Perceived Work Environment and the Occurrence of Accidents: A Study Based on Kuching Area of Sarawak
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.33736/jcshd.366.2016Keywords:
Accidents, perceived work task, physical environment, supportive work environment, safetyAbstract
Perceived work environment could be described as the opinions and attitudes of workers towards their work condition. Elements of perceived work environment such as physical environment, supportive work environment, and perceived work tasks may possibly be important factors that influence the occurrence of accidents. The objective of this study is to examine the relationship between perceived work environment and the occurrence of accidents within an electronic manufacturing industry in Kuching, Sarawak. A cross-sectional survey utilizing a bilingual self-report questionnaire was conducted to garner data from 50 workers. Independent t-test and Pearson moment correlation were used to assess data. The results indicated that the occurrence of accidents was not affected by age group. Although physical environment and perceived work tasks did not demonstrate significant relationships with the occurrence of accidents, supportive work environment exhibited a significant inverse relationship, thereby indicating that accidents could be lowered in the presence of higher supportive work environment. Thus, support and help from co-workers are essential determinants of safety at the workplace.
References
Barling, J., Loughlin, C., & Kelloway, E. K. (2002). Development and test of a model linking safety-specific transformational leadership and oc-cupational safety. Journal of Ap-plied Psychology, 87(3), 488-496.
https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.87.3.488
Basok, J., Coetsee, W. J., & Cullinane, S. J. (2013). Safety climate dimen-sions as predictors for risk behavior. Accident Analysis and Prevention, 55, 256-264.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2013.02.022
Bender, K. A., Green, C. P., & Hey-wood, J. S. (2012). Piece rates and workplace injury: Does survey evi-dence support Adam Smith? Jour-nal of Population Economics, 25(2), 569-590.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00148-011-0393-5
Bjerkan, A. M. (2010). Health, environ-ment, safety culture and climate- analyzing the relationships to occu-pational accidents. Journal of Risk Research, 13(4), 445-477.
https://doi.org/10.1080/13669870903346386
Breslin, F. C., Day, D., Tompa, E., Irvin, E., Bhattacharyya, S., Clarke, J., Wang, A. (2007). Non-agricultural work injuries among youth: A sys-tematic review. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 32(2), 151-162.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2006.10.007
Breslin, F. C. & Pole, J. D. (2009). Work injury risk among young people with learning disabilities and attention-deficit/ hyperactivity disorder in Canada. American Journal of Public Health, 99(8), 1423-1430.
https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2008.140855
Bronkhorst, B. (2015). Behaving safely under pressure: The effects of job demands, resources, and safety cli-mate on employee physical and psychosocial safety behavior. Jour-nal of Safety Research, 1-31.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsr.2015.09.002
Chandrasekar. (2011). Workplace envi-ronment and its impact on organisa-tional performance in public sector organisations. International Journal of Enterprise Computing and Business Systems, 1(1), 1-19.
Clarke, S. (2006a). Safety climate in an automobile manufacturing plant: The effects of work environment, job communication and safety attitudes on accidents and unsafe behavior. Personnel Review, 35(4), 413-430.
https://doi.org/10.1108/00483480610670580
Clarke, S. (2006b). The relationship between safety climate and safety performance: A meta-analytic re-view. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 11(4), 315-327.
