Occupational Health and Safety Management System in Saudi Arabia - Term Paper Example

OHSMS Project Student’s Name Subject Professor University/Institution Location Date 300742 Science and Health Research Project Assessment 1 Research Proposal 2011 PROJECT TITLE Occupational health and safety management system (OHSMS) in Saudi Arabia, how can it be applied and developed. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE PROJECT OHSMS is an assessment instrument developed for measuring the effectiveness of wide range occupational health and safety management standards. The frame work allows organizations consistent identification and control of their health and safety risks, and reduce potential accidents, by achieving compliance with legislation and to continually improve performance.It is developed as a structure for evaluation based on principles and measurement criteria. The system function as a sound foundation for determining the effectiveness of these wide range OHSMS. Through its sufficiently developed instrument, the system uses field-pilot tests. This instrument is the framework that helps in identification as well as measurement of health performance and occupational safety variables (Redinger, & Levine, 1998). The system will oversee the role played by the regulators, employers and parties in the systematic OHS management. Unified standards will induce the employers to adopt a comprehensive, preventive and programmatic responsibility for OHS. Specific solutions prescribed by the employers as standards in small and medium-sized organizations are rather insufficient. In Saudi Arabia government methods, form and content for promotion of OHSM as well as system of voluntary management vary widely. There is also very little attempts made for critical assessment of the development of OHSM and comparisons of their different forms, and therefore the need for a new regulatory strategy in Saudi Arabia firms (Carter, 2002). This project aim will be to assess the current state of OHSM standards in Saudi Arabia, its importance and the existing gaps. The OHSM standards are real and imminent and targets all industries involved with occurrence of accidents and incidents. The standards developed will direct the OHSMS system, with the aim of bringing together all the stakeholders from management leadership, employee involvement, medical management, hazard analysis, training, control and evaluation. Finalized regulations will therefore become requirements and will be included as inspections. Small and medium-sized enterprises have a high rate injury and illness and the recommendations from the project will pave for ways to improve. More stringent requirements adopted by the system will help in engineering control. The project will assess the OHSM standards in small (0-20) and medium-sized (20-50 employees) enterprises in Saudi Arabia. The project focuses on promotion of occupational health and safety management (OHSM) standards as a significant regulatory strategy that has to be embraced (Alli, 2001). It will assess a sample of small and medium-sized enterprises on the standards they have implemented, preventive and control activities on occupational risk. It will further assess on how effective the OHS standards identified are and their safety outcomes. Apart from identifying the factors that affect adoption of such activities in line with OHS the project will provide an alternative approach to the system (Anon, 2010). PROJECT PURPOSE The project objectives aims to address the complex issues related to the need for the adoption of OHSM system in Saudi Arabia. By looking at the current state of dispersed standards adopted by different companies it is not possible to realize an effective system. Looking at those standards the issue of effectiveness of different standards in communicating information needed and on how they create new capabilities is questionable. The standards must embed the elements of private and collective interests. The sustainability content of the standard will be checked on delivery to the intended beneficiaries, that is the employers and employees. Considering the gaps that exist with international legislation, the role of OHSMS policy can be determined in addressing such shortcomings (Carter, 2002). All companies in Jubail and Yanbu are coordinated by Royal commission for Jubail and Yanbu (RCJY). One of them is Saudi Basic Industries Corporation SABIC. It is considered one of the world's leading manufacturers of chemicals, fertilizers, plastics and metals. Due to this, a considerable concern for OHSMS has been arisen in Saudi Arabia. This concern is embodied in creating systematic standards for each workplace including OHSMS. According to some publications such as SABIC reports, the accidents rate is decreased. Therefore, study of SABIC standard is conducted in this research as well as YANSAB standard. Furthermore, the effect of local regulations and standards absence will be addressed. Additionally, result discussion will be conducted in order to generate the possible solution for lack of local regulations and standards in Saudi Arabia. Individual adhesion as well as personal involvement to the constructed systems in a proactive manner can make it succeed and therefore increase the firm’s safety. Study on how business organization integrate and manage these systems can contribute on how to construct a managerial system for dynamic and continuous improvement implementation procedures.  