Health and Safety Standards and Communication Among Occupational Management - Research Proposal Example

Health and Safety Standards and Communication Among Occupational Management Introduction The ability to meet health and safety standards in the work place is one that is often difficult to define and monitor. To do this more effectively, there is the need to have policies and procedures that are regulated through various companies and which relate to the standards that are a part of the workforce. More importantly, managerial areas need to implement safety legislation that can be used among workers and for those that are in specific positions. Communicating the necessary health and safety standards; however, is one that is often not able to achieve the necessary goals that are needed within the workforce and can lead to more hazards and complications among workers in different work environments. To change the level of standards that are met, is also the need for health and safety standards to be communicated from those in management to those who are working in specific positions. By having the right level of communication and implementation for health and safety among management, work areas will be able to move into more conducive environments that are able to match the regulations and legislations that are currently in effect. Aims / Objectives This research paper will examine the different ways in which communication can be used among workers to provide higher levels of safety and health. There will be an understanding of the current legislation that is expected within the work force. There will also be an examination of how well managers and staff implement the expectations and requirements for health and safety. Doing this will create alternatives and changes of what is needed within the work force while providing new options and an implementation of effective programs for those that are working within a specific region. Specifically, this paper will define: 1. What are the current safety and health standards within the work place? 2. How do managers and staff create communication that can be used within the work force? 3. How effective is the communication that is used within the work area? 4. If the communication is ineffective, what types of hazards does it lead to? 5. How can communication be improved to change the standards and environment for health and safety? By looking at these various components, there will be the ability to define the current standards for health and safety while adding in a new understanding of the gaps that are a part of health and safety. The current legislation and regulations, as well as the way that this is communicated to those that are in the work force creates a different approach to more effective results with the health and safety that is in a corporation. Literature Review There are several levels and standard that have been defined by commissions and committees to enforce health and safety in the work place. The main approach is to have preventative care that is available in the work space as well as risk – assessment based approaches that will change the amount of health and safety that is within a given area. Processes based on work – related stress, occupational hazards and working conditions are all expected to be evaluated according to these standards. There are six main areas which are included in this assessment, such as demands, controls, support, relationships, roles and organizational change. The measurements of health and safety within the workforce will then define specific policies and expectations that are a part of the various environments (Cousins et al, 2004). The different concepts that are applied to these components of health and safety are often defined as a safety culture. The nature and environmental considerations that are in any environment also determine the climate of what is considered as high standard health and safety. If not, then components are defined with the reliability of the different measures and standards as well as the safety systems and performance that contribute to this. However, it has been noted that the idea of the safety culture is often not translated into practical needs that are in the environment and with the everyday work that is related to health and safety (Cox, Flin, 1998). The main difficulty that has been found from the lack of the safety culture is from regulation and reinforcement of activities and standards that are within an area. It is noted that management is often required to make decisions on how health and safety should be approached, which is not always easy to implement. Others have found that a lack of knowledge on standards and laws create difficulties with the needs of a business and the tensions of communicating what is needed as a part of the safety culture (Genn, 1993). The current standards and the gap of understanding through the safety culture is one that then moves into a lack of standards that are implemented from alternative health and safety factors. Spurgeon et al, (1997), have noted that there is little to no substantial evidence on what the health and safety regulations should be within different arenas of work. For instance, the number of working hours that an individual has and the approach to stress and work are often limited by what is needed within a corporation. There is very little evidence on what the regulations should be or how they should be implemented by managers. The lack of standards, beyond basic regulations, and the inability for management to coordinate with these standards makes it difficult for individuals to define the effects that occur after working for longer hours. The result is the inability to maintain a good safety culture and a lack of information and standards that can be used sufficiently within a given work space (Clarke, 1998). To change the approach to safety and health, new laws and legislation are being implemented within the work force. Policies and the ability to look further