Safety Climate and Occupational Stress †Free Samples to Students

Questiuon: Discuss about the Safety Climate and Occupational Stress. Answer: Introduction: Canberra construction company is a construction management company specifically dealing with residential projects designed by architects. This company is also dealing with commercial buildings. This incident happened at an under-construction site. This incident happened because there were electricity wires obscured by flora and foliage. Hence, people could not see clearly these electricity wires. As a result, tip of the truck hit overhead power lines which were having 11,000 volts electricity. In addition to this, these flora and foliage could have conducted electricity due to presence of water content in it. This incident happened when Mr. Booth was unloading gravel form his truck into a compound at a Turner worksite. This type of site is usually unsafe for working. Hence, there should be display of warning signs at such sites. However, at the time of incidence, there were no danger signs or tags at this site. Moreover, there were strong winds on the day of incidence. Heavy winds we re additional unsafe environment because due to winds there was movement of the electricity wires and it could touch to the human beings and other articles. Adequate distance should be maintained between electrical wires and persons and articles to avoid shock. Persons and articles should not come near or under the overhead power lines (Inman, 2015). This workplace was not properly maintained. It was evident form the presence of electric wires above the compound. Management of company and builder should take special precautions to make building plan which would be safe work place. This building plan should be well documented and it should be distributed to all the contractors involved in the construction of the building. It would be helpful in alerting another company about potential risks at the workplace. All project participants like client, architects, designers and subcontractors should contribute to the safety of the building (Taylor, 2015). Management and employer should manage contractor in an effective manner. Management should educate contractor about all the safety standards of the company. In this case also, it was evident that at the time accident, this site was taken over by another company. Documents related to the building plan were not available with the new company. In this case, lack of knowledge about the building plan and workplace could be the potential reason for occurrence of incident. Safety signs at the workplace could have been used as the safety measures for the prevention of injuries for the employees. Main purpose of these safety signs is to warn and instruct the employees about the potential risk and hence employees can take necessary precautions against these risks Safety signs can be in the form of sign board, safety color and an acoustic signal. In addition to this, employers have legal duty to provide proper training to the employees and other workers about the meaning of the safety signs. Ot herwise, there would be misunderstanding and confusion among the employees about the safety sign and adjustment in the safety precautions (Hughes and Ferrett, 2015). It is the duty of employers to display these signs at the workplace. In case, if these safety signs not displayed at the places of potential risks, it is considered as the breach of safety standards by the employer. Prior to display of these safety signs, employers need to perform adequate assessment of risks at the workplace. After assessment of the risks at the workplace, there is possibility of existence of few risks, these cant be avoided. Employer should display, safety signs for such unavoidable risks. Assessment of the risks should be accurately documented at the workplace. This documentation would be beneficial as the future reference for implementation of the safety standards (Kline, 2013). However, at this workplace, very little documentation of the risks assessment was available. Employer should welcome sugge stions form the external agencies for the implementation of the safe workplace environment. Employer of this company refused to take advice from Dr Long, who was safety expert. Suggestions from the safety experts would have improved safety standards of this workplace and could have prevented such incidence. Interest and willingness of the management and employer is most crucial factor for the implementation of safety standards at the workplace. Employer can significantly improve engagement of employees in improving safety standards and preventing accidents (Wachter and Yorio, 2014). Safety culture and climate in the company proved to be important factor for the implementation of safety standards in the organisation. It reflects managements willingness in the safety of workers. It has been established that improvement in the culture is directly proportional to the safe working environment for the workers. Safety climate is based on the managers perceptions and beliefs in the safe working environment for the workers. Safe climate is considered as the product of the safe culture (Kim et al., 2017). Managements commitment and involvement in safety can improve employees satisfaction in the workplace. It would be helpful in improving safe working environment for workers. Management and employ er should make authoritative decisions to exercise control over safety standards implementation and to allocate adequate expenditure for implementation of safety standards. Effective security personal should be appointed and lock system should be implemented at the compound gate of the company. It would be helpful in keeping proper check on the entry of outside persons. It is evident that, in this company there was no lock system (Stephen, 2015; Masso, 2015). Induction programme should be arranged for the employees and non-employee workers at the workplace. These induction programme proved beneficial in improving awareness to the employees about the workplace. However, according to company resources, no induction programme was arranged at the construction site. There should be development of generic safety guidelines and its implementation in the workplace. These guidelines should be developed from the qualified persons. In case of Canberra construction company, generic safety guidelines were developed however these were not developed by qualified persons. It is mandatory for every company to appoint safety officer. This appointment would be helpful in taking overall control on safety of the company. However, in this company there was no safety officer. Dimitri Brandis, one of the persons of the Kenoss agreed this fact. Workplace audit for the identification hazards and risks is beneficial for the timely rectifying these risks. There was no record of safety audits in this company (Abreu et al., 2014). It was evident from the existence of unsafe electricity wires at the construction site. For any company, implementation of safety plan and its follow-up is very important. Mere signing off safety plan is not enough for the effective implementation of safety. In this construction, safety plan was signed off in 2011, however it was not implemented in proper way. This resulted in the Mr. Booths accident at this construction site. In this case, it is clear that, Canberra construction company and Kenoss contractor didnt give attention to the safety signs. It is the duty of employer to provide safe environment for the both employees and non-employees (Nenonen and Vasara, 2013). In this case, Mr. Booth was not the employee of the construction company. He was working with Kenoss contactor. Company mentioned that employees of the