Workplace Safety And Health Management - Myassignmenthelp.Com

Question: Discuss about the Workplace Safety And Health Management. Answer: Introduction Back in the year of 2005, Singapore Government adopted a framework for improving workplace safety and health (WSH). The aim was to reduce the risk factors of the workplace, engendering a greater industry ownership and prevent the accidents and avoiding fines for useless poor management of safety and security at the workplace (Makin and Winder 2008). A few years back the focal point was improving the management of the safety and security issues in the workplace, but nowadays too we are stressing on the same factors, and that indicates that we have a lot of improvement to do in this sector. In developed countries too, work safety management is an issue that bothers the leading business leaders and the management bodies are constantly trying to bring in new innovative ideas to strengthen the work safety management of various industries and workplaces (Robson et al. 2007). Just for an example, it can be said, that in Singapore, there are 31 occupational diseases found and those are repor ted under the Workplace Safety and Health Acts third schedule (Grote 2012). I am currently working in a service industry and my company offers important domestic services like delivering meals vehicles, clothing general equipments and various items. Before joining my organization, I have attended courses like Bachelor of Science in Social Health Environmental Management, Noise Monitoring Officer course, Human Factors Engineering and Ergonomics course, Sampling and Monitoring of Airborne Contaminants, Management of Hazardous Substance and some others. Now I am in charge of the work safety and health management in my organization. When I completed by B.Sc degree I got some experiences regarding he topics like, a thorough understanding of various research process, ergonomics, sensible risk management, hazardous industries, client based study and honors year project, and some interests grew in me regarding this course and its implications in workplace. During the course, I have learnt how to study workers efficiency in the workplace, how to manage various risk f actors in the workplace, I have learnt how to deal with various types of hazards in various industries, and apart from these I have learnt how to do a client based study and honors year project. It is a matter of concern for people like us who work in risk management sector, is that each year on an average 200 people get killed in accidents in the workplace, and over a million people get somehow injured in the workplace and millions get various diseases from the workplace. This needs to be stopped immediately and for this there lies a huge importance of courses like social health and environmental management. Courses like health and safety management helps us to make sure that our employees do not get injured or fall sick in the workplace (Vinodkumar and Bhasi 2010). After attending various courses regarding these topic I realized that these learning helped me a lot to develop a positive understanding on the health and safety issues in the workplace, and apart from these from the courses learning I have realized that it is a social as well as legal duty of us to protect the employees from all the hazards of the workplace (Salvendy 2012). The training which we received is very much effective, and it ensures that we will make the general workforce competent in health and safety issues. The trainings can help a business to avoid the unpleasant incident in the workplace, and apart from that, these learning would help in managing financial costs regarding accidents in workplace and various liabilities of the organization regarding employees diseases acquired from the workplace (Robson et al. 2 012). We were taught the procedure of site evacuation and muster points, the risks associated with the workers working environment and duties. We were also taught how to safely handle the equipments and machineries in the workplace. The industries can be categorized as primary, secondary tertiary and quaternary according to the chances of hazards in the workplace. Industries like mining, extraction, raw materials fall under the primary category (Hetherington, Flin, and Mearns 2006). Manufacturing, production to usable products fall under this sector. Service industry, support industries like hospital, restaurants, and hotels fall under tertiary category and research sectors fall under the quaternary category according to the occurrence of occupational hazards (Schulte et al. 2008). These all industries are somewhat inter related to each other by one aspect and that is workplace safety and security, and in todays time reducing risk factors in the workplace has become one of the most essential matter of concern for the business leaders (Cigularov, Chen and Rosecrance 2010). Relation between hazard, risk and measure control The term hazard in workplace is referred to as a potential source of harm and ill health effect on the employees of a particular workplace. The terms hazard and risk are frequently used as a same thing, but the difference between them is discussed below. To define risk, it can be said that, risk is likelihood that a person can get harmed or suffer from ill health effects if he or she is exposed o any kind of hazard. The levels of risk can be determined by the potential harm that the hazard can cost (Cigularov, Chen and Rosecrance 2010). For an example, it can be said that exposure to asbestos industry is very fatal for human lungs and thus it can be categorized as a high risk factor. So, it can be said that, risk is the result of a hazard faced in the workplace, or hazard can be called a possibility of causing harms and risk is the probability of the harms to happen (Neal and Griffin 2006). In short, it can be