into the safety culture are also being looked into in terms of assisting those that are interested in performance requirements within a given area, as well as potential problems that can be met with assessments (Dale, 2003). However, this has led to more safety standards, regulations and policies that are within a given work force. Implementing this through the managerial advice and the expectations that are within a company are often not a factor to the environment. The standards are often unmet by the work force because of the inability to understand the new assessments. More importantly, many of the assessments are not able to move into high level communication between the employees, management and politicians, which creates a gap in the effectiveness of safety and health (Kelly, 2003). For consistency to be met with management and the standards that are required, there is the need to not only focus on the health and safety standards from legislation. Communication and training has to be developed among employees through the standards that have been set to those that are within a specific work place. The employees will need to understand how the health and safety standards within the work force can create a better value to the place in which they are working. More importantly, there will need to be a new safety culture that is defined that is created through recruitment, training and reputation. More importantly, the communication and management has to take place not only among legislation, but also through investors, shareholders and awareness of customers (Ridley, Channing, 1983). The main concept that is associated with this is creating a multi – dimensional approach, which incorporates the legislation that is a part of health and safety with the main work conflicts that are associated with management and the communication that is need on various levels for health and safety. Moving into depth with managers and specific needs can help to create an alternative approach to what is needed within the work force and for occupational health and safety (Bohle, Quinlan, 2000). Methodology The methodology that will be used for this research proposal will evaluate the abilities to place health and safety standards in the workplace not only through regulations but through communication and management. The first component of this will be to evaluate the current conditions of a corporate building that focuses on construction work, as well as the measures that need to be defined with safety and health. The approach will be based on levels of stress and physical injury that are potential threats in the work area. There will be a determination on how and if this affects the performance of those that are working within this occupation (Lin, Mills, 2001). Two methodologies will be used from this specific aim and objective. The first will be a questionnaire that is given to employees which evaluates the performance levels, health and safety standards and the stress indicators in the environment. The questionnaire will also evaluate the communication that is used among the management for health and safety. The second component will be based on an evaluation of performance, as well as a comparison to the legislation and standards that are expected. A quantitative analysis will then be performed, in which the lagging and leading indicators of safety and performance will be measured. The observation will also provide details on the safety climate that is a part of the area as well as how this affects those that are performing within a given area. A factor analysis will be used to determine the size and demographics of the company then will be compared to the dimensions of safety (Flin et al, 2000). These components will be compared to the training, development and expectations of management to see the level of communication and prevention methods that are used for health and safety. Timescale The initial observations will be done as the first component of the research and will last for an average of two weeks to define the safety climate and expectations of management. After this time period, questionnaires will be given to different employees to determine what the health and safety measurements and understanding are. This will be completed within one week with the statistical analysis and results ready by the end of this week. The legislative policies and expectations will be combined with this after the questionnaires are completed and will be observed within one week. Observations, recommendations and results will be completed after this time frame to show the overall understanding of management, communication and health and safety regulations. References Bohle, Philip, Michael Quinlan. (2000). Managing Occupational Health and Safety: A Multidisciplinary Approach. Australia: Macmillian. Clarke, Sharon. (1998). Safety Culture on the UK Railway Network. Work and Stress (12), (3). Cousins, Rosanna, Colin MacKay, Simon Clarke, Chris Kelly, Peter Kelly, Ron McCaig. (2004). Management Standards Work Related Stress in the UK: Practical Development. New York: Routledge. Cox, Sue, Rhona Flin. (1998). Safety Culture: Philosopher’s Stone or Man of Straw? Work and Stress (12), (3). Dale, B.G. (2003). Managing Quality. UK: Blackwell Publishing. Flin, R, K Mearns, P O’Conner, R Bryden. (2000). Measuring Safety Climate: Identifying the Common Features. Safety Science (34). Genn, Hazel. (1993). Business Responses to the Regulation of Health and Safety in England. Law and Policies. (219). Kelly, Patricia. (2003). The WTO, the Environment and Health and Safety Standards. The World Economy (26), (2). Lin, John, Anthony Mills. (2001). Measuring the Occupational Health and Safety Performance of Construction Companies. Facilities (19), (3). Ridley,John, John Channing. (2003). Safety at Work. UK: Butterworth – Heinemann. Spurgeon, A, JM Harrington, CL Cooper. (1997). Health and Safety Problems Associated with Long Working Hours. Occupational Environmental Medicine (54). Read More