In Saudi a full and ample involvement of workers in the activities of work safety is yet to be achieved. Without a cultural change to raise the fundamental value of workers safety the objective of the safety system cannot succeed in its implementation (Anon, 2010.). Small businesses and medium-sized enterprises comprise mainly of many employees and a high numbers of occupational health and safety victims. The broad organizational safety models are insufficient in delivering the expected health and safety in work places (Anon, 2002). The objective of the safety standards system is to prevent and reduce the workplaces related risks and injuries but the absence of unified standards in Saudi Arabia fail to guarantee realization of full and effective OHSMS system. There is little study done on effectiveness of OHS standards in these enterprises and therefore insufficient evidence to conclusively pave the way for alternative approach. Though the aspect of internal consultation and implementation of safety systems exist, there is little success for such dialogues in facilitating a continuous and long-term safety practices and management in the business. A systematic and comprehensive study suitable for individual and organizations platforms will win participation of the people if developed and carried upon. PROJECT AIM & OBJECTIVES Aims of the Project: The main aims of this project report will be to :- Assess Saudi Arabian legislations for safety in organizations to identify the various provisions that apply to OHS and OHS management. Assess OHS standards to develop a model of OHSMS in Saudi Arabia. Develop a systematic process for the gradual application of OHSMS in medium and small business in the kingdom. RESEARCH PARTICIPANTS (PROJECT TARGET GROUP) The general information of participant`s organizations There are 66 participant`s that qualify as small and medium businesses.15 participant`s organizations will be recorded as a small business whereas the rest as medium businesses. The majority of participants, 45, work in the industrial sector. This is followed by the trade, construction and communication industries with 6, 9 and 3 participants respectively. Moreover, 3 participants will be recorded as belonging to the other classification, which refers to utilities management which is responsible for maintenance activities. The project defines these small and medium enterprises (SMS) as those with fewer than 50 workers (Frick et al. 2000). These types of workplace have a higher level of hazardous conditions and rates of injuries than larger companies. These will be the participants for this project. The (2005) highlights the unique perspective of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in terms of OHS and suggests many of their important issues can be addressed by: producing helpful guidance documents, minimal legislation, better quality laws, workplace support and Personal advice. EXPECTED BENEFITS OF RESEARCH The project recommendations will be important to small and medium businesses in Saudi Arabia as well as those established in other parts of the world as they will aim at minimizing or preventing the consequences of accidents and risk incidences. Such incidents may result in injuries, death, or hazardous exposures. The implementation of OHSMS is a significant demand for both individuals and organisations in order to enhance OHS process management out comes. Therefore, based upon the study results and interpretation, the recommendations to improve or apply OHSM standards in small and medium business in Saudi Arabia can be introduced. Once implemented, there will be an assurance of inherently safer firms and the prevention of major accidents shall be intensified as long as possible. The report will also be useful to concerned governmental bodies in enhancing OHS process and industry outcomes by looking at the developed countries experiences to implemented OHSM standards in small and medium business and the gained out comes from this implementation. In addition, governments bodies concerned with safety issues in SMEs industries sector and in development of safety laws and regulation will be in a position to have an understanding of the situation on the ground and develop relevant safety laws or enforce their implementation. PROJECT METHODOLOGY Introduction: The main theme and prospect of the project is occupational health and safety management system in the small and medium-sized enterprises. The standards are the main subject. To achieve projects aims, extensive sources have been used through the review of literature suitable to the case. Survey is administered to employees in the organizations while official data and government legislation documents provide conventional standards and data. After collecting the data, appropriate analysis of data and interpretation of its findings will be undertaken. Literature review A literature review will be carried out to acquire an in-depth understanding of the relevant knowledge of occupational health and safety management system and to establish the foundation for entering into the study and focusing on research area. It will provides a sound background for the exploration of various aspects that are associated with the topic of study such as the development a regulatory framework of OHS legislation in Saudi Arabia and OHSMS development. Literature from independent sources, located in journals articles, books, and internet sources will be referred in the literature review. The search will take several methodological steps including: search of the literature, selection of articles and studies by screening titles, key words and abstract and Assess the study quality by type of its classification such as peer reviewed, thesis, government document, text books and conference paper. Literature search will be done by assessing several databases such as; Science Direct, Scopus, Pub Med, Australian Standards (SAI Global), MEDLINE, ProQuest Dissertations and Theses - UK & Ireland, Dissertations & Theses, Web of