said that, managing risk is a four step process where the experts need to point out the hazard in the workplace, and then they need to calculate the possible risks that the hazards can bring in, and finally the last step is to implement control measures, which can annihilate the risks from those hazards (Goetsch 2011). Case studies Case I A few years ago in Taiwan, a flammable colored powder was sprayed from a stage on the group of college students who were dancing in a drained swimming pool. Instantly, the powder turned into fireballs and scattered burning dust on the group of students. When the investigation was done, and it was clear that the particles came into contact of immense heat from the lights of the stage and it ignited, injuring over 500 people. Out of these five hundred people 17 people died and the host of the event was sentenced to five years of jail. The judge said that, after the investigation, police was sure that the host of the event did not take any precaution to prevent any kind of unpleasant incidents and thus he was penalized to pay 14 million dollars in compensation. Case II Professionally diving must be considered as a job with highly risky activities. The divers are frequently exposed to carious occupational hazards related to the diving- like drowning, respiratory troubles, troubles related circulation and many others (Hermanus 2007). Sometimes, when they carry out various tasks, like, welding or operating heavy machineries they get exposed towards many hazards (Lerman et al. 2012). Professional drivers get recruited by construction companies, for searching and rescuing operations, energy industries recruit many divers, they get recruited by aquaculture and for scientific archeological and research activities also they get hired (Parboteeah and Kapp 2008). There can be innumerable harmful accidents underwater, and in many occasion often divers lose their lives. For this kind of sport, the organizations need to have a team of highly experienced educated well trained people, designated as workplace safety and security supervisor or manager. So that the possibility of any kind of risk can be reduced down significantly and save many people from get harmed (Christian et al. 2006). Case III Asbestos industry is one of the most dangerous industries in terms of work safety and security of the employees of these types of organizations. It is the biggest killer in the workplace, as the noise of installing and removing asbestos can damage ears significantly and some workers suffer from hand arm vibration disease (Liao, Martocchio and Joshi 2010). Some employees end up having musculoskeletal diseases due to same repetitive work in the workplace (Brewer et al. 2006). The chemicals used in asbestos industry too cause much harm to the workers in that industry. That is why high level work safety management system should be present in the asbestos industry. Case IV Construction industry is one of the most hazardous industries in terms of the occurrence of accidents in the workplace. The managers should look into the matter of safety and security in the construction sites with high priority, as it is a matter of fact that, in most cases many workers die in the construction sites due to negligence of the work safety management of that particular organization (Ismail, Doostdar and Harun 2012). For an example, it can be said that, if a worker falls from a height of like 40 meters, e would definitely die, and to prevent these kind of accident, the organization use a nylon rope with chain pulley attached to the internal frame of the building, but this is not enough and this can lead to the fall of the worker resulting in death for him (Berman et al. 2012). The organizations should provide lifeline and anchorage for the employees to hook on safety pillars and they should make sure that, the scaffold used as an anchor of the pulley chain must be tied s afely with the structure. If any organization fails to provide essential support to save the employees from these types of occupational risks the organization must be penalized and their license should be confiscated as the lack of concern regarding someones life is not at all something that can be considered as a mere mistake (Nahrgang, Morgeson and Hofmann 2011). In todays market the occurrence of accidents have been majorly increased in two sectors, first in mining industry and the latter on is construction industry. So I would like to attract attention of the directors of construction companies through this paper, so that they could take some serious initiatives regarding the work safety issues of their employees in the construction sites (Choudhry, Fang and Ahmed 2008). Societys outlook needs to be changed I have learnt a lot of things while attending the course Social health environmental management and later when I had a big exposure in workplace I got to have so many real life experiences that I sometimes look back in retrospect and think that when I was in school, at that time I was not at all aware of these issues which were happening in front of my eyes, and I do not think the majority of our society is least bothered with issues like this. I really feel that awareness regarding these issues must be increased among people, socially among the young children who are the future of our country. Each day many people die around the globe due to people's lack of awareness regarding the safety issues in the workplace and it is a matter of fact that it might be true that only a few developed countries follow the rules and regulations of Workplace safety and Security, but the majority of the nations, be it developed or developing or under developed, they are least bothered regarding any is sues like these. On the other hand it is also a fact that in recent years the annual rate of these workplace accidents are reducing, not in a rapid rate, but