Health and safety management
| Health and safety management |
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| See also |
Safety and health management consists of the managerial approach put in place to minimize risk of accidents, injuries and illness in the workplace. “It involves identifying, assessing, and controlling risks to workers in all workplace operations”. (1)
Safety and health management are more known as “occupational safety and health management systems” and “the universal structure of OSHMS are based around five main categories:” (2)
Categories of Occupational Safety and Health Management Systems (OHMS)
- Initiation (Safety and health inputs)
- Formulation (safety and health processes)
- Implementation (safety and health processes)
- Evaluation
- Improvement
Promotion of a safety culture
As a result of science and modern technology, a decline has been noticed in occupational work-related incidents and illness. Because of these results the demand for better safety and health management systems has increased. (3)
It can be argued that the safety and health managements systems put in place depends on the “safety culture” of that enterprise in order to achieve the desired results. (3)
In other words, the safety and health managerial systems will not have any adequate effects before the foundation of a safety culture within the organization. There have been many disaster events such as the King Cross fire, the piper alpha explosion, etc. In which the lack of a safety culture attributed to the unnecessary aftermath of the various incidents. (3) “These breakdowns were not a result of their method of managing safety, but by problems with the safety culture of the responsible organization”. (3)
The output painted from these disaster breakdowns is that the implementation of a functional OSHMS is as important for an organization to flourish: “a corporate atmosphere or culture in which safety and health is understood and to be accepted as the number one priority”. (3)
References
- November 2011. Introduction to Health and Safety Management Systems, 1st ed. [pdf], The Safety Association for Canada's Upstream Oil and Gas Industry, p. 3. Available at: http://www.energysafetycanada.com/files/pdf/publications/guideline_sms.pdf?fbclid=IwAR1qCQZwcmtM4lw9KirsMVVtU0RZmlur_WbCXYG4Lohy97CNRDwclovzYWU
- Christian van Stolk, Laura Staetsky, Emmanuel Hassan, Chong Woo Kim. 2012. Management of occupational safety and health, 1st ed. [pdf]. European Risk Observatory, p. 20. Available at: https://osha.europa.eu/tools-and-publications/publications/reports/management-of-occupational-safety-and-health-analysis-of-data-from-the-esener
- Yangho Kim, Jungsun Park, Mijin Park, June 2016. Creating a Culture of Prevention in Occupational Safety and Health Practice, 1st ed. Elsevier, p. 1. [pdf]. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2093791116000093
