A CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF IMBIBING OCCUPTIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH CULTURE IN AN ORGANIZATION.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the study

safety has been identified as keeping things from happening, it is a state in which hazards and conditions leading to physical, psychological or material harm are controlled in other to preserve the health and well- being of individuals and community. It is an essential resource for everyday life,needed by individuals and communities to realise their aspirations. Attaining an optimum level of safety requires individuals, communities, governments and others to create and maintain the following conditions, whichever setting is considered :

·         a climate of social cohesion and peace as well as of equity protecting human rights and freedoms, at the family, local, national or international level;

·         the prevention and control of injuries and other consequences or harm caused by accidents;

·         the respect of the values and the physical, material and psychological integrity of individuals; and

·         the provision of effective preventive, control and rehabilitation measures to ensure the presence of the three previous conditions.

These conditions can be assured by initiatives that focus ontheenvironment (physical, social, technological, political, economic and organizational) , behaviour.with this we can say that  Occupational Safety and Health culture(OSH) is an interdisciplinary activity concerned with the prevention of occupational risks inherent to each work activity. The main aim is the promotion and maintenance of the highest degree of safety and health at work, therefore creating conditions to avoid the occurrence of work accidents and ill health. The achievement of this desirable state of safe working conditions implies that employers must perform risk assessment regarding safety and health at work, and must decide if actions are required and what kind of OSH measures should be implemented. According to the International Labour Organization, OSH encompasses the social, mental and physical well-being of workers, that is the whole person Therefore OSH is not only avoiding work accidents or occupational diseases, but the result of taking actions to identify their causes (hazards existent at workplace) and the implementation of adequate preventive OSH control measures. To accomplish such objective it is necessary to have interactions with other scientific areas, like occupational medicine, public health, industrial engineering, ergonomics, chemistry and psychology, and also see how health culture have developed in organizations. health culture if not properly monitored have important implication on humans as  this can affect the productivity.

1.2  Statement of research problem

The operation of Organizations in Nigeria have been guided by series of law and orders, which have caused the researcher to critically examine the occupational safety and health culture which organiations in Nigeria has imbibed. This is manifested in various ways with which  these organization adhere to these law and order because there have been a huge number of  avoidable death and accident in organizations.

1.3   Objectives of the study

The primary objective of this study is to critically examine occupational safety and health culture in an organization, hence the study seeks to:

1. Examine the concept of occupational safety and health culture in an organization.

2. Examine the factors affecting occupational safety and health culture in an organization.

3.Examine how occupational safety and health culture can be be improved in an organization.

1.4  Research questions

The following questions guide this study:

1.        What are the various policy guiding occupational safety and health culture in organizations?

2.        What are the factors affecting occupational safety and health culture in organizations?

3.        3 how has occupational safety and health culture improved over time in organizations?

1.5  Significance of the study

The study is considered significance for the following reasons.

l  It will shed more light in examining the concept of imbibing occupational safety and health culture in organizations.

l  The study will be of help to government agencies, industries,and  academia

l  It will also serve as a guide to future researchers who may wnt to further elaborate on this  similar study.

1.6  Scope of the study

This study focuses on examining how organizations have imbibe  occupational safety and health culture into their day to day activity.  and also, the  study will further examine factors that affects occupational safety and health culture in organization finally, This study is delimited to OPAY organization in lagos state

1.7  Limitations of the study

During the course of this study challenges encountered were that of

l  Slow response from the management of OPAY,as they were not readily available to provide answer to certain research questions.

l   Financial constraint, was faced by the research as the researcher could not go to OPAY, as much as it wanted to, also,in getting relevant materials  and  in printing and collation of questionnaires.

l  Time factor: time factor pose another constraint since having to juggle between writing of the research and also engaging in other academic work making it impossible to carry out more research to the full potential of the researcher.

1.8  Operational definition of terms

Safety: This is a measure put in place to guide the day to day activity of workers in an organization, and also to ensure that these guidelines are strictly followed.

Health Culture: is broadly said to be seen as one which good health and well being flourish, and also maintaining some level of healthy lifestyles.