still the table is turning, slowly, but things are really changing. In Singapore, I can see and feel proud that majority of the organizations have separate department for workplace safety issues and the governing bodies are investing a lot for the betterment of total workplace safety and security. It is worth mentioning that, the more these trainings and courses regarding this topic get promoted, the more awareness regarding this issue can be noticed. Things I would like to do again differently If I get a chance to start my course regarding work safety management again, I would like to change some minor things to improve my knowledge as a professional. In this job, it is clearly evident that acquiring practical knowledge is the key. The more you get practical experience, the more you learn and the more you can improvise in the practical field to eliminate the causes of the risk factors. I would have liked to extend the allotted time for working as interns, so that we could gain more knowledge on various risk factors and that could have enriched our knowledge base more. Another thing what I felt would have been more interesting is that there should be governing body who would keep records of how many students pass the training comprehension tests and on how many attempts. That could be a tool for the employees to evaluate the candidates before recruiting. Apart from these I did not feel that anything needs to be changed as after all I am new in this sector and recently joine d as an employee and it would not be right if I start judging the process of the courses made by experienced scholar professors, and moreover I know very less than what they know and what their experiences are over the years. My perceptions on the course In my opinion, effective safety and health management system must be present in any organization, and to secure that the courses on work safety management must be promoted. The organizations must recruit professionals who have acquired a professional degree regarding this work safety management. If the organizations recruit people without any professional degree, it would not be as effective if they recruit people with valid degree and some practical experiences regarding this matter. In work safety management system, practical experience is what matters end of the day, and the organizations should take this matter seriously, as a strong effective department of work safety management can not only lower the risk factors, but they save lives of number of people and for this the importance of this degree course and this department in any organization has a lot of importance and in my opinion everyones opinion regarding this must be the same for the betterment of our society. Critical discussion on the demands of the situation The increased demands for the experts of the work safety management are indicating one thing, and that is awareness regarding this issue has been increased in recent years and it is obviously a good sign for the society. The courses provided in this topic are to some extent lagging behind due to some minor issues and this can be fixed in no time. Regarding the planning of the courses the authorities need to look into the matters of writing skills, grammars and referencing ability of the students and they should be articulate in terms of describing something to others and they should be observant as it is a duty of them to point out the grass root reasons of hazards in the workplace. In my final year of completing thi course, I had to complete three projects and those are my honours project along with client based study and hazardous industries. Among these three, I had no issues regarding completing my honours project and client based study as those were easy for me to complete prope rly, but the project based on hazardous industries I had to deal with some issues, and those are, not many organizations let me enter their area of operation to collect samples and to gather information, as I had no such documents where it was written that I should be allowed from collecting data from various organizations. These are the basic demands of the situation present in todays scenario in my opinion. Summarizing the content Finally, to conclude, all I can say is there is immense importance of courses like work safety management, as in this market where industrialization is at its peak the rate of unpleasant incidents in the organization is also increasing. All we need to do is eliminate the reasons behind these occurrences of these accidents in the workplace. Organizations are nowadays, maintaining different teams or department for work safety management in their area of operation to prevent these issues. It is a matter of fact that each year number of employees die out of workplace hazards and millions of people suffer from various illness caused by some incidents in the workplace, and it is a shameful thing that majority of the society is not at all well aware of this fact. The general awareness regarding this issue must be increased for the betterment of the society. I love my job a lot because, this job as an expert of workplace safety management allows me to look after the wellbeing of the employee s of my organization and I can plan how to save them from various hazards in the workplace. I feel very satisfied if I save someone from various kinds of occupational hazard. For me nothing is greater that saving someones life. I would surely stay in this sector and try to learn first from practical experiences and then I would like to improvise things in my workplace to keep a safer environment for the workers of our employees. It is a matter of fact that, many workshops regarding this issue must be arranged by the governing body of various organizations for the betterment of their employees and as a whole societys. 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