https://doi.org/10.1037/1076-8998.11.4.315
Department of occupational safety and health. (2010a). Occupational acci-dents by sector for the category of death until December 2010. Re-trieved from http://www.dosh.gov.my/images/dmdocuments/stats/ ve_maut_sect_122010.pdf
Department of occupational safety and health. (2010b). Occupational acci-dents by sector for the category of NPD until December 2010. Re-trieved from http://www.dosh.gov.my/images/dmdocu-ments/stats/ve_thuk_sect_122010.pdf
Department of occupational safety and health. (2010c). Occupational acci-dents by sector for the category of PD until December 2010. Retrieved from http://www.dosh.gov.my/images/dmdocuments/stats/ ve_huk_sect_122010.pdf
Department of occupational safety and health. (2011). Statistics of occupa-tional accidents by sector in 2011. Retrieved from http://www.dosh.gov.my/images/dmdocuments/stats/ ve_acc_sector_2011.pdf
Department of occupational safety and health. (2012a). Employers not keen on investing in workers' safety-FMM Sabah. Retrieved from http://www.dosh.gov.my/index.php?op-tion=com_content&view=article&id=679
Department of occupational safety and health. (2012b). Occupational acci-dents statistics 2012. Retrieved from http://www.dosh.gov.my/index.php?op-tion=com_content&view=article&id=795
Department of occupational safety and health. (2013). Occupational acci-dents by sector until December 2013. Retrieved from http://www.dosh.gov.my/index.php?op-tion=com_content&view=article&id=843
Department of occupational safety and health. (2014). Occupational acci-dents by sector until December 2014. Retrieved from http://www.dosh.gov.my/index.php?op-tion=com_content&view=article&id=1225:
Department of occupational safety and health. (2015). Occupational acci-dents statistics by sector until De-cember 2015 [image]. Retrieved from http://www.dosh.gov.my/index.php/en/archive-statistics/2015/1713-
occupational-accidents-statistics-by-sector-until-december-2015
Dhillon, B. S. (2014). Human error in maintenance: An investigation study for the factories of the future. 27th International Conference on CADCAM, Robotics and Factories of the Future 2014, 65, 1-13.
https://doi.org/10.1088/1757-899X/65/1/012031
Heinrich, H. W., Peterson, D.,& Roos, N. (1980).Industrial Accident Pre-vention (5thed.). New York: Mcgraw Hill.
Hon, C. K. H., Hinze, J., & Chan, A. P. C. (2014). Safety climate and injury occurrence of repair, maintenance, minor alteration and addition works: A comparison of workers, supervi-sors and managers. Facilities, 32(5/6), 188-207.
https://doi.org/10.1108/F-09-2011-0066
Huang, Y-H., Robertson, M. M., Lee, J., Rineer, J., Murphy, L. A., Garabet, A., &Dainoff, M. J. (2014). Super-visory interpretation of safety cli-mate versus employee safety cli-mate perception: Association with safety behavior and outcomes for lone workers. Transportation Re-search Part F, 26, 348-360.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trf.2014.04.006
Kanten, S. (2013). The relationship among working conditions, safety climate, safety behaviors and occu-pational accidents: An empirical re-search on the marble workers. The Macrotheme Review, 2(4), 173-182.
Klein, K. J., Conn, A. B., Smith, D. B., &Sorra, J. S. (2001). Is everyone in agreement? An exploration of with-in-group agreement in employee perceptions of the work environ-ment. Journal of Applied Psychology, 86(1), 3-16.
https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.86.1.3
Laberge, M. &Ledoux, E. (2011). Occu-pational health and safety issues af-fecting young workers: A literature review. Work, 39, 215-232.
https://doi.org/10.3233/WOR-2011-1170
Ling, S. C., Norslah, M.,& Mohammed, A-O. (2013) Organizational practic-es and employee engagement: A case of Malaysia electronics manu-facturing firms. Business Strategy Series, 14(1), 3-10.
https://doi.org/10.1108/17515631311295659
Liu, X. X., Huang, G. X., Huang, H. Q., Wang, S. Y., Xiao, Y. N.,& Chen, W. Q. (2015). Safety climate, safety behavior, and worker injuries in the Chinese manufacturing industry. Safety Science, 78, 173-178.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2015.04.023
Martins, C. L., Echevarria-Guanilo, M. E., Silveira, D. T., Gonzales, R. I. C. &Pai, D. D. (2015). Risk perception of work-related burn injuries from the worker perspective. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/0104070720150000088015
https://doi.org/10.1590/0104-0707201500000880015
Min, K. B., Park, S. G., Song, J. S., Yi, K. H., Jang, T. W. & Min, J. Y. (2013). Subcontractors and in-creased risk for work-related dis-eases and absenteeism. American Journal of Industrial Medicine. Retrieved from http://www.researchgate.net/publication/241694588
https://doi.org/10.1002/ajim.22219
Noorul, H. Z., Norudin, M. &Zalinawati, A. (2012). Workplace accidents in Malaysia: Most common causes and solutions. Business and Manage-ment Review, 2(5), 75-88.
Osibanjo, A. O., Gberevbia, D. E., Ad-eniji, A. A. &Oludayo, A. O. (2015). Relationship modeling be-tween work environment, employee productivity, and supervision in the Nigerian Public Sector. American Journal of Management, 15(2), 9-23.
