CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Introduction
Occupational health and safety issue are not frequently considered as contributing factors to the financial sustainability of the organizations. Compliance obligation with government regulations and laws is mostly the main focus of OHS policies. Perceptions of the correlation between effective OHS and the consequential economic benefits should be enhanced. The substantial financial benefits of good occupational health practice need to be always highlighted to organizations since the failure to acknowledge the importance of this relation will limit the effectiveness of interventions aimed at preventing disease and injury valid source specified.; Invalid source specified. Likewise, while the cost of ensuring safety is essential, unsafety conditions are also costly Invalid source specified. A reduction of accident numbers, damage, and improvements to the poor performance of HSE can lead to a reduction in costs. This matter can improve and increase the efficiency and the effectiveness of a business invalid source specified.
The practice of protective workers over setting essential requirements in which the health and safety values are given ways to an approach involving owners of the construction companies are involved is necessary to succeed improved the health and safety outcomes. It represents significantly different challenges for compliance from small businesses to those faced with larger organizations Invalid source specified. Most of the research, policy, and legislation on OHS and the work environment has primarily based on large companies (usually defined as companies with more than 250 employees). It is because large companies have the resources and tools, enabling them to inspire others and to contribute to the development and the improvement of the Occupational Health and Safety research Invalid source specified.
The Australian Small Business Task Force on Small Business Deregulation study showed that the personal attitudes to the concept of regulation would affect a small business operator’s perception of the burden of complying with the regulation. Also, the complexity of the regulations, the frequency of complying and coping with constant changes, and the time needed to comply with the record-keeping requirements have added to the frustration felt by small businesses Invalid source specified. Furthermore, safety management and the organizational environment in the small and medium enterprises are not well documented and most likely are informal and ambiguous. Although the safety management systems in the small and medium enterprises are not complicated as can be found in the large organizations and although the logical expectations of having low injury rate in the small and medium enterprises are high, the safety management in the small and medium enterprises was found weaker than in the large organizations (Brooks, 2008), this fact cannot be generalized because the industry at which the small and medium enterprises are working at controls the safety outcomes. For example, the construction industry is identified as dangerous, dynamic, and expose workers to many hazards and risks (Borys, 2012). This understanding highlights the fact that the small and medium enterprises working in the construction industry and having inadequate safety management systems may be subjected to high incidents rate because the level of compliance to the Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) regulation of the small construction companies is lower than what is found in the large companies (Hasle, Kines, & Lars, 2009).
The construction industry contributes significantly to the world economy. The world economy spent US$4 trillion in 2012, and it is expected to increase to US$9 trillion in 2025 (Oxford Research & PWC, 2015). With all high spending in the construction industry, it is still considered the most dangerous workplace is hosting high-frequency small and diverse work hazards (Pinto, Nunes, & Ribeiro, 2011) (Zhou, Goh, & Li, 2015). One of many reasons is because of the ‘organic’ structure of the construction companies. Unlike the mechanistic structure of the companies in the manufacturing industry, there is a low level of standardized work performance and culture to a reluctance to rules, procedures, and decision making on planning and executing (Swuste, Frijiters, & Guldenmund, 2012). Also, sometimes the central focus of the construction company is to avoid project delays by minimizing some safety activities, which counterproductive to safety, and eventually, causing accidents, and subsequently, extra costs might be generated because of the construction accidents.
Safety is the responsibility of all parties involved, no matter the company size is, in the construction project starting from the client, architect, the engineer, the contractor, the subcontractor, and the local authority (Priemus & Ale, 2010). Working safely and following the OHS regulatory is the responsibility of the individual, organization, and society. The individual safety performance is the key indicator of how the organization is managing its safety program, and of how the safety climate is manifested in the organization (Al Alawi, Al Shahri, & Al Ghafri, 2020). Furthermore, the individual safety practices are a measure of how the safety culture is manifested in the individual, and embarking the safety culture within the individual will contribute significantly to the Zero Accident Vision (a vision based on nobody should be injured due to an accident) (Pertulla, 2017). However, one of the major challenges is the multi-nation and multi-culture workforces the construction industry is incubating. This fact creates challenges, which affect the optimum application of the Zero Accident Vision. Different workforce nationalities with different cultures may have a different perception of values and beliefs, add to that, the lack or inadequate safety management systems by the small and medium companies; all can results in low adoptability of the Zero Accident Vision, if any, in the construction industry.
In the context of Oman, limited researchers studied how small construction companies are complying with the OHS regulation. For example, Umar & Egbu (2018) studied the perceptions of safety climate in Oman’s construction industry and identified the safety climate factors. Al Ghafri (2019) evaluated the Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) practices in Oman’s construction industry, and one of the findings was that the small and medium construction companies lack the basic OHS requirements. Al Ghafri (2019) findings were justified because of the lack of awareness, no empathies on safety by the project’s parties, lack of site monitoring and control, and lack of the perception of how safety is essential. However, only a limited number of researches, to my knowledge, had identified the factors that contribute to the successful adaptation of the Zero Accident Vision in the small and medium construction companies in Oman. Therefore, this research is motivated to identify the good practices and the challenges in implementing the Zero Accident Vision by the small and medium construction companies in Oman. The research studies the small and medium construction companies working in the construction industry, specifically in the water sector projects. Two stages of data collection are used, questionnaire survey, and interviews. The questionnaire survey used by (Zwetloot, Kines, Ruotsala, Drupsteen, & Bezemer, 2015) were adopted in the research, and the questionnaire survey results are used as an input in the second stage.
1.2 Problem statement
Complying with the Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) regulatory framework has always been one of the main challenges in the construction industry. Although the OHS regulations are publicly advertised, however, the level of implementation or even the consideration of such regulation is not maintained in the small and medium construction companies. As a result, the construction workers are suffering from construction-related accidents causing injuries and sometimes death. Providing a healthy and safe working environment is trivial to achieve a productive environment. Also, a healthy and safe construction-related working environment can contribute to attracting Omani workers to the construction Industry. Hence, “Why persistent to non-compliance to the OHS regulatory framework still exist? How to improve the compliance of small and medium construction companies to the OHS regulatory framework?
Moreover, How to pave the way to Zero Accident Vision? These are the problem questions the research is aiming to answer. Construction projects are unique, and hence considering all types of construction projects is difficult. Therefore, this research focuses on construction projects related to the water sector only.
1.3 Research objectives
The research objectives are listed as follow:
- to identify what factors causing the low level of compliance or implementation in the small and medium construction companies in the water sector in Oman. It includes, but not limited to, investigating the small and medium construction companies’ awareness and understanding of the Occupational Health and Safety in Oman.
- To investigate ways to mitigate the factors affecting the level of compliance of the OHS regulatory framework.
- To formulate a Zero Accident Vision for Oman’s construction industry.
The highlighted text should be updated by the updated introduction.