Science, Health and Safety Abstracts, Proquest Science Journals and OnePetro. The primary search terms will use the following key words: occupational health and safety terms (e.g. health and safety management system, safety management system, Occupational health and safety management, systematic occupational health and safety management, managing health and safety, occupational health/safety, occupational health and safety standards, occupational health and safety legislations, Safety in Saudi Arabia, occupational health in Saudi Arabia and occupational health and safety in Saudi Arabia ). The secondary search terms will be set in the following keywords; managing OHS, OHS implementation, OHS in small and medium business, workplace injuries, OHS compensation, and OHSMS review, audit and development. Moreover, the UNSW library will be the main source for texts books. Additionally, internet sources will underpin the search method by accessing the reliable websites such as National Research Centre for OHS Regulation, Work Cover New South Wales, WorkSafe Victoria, Workplace Health and Safety Queensland, Safe work Australia and Health and Safety Executive. Development of the questionnaire: This project will obtain information from survey, interviews and case studies. As such the development of survey questionnaire will be guided by objectives set based on literature review. Current state of adoption and effectiveness of OHSM system in the small and medium-sized enterprises will be demonstrated. The addressed question covers all the procedures, monitoring, consultation policies and responsibilities to be carried out. The prepared questionnaire consists of the project purpose as a prologue, brief OHSM system background, explanations of project aims and confidentiality. Personal information will be derived from status, age and occupation. The question is administered as closed questions for the respondent to answer Yes or No on the check box set question. The survey itself has been divided into five parts, as follows: Part 1: Personal Information of the respondent; age, occupation and civil status. Part 2: General information: Includes the description of the company or organization size, and the type of job. Part 3: Occupational Health and Safety management system, standards, policies and responsibilities. The OHSM systems regulations and standards are set and will beinvestigated on their adoption and effectiveness in the workplaces. The regulations and its constituents form the basis for the developed questions of the project. This will determine whether the policies are adopted or not. Part 4 Organizational consultation and communication: This section aims on the administrative structure and focus on existence of safety committee in the organization. It will also focus on collaborative mechanism and employee decision on enterprise health and safety issues (Culyer &Mahood, 2007). Part 5: Health and safety management, performance and monitoring: This is the final part of the questionnaire. It looks at the enterprise’ process of safety management, analysis of performance and specific companies documents safety regulations. Validation of the Questionnaire: The project will carry out a pilot test with a small portion of respondents before the actual and final send out. It will function as a pre-test or try-out of specific research instruments. The test will measure the following sated questions; Does each question measure what it is supposed to measure? Are all the words understood? Do all respondents interpret the question in the same way? Do respondents correctly follow directions? Does it create a positive impression that motivates people to respond? How long does it take to complete and record the time taken to complete the questionnaire and decide whether it is reasonable? Does it collect the information we want? Discard all unnecessary, difficult or ambiguous questions. Questionnaire Part Three: 1. Do you have a written occupational health and safety policy (OHS) policy? 2. Do you have documented OHS responsibilities recorded for all managers and workers? 3. Are health and safety responsibilities clearly identified for all levels of management and workers? Part four: 4. Has the organization prepared safe operating procedures or specific safety instructions relevant to its operations for workers? 5. Are injuries to workers recorded? 6. Are there procedures for reporting accidents and incidents? 7. Are there procedures for investigating accidents and incidents? 8. Are there procedures for maintaining, inspecting and assessing the hazards of plant operated/owned by the organization? 9. Are there procedures for storing and handling hazardous substances? 10. Are there procedures for identifying, assessing and controlling risks associated with organization activities? 11. How are these procedures conducted? 12. Are regular health and safety inspections at worksites undertaken? Procedures and sample size The questionnaire will begin with the selection of target respondents, from safety license records in the Civil Defense Department in Al-Qassim province. The source provides details of approximately 75 organizations. To increase the response rate and obtain relevant sample responses, participants will be contacted by phone and personally prior to sending out the questionnaires. A standard script including an introduction and questions will be sent to every participant. A standard script commencing with explaining the aim of questionnaire and the researcher‘s study details and contact information. Therefore, 75 questionnaires will be handed over. The questionnaire aim and contents will be explained accurately to the participants in order to reduce any bias in questionnaire participation. Data analysis: Data collected by means of questionnaire will be analyzed using appropriate statistical analysis tools. For that purpose, the use of excel is considered the simplest method for collecting quantitative data from close ended or multiple choice questions and was chosen based on the sample size. Consequently, the data will be entered in excel and analyzed by table and frequency count functions. The data will be presented in bar diagrams to provide visual representation of information. The review of documents will be discussed with respect to relevant standards (Fellows, & Liu, 1997). Research limitations The following limitations are expected: 1. Lack of proper information due to management policy in some organizations. 