying on a postgraduate programme in Health and Safety Management at a UK university. Thus the sample of health and safety professional was the current and past UK and Irish student population and the operational manager population was self-selected by the health and safety professional within their organisation. The sample population comprised 82 organisations.
A self-completion questionnaire was used to gather data from the samples. The main part of the questionnaire consisted of twenty statements covering perceptions of health and safety management in the organisation and the approach of health and safety professionals and operational managers to health and safety management. Respondents were asked to express their level of agreement with each of these statements using a five point likert-scale covering the range of views Strongly agree, Agree, Neither agree/nor disagree, Disagree and Strongly disagree. In order to reduce the possibility that responses were biased, the sequence of statements was randomised and statements framed in the both positive (C1) and negative (C2) formats with expectations of both positive (C5) and negative (C10) responses. In addition, respondents were asked to provide the length of time in their current role and in their occupation, the proportion of time spent dealing with senior management on health and safety issues and to rank in order of importance four risks to the organisation.
Two identical questionnaires were forwarded together with envelopes to place them in when completed and a reply paid envelope to the health and safety professional. One questionnaire was identified for the response of the health and safety professional, while the other was identified for the response of the operational manager. The health and safety professional was asked to place their completed questionnaire in the envelope attached to the questionnaire. In addition, they were asked to pass the other questionnaire to an operational manager in the organisation for completion and to arrange for the operational manager to return the completed questionnaire to them in the envelope provided. Finally, the health and safety professional was asked to return both completed questionnaires in the reply-paid envelope provided.
Responses from the questionnaire were coded and keyed into a spreadsheet in order to facilitate identification of the similarities and differences in responses between these two groups in relation to health and safety management. In order to support the overall assessment of respondents’ views, responses were reformatted to provide a uni-directional presentation format. To achieve this, the responses to positive statements expecting a positive response (C5) were reversed. This ensured that the response direction for all statements is then the same and respondents’ views can be categorised as Strongly positive, Positive, Neutral, Negative and Strongly negative. In addition, a mean score for health and safety professionals and operational managers for each of the statements can be
calculated. Statements where responses have been reversed are: C1, C3, C5, C6, C7, C11, C12, C14, C17, C19, C20. These are denoted by R in the results presented.
RESULTS
Thirty-eight (46 per cent) and thirty-one questionnaires (38 per cent) were returned by health and safety professionals and operational managers, respectively. Of these, six questionnaires were returned uncompleted. Therefore the valid response rate was 39 per cent for health and safety professionals and 30 per cent for operational managers.
HEALTH AND SAFETY PROFESSIONALS
On average, health and safety professionals had been in their current role, which was in most cases a health and safety manager or adviser, for just under 5 years (range 1 month to 17 years) and had been in the profession for 10 years (range 3.5 to 27 years). This group indicated that they spent, on average, 39 per cent (range5 to 90 per cent) of their time dealing with senior management on occupational health and safety issues. The average scores for each statement are shown in Figure 1, while Figure 2 shows the distribution of responses across the categories of Strongly positive, Positive, Neutral, Negative and Strongly negative. Responses by this group to statements C3, C6, C7, C8, C9, C11, C14, C18, C19, C20 are considered to be particularly positive, as they have
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