Occupational Health



Occupational Health

Introduction

We hear almost on a daily basis about workplace incidents and injuries and deaths, which are cause of suffering to many labors, employees and to their direct families. According to recent research, a total of more than $170 billion annually is spent of workplace injuries and illnesses by business around the nation. The dilemma is that this huge amount of expenses could have been reduced if necessary steps had been taken place before. The Occupation Safety and Health Management System (OSHMS) has proven to be the step in the right direction in reducing the workplace injuries, which will eventually significantly reduce the overall costs that are incurred (Mearns et al., 2010).

The term Occupational Safety and Health Management System (OSHMS) can be defined in a broad way; from improved safety and health policies in the organization to improved management systems in place that monitor workplace and streamline the operations (Blair & Dong-Chul, 2007). There may rise a confusion about the term management system, as it may relate to functional units and interactive system in place in the organization that are more or less independent in nature. For the Occupation Health and Safety MS, management system is the effective implementation of policies regarding health and safety into the management functions.

Discussion

Managing safety is an important part of managing an organization. Safety results are key performance management indicators in modern organizations. While safety performance for organizations is important, accidents in the workplace have continued to happen at unacceptable rates, causing preventable suffering and losses to employees, employees' families, communities, and organizations. Not only do safety results indicate how well safety is managed in the organization, but they also indicate the effectiveness and sustainability of the practices that are used to manage the organization (Mearns et al., 2010). Different approaches have been used to improve safety performance in organizations all over the world. One of the most prevalent initial approaches includes assessing and improving the technical and engineering systems in the workplace. This approach, although valid, focuses only on the physical conditions that were present in the workplace when accidents happened. Physical conditions are only one of the causes of occupational accidents(Desai et al., 2006).

Accident investigation processes that are designed to find one cause of an accident erroneously simplify the process. These processes lead an organization to solve only one cause of the safety problem, when most likely there is more than one cause involved. If an organization hopes to identify all causes of their occupational accidents, the investigative process also needs to take into consideration the human aspects that were present before and during the time the accident happened (Kath et al., 2010). Consequently, other approaches have been developed to identify, evaluate, and improve the human aspects and behaviors associated with occupational accidents, injuries, and illnesses. Literature pertaining to the safety climate within organizations includes other approaches that study the human aspects related to occupational safety and health. The reviewed literature relevant to the present study includes the following categories: ...