2. Lack of previous studies in this field in Saudi Arabia. 3. Data is difficult to collect. 4. Difficulty of conducting questionnaires and surveys due to the shortness of the study period and the impossibility of obtaining ethical approval in the appropriate time. PROJECT PLAN Outline plan / Program From receipt of the assignment information (Dates) to the final submission date (Dates) it is a period of 6 months. In order to focus and structure the delivery of the information this period has been broken down into the following phases: - Preliminary Phase Preparatory Phase Questionnaire/Interview Phase Application & Completion Phase For further detail breakdown of these main phases and key milestones please refer to the accompanying program – ID Task Name 2012 2013 Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar 1 Prepare proposal 2 Do literature review 3 Design questionnaire 4 Submit draft 5 Ethic Approval 6 Pilot Survey 7 Revise questionnaire 8 Main survey 9 Review data 10 Draft dissertation 11 Supervisor’s comments 12 Revise draft 13 Binding Submit dissertation DRAFT BUDGET PLAN FOR PROJECT ITEM DESCRIPTION UNIT QTY UNIT COST TOTALS CAPITAL ITEMS Equipment cost A Hp laptop Printers 1 $500 $500 2 $150 $300 IEC materials Stationery Blank sheet 5 reams $6 $30 Postage 150 $25 Computer needs software $20 $20 Phone 200 phone calls 8 times $2 $20 Printing cost Questionnaire survey questions and analysis 1000 $1 $100 Project research venue venue 5 months $120 $700 Salary Five months 500hrs $10 $5,000 Transport allowances Oral interviews and sourcing official records Twice every Week 400 km $1 $400 Books & cds/DVDs Recording and review of information copies 12 $30 Totals $7, 125 References Alli, B 2001, Fundamental principles of occupational health and safety / Benjamin O. Alli, International Labor Office, Geneva. Anon, 2002. Towards an international standard on occupational health and safety management. International journal of occupational safety and ergonomics JOSE, 8(3), p.309-319. Anon, 2010. Occupational Health and Safety Management (EH). Business, 5(April), p.183. Barbeau, E, Roelofs, C, Youngstrom, R, Sorensen, G, Stoddard, A & La Montagne, A 2004, 'Assessment of occupational safety and health programs in small businesses', American Journal of Industrial Medicine, vol. 45, no. 4, pp. 371-9. Carter, T., 2002. Systematic occupational health and safety management; perspectives on an international development. Occupational and environmental medicine, 59(3), p.203-204. Champoux, D & Brun, J-P 2003, 'Occupational health and safety management in small size enterprises: an overview of the situation and avenues for intervention and research', Safety Science, vol. 41, no. 4, pp. 301-18. Culyer, A &Mahood, Q 2007, 'The effectiveness of occupational health and safety management system interventions: A systematic review', Safety Science, vol. 45, no. 3, pp. 329-53. Fellows, R & Liu, A 1997, Research methods for construction, 2 Ed, Wiley- Blackwell Australia. Frick, K, Jensen, P, Quinlan, M &Wilthagen, T 2000, Systematic Occupational Health and Safety Management: Perspectives on an International Development, Pergamon/Elsevier Science Netherlands. Douglas, A., & Selinger, M. e. (2012). OH&S Handbook: WHS Act. Port Melbourne: Portner Press Pty Ltd. General Directorate of Civil Defense 2010, Civil Defense Policies, viewed15/10/2010 GOSI 2007, Annual statistical report 1428, General Organization for Social Insurance, viewed 22/9/2010 http://www.gosi.gov.sa/portal/c/document_library/get_file?uuid=dc0b07 e6-90c5-4575-b4f6-991d1403af41&groupId=16>. Kim, J-A 2004, 'The role of legislation in driving good occupational health and safety management systems: A comparison of prescriptive based legislation', PhD thesis, Queensland University of Technology. McMahan, S, Well, M, Stokols, D, Phillips, K &Clitheroe, H 2001, 'Assessing health promotion programming in small businesses', American Journal of Health Studies, vol. 17, no. 3, pp. 120-8. Redinger, C. & Levine, S. 1998, Development and evaluation of the Michigan occupational health and safety management system assessment instrument: A universal OHSMS performance measurement tool. American Industrial Hygiene Association Journal, 59(8), p.572-581. Robson, LS, Clarke, JA, Cullen, K, Bielecky, A, Severin, C, Bigelow, PL, Irvin, E, Culyer, A &Mahood, Q 2007, 'The effectiveness of occupational health and safety management system interventions: A systematic review', Safety Science, vol. 45, no. 3, pp. 329-53. Ryan, M 2009, Harmonisation of Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) laws, Research & Policy Branch, Comcare , Australia, viewed 15/10/2010 Saudi Arabian Government 1986, Civil Defense System, Government Press, Riyadh. Saudi Arabian Government 2000, Social Insurance Law, Goverment Press, Riyadh. Workplace Safety Services. (2012). Synod of NSW & ACT WHS Management System Framework. Retrieved August 27, 2012, from www.unitingresources.org.au: http://www.unitingresources.org.au/wss/ohs_management_system/ Read More