company were briefed about the potential danger at the workplace and it was instructed that only small vehicles could enter the workplace. However, Mr. Booth was not regular employee of this construction company and he was not aware of these instructions. Hence, this construction should extend safety instruction to non-employee workers also along with regular employees. Both construction company and kenoss blamed Mr. Booth for the accident. In their argument, they mentioned that Mr. Booth didnt followed instructions given by foreman. However, it should be the responsibility of the company to make compulsion to all the workers to follow all the instructions. It reflects good governance in the company. Effective governance in the company can be helpful in the implementation of safety standards. Hence, construction company should take responsibility of this accident and should improve governance of the company (Guldenmund, 2010). Electricity can be dangerous but its hazards can be prevented by taking proper precautions. It is the duty of the employer to implement all the safety standards related to electricity and provide safe environment at the workplace. This incidence could have been prevented by putting insulators on the electrical wires. Plastic and rubber coated insulators could have been useful in the prevention of conductors encountering the people and articles. These electrical wires should be grounded properly and these should be at 0 volt. Potential risks due to electrical wires can be prevented by turning of power supply to these electrical wires. However, in this company it was evident that there was no arrangement for switching off these electrical wires. Safe Work Australia (SWA) could have played significant role in prevention of this incidence. SWA is a government body and this body developed national policy related to the work health and safety (WHS) and workers compensation. Procedures in SWAs policy include both corporate plan and operational plan. National policy development includes integrated contribution of government, employers and employee. Hence, there is complete control and monitoring of each stakeholders activities in the implementation of safety policy in the company. This policy can develop effective legislative framework. WHS legislation can take strict action against the companies breaching safety standards. SWA can carry out research and publish research. This published research can be used as evidence for the improvement in the safety plan of companies. Collection of data from the different companies and its analysis can be helpful in improving safety policy. Collected data from the different companies can be use d as learning resources for other companies. It is evident that laws can accommodate changes in the activities at the workplace. Other companies should learn from this incidence and should take precautions to implement Safe Work environment for the workers. Hence, it is very important to make public such incidences, so that it can work as the learning for other companies. There should be with-held of work licences for companies breaching safety standards. There should be arrangement of workplace consultation for the safely plan for the company because it is not always possible for each company to implement their safety policy on their own. Entry at work place should be restricted to the people without valid entry permit holders. This strategy proved beneficial in the preventing safety breach. In this case also, entry restriction to the people without valid entry permit could have prevented this incidence. Providing misleading information is the easiest way to avoid legal actions of safety breach. WSA can play instrumental role in avoiding such misuse of false information (Hughes and Ferrett, 2015). Improvement in the practices in any company can be useful in implementation of effective policy. Safety breaches can be avoided by identifying best practices and common practices. Relevant published work should be followed because evidence can be helpful in identifying potential safety risks and prevention of such risks. Broad consultation with the different stakeholders can be helpful in upgradation of the safety policy. Very simple methods and procedures could have avoided this incidence. Implementation of well-designed safety standards could have saved life of Mr. Booth. In such cases, implementation of safety plan doesnt require high end technology. Few of the precautions include 1) display of safety signs, 2) turning off electrical wire and 3) instructions to the employees and non-employees about the potential risks. Change in the workers behaviour is also one of important measure to implement safety policy in the company. Workers should have safe behaviour. Unsafe behaviour of Mr. Booth is also one of the factor responsible for this accident. Mr. Booth didnt listen to foreman instruction and entered in the unsafe area (Reimana and Rollenhagen, 2014; Xia et al., 2014). It is evident form the literature that there is significant relationship between existence of safety systems practices and accident rates. References: Abreu, T., Saurinb, P., Wachsa, A., Weber, R., and der, H. (2014). The design of scenario-based training from the resilience engineering perspective: A study with grid electricians. Accident Analysis Prevention, 68, 30-41. Guldenmund, F.W. (2010). (Mis)understanding safety culture and its relationship to safety management. Risk Analysis, 30(10), 1466-1480. Hughes, P., and Ferrett, E. (2015). Introduction to Health and Safety at Work: For the NEBOSH National General Certificate in Occupational Health and Safety. Routledge. Inman, M. (2015). Kenoss Contractors fined $1.1 million for workplace death. Accessed on 28th sep. 2017 from https://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/kenoss-contractors-fined-11-million-for-workplace-death-20150819-gj2fra.html. Kim, K.W., Park, S.J., Lim, H.S., and Cho, H.H. (2017). Safety Climate and Occupational Stress According to Occupational Accidents Experience and Employment Type in Shipbuilding Industry of Korea. Safety and Health at Work, 8(3), 290-295. Kline, R. (2013). Mind the workplace hazards. Nursing Standard, 27(28), 23. Masso, M. (2015). The determinants of employee participation in occupational health and safety management. International Journal of Occupational Safety and Ergonomics, 21(1), 62-70. Nenonen, S., and Vasara, J. (2013). Safety management in multiemployer worksites in the manufacturing industry: opinions on co-operation and problems encountered. International Journal of Occupational Safety and Ergonomics, 19(2), 167-83. Reimana, T., and Rollenhagen, C. (2014). Does the concept of safety culture help or hinder systems thinking in safety? Accident Analysis Prevention, 68, 5-15 . Stephen. (2015). Canberra construction company fined over workplace death. Accessed on 28th sep. 2017 from https://content.safetyculture.com.au/news/index.php/08/canberra-construction-company-fined-workplace-death/#.Wc4LoGiCzIU. Taylor, G. (2015). Canberra construction company fined $1.1 million over death of truck driver. Accessed on 28th sep. 2017 from https://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-08-19/construction-company-fined-1-million-over-workplace-death/6708032. ` Wachter, J. K., and Yorio, P. L. (2014). A system of safety management practices and worker engagement for reducing and preventing accidents: An empirical and theoretical investigation. Accident Analysis Prevention, 68, 117-130. Xia, N., Wang, X., Griffin, M.A., Wu, C., and Liu, B. (2017). Do we see how they perceive risk? An integrated analysis of risk perception and its effect on workplace safety behavior. 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