Oxford business group. (2016a). Com-petitive advantages: The sector has a big role to play if development goals are to be met. Retrieved from http://www.oxfordbusinessgroup.com
Oxford business group. (2016b). Sara-wak develops more value-added in-dustries. Retrieved from http://www.oxfordbusinessgroup.com/overview/sarawak-develops-more-value-added-industries
Siu, O. L., Phillips, D.R,.& Leung, T.W. (2004). Safety climate and safety performance among construction workers in Hong Kong: The role of psychological strains as mediators. Accident Analysis & Prevention, 36(3), 359-366.
https://doi.org/10.1016/S0001-4575(03)00016-2
Smith, T. D. &Dejoy, D. M. (2014). Safety climate, safety behaviors and line-of-duty injuries in the fire ser-vice. International Journal of Emergency Services, 3(1), 49-64.
https://doi.org/10.1108/IJES-04-2013-0010
Sorock, G. S., Lombardi, D. A., Hauser, R. B., Eisen, E. A., Herrick, R. F.,&Mittleman, M. A. (2001). A case-crossover study of occupation-al traumatic hand injury: Methods and initial findings. American Jour-nal of Industrial Medicine, 39, 171-179.
https://doi.org/10.1002/1097-0274(200102)39:2<171::AID-AJIM1004>3.0.CO;2-0
Tariq, S. A. & Everett, J. G. (2000). Identifying root causes of construc-tion accidents. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 52-60. Trading economics. Malaysia GDP an-nual growth rate. (2015, November 24). Retrieved from http://www.tradingeconomics.com/malaysia/gdp-growth-annual
https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9364(2000)126:1(52)
Tucker, S., Turner, N., Hershcovis, M. S., Chmiel, N., & Stride, C. B. (2008). Perceived organizational support for safety and employee safety voice: The mediating role of coworker support for safety. Jour-nal of Occupational Health Psy-chology, 13(4), 319-330.
https://doi.org/10.1037/1076-8998.13.4.319
Vinodkumar, M. N. & Bhasi, M. (2009). Safety climate factors and its rela-tionship with accidents and personal attributes in the chemical industry. Safety Science, 47, 659-667.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2008.09.004
Zohar, D. (2002). The effects of leader-ship dimensions, safety climate, and assigned priorities on minor injuries in work group. Journal of Occupa-tional Behavior, 23, 75-92.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright Transfer Statement for Journal
1) In signing this statement, the author(s) grant UNIMAS Publisher an exclusive license to publish their original research papers. The author(s) also grant UNIMAS Publisher permission to reproduce, recreate, translate, extract or summarize, and to distribute and display in any forms, formats, and media. The author(s) can reuse their papers in their future printed work without first requiring permission from UNIMAS Publisher, provided that the author(s) acknowledge and reference publication in the Journal.
2) For open access articles, the author(s) agree that their articles published under UNIMAS Publisher are distributed under the terms of the CC-BY-NC-SA (Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, for non-commercial purposes, provided the original work of the author(s) is properly cited.
3) The author(s) is/are responsible to ensure his or her or their submitted work is original and does not infringe any existing copyright, trademark, patent, statutory right, or propriety right of others. Corresponding author(s) has (have) obtained permission from all co-authors prior to submission to the journal. Upon submission of the manuscript, the author(s) agree that no similar work has been or will be submitted or published elsewhere in any language. If submitted manuscript includes materials from others, the authors have obtained the permission from the copyright owners.
4) In signing this statement, the author(s) declare(s) that the researches in which they have conducted are in compliance with the current laws of the respective country and UNIMAS Journal Publication Ethics Policy. Any experimentation or research involving human or the use of animal samples must obtain approval from Human or Animal Ethics Committee in their respective institutions. The author(s) agree and understand that UNIMAS Publisher is not responsible for any compensational claims or failure caused by the author(s) in fulfilling the above-mentioned requirements. The author(s) must accept the responsibility for releasing their materials upon request by Chief Editor or UNIMAS Publisher.
5) The author(s) should have participated sufficiently in the work and ensured the appropriateness of the content of the article. The author(s) should also agree that he or she has no commercial attachments (e.g. patent or license arrangement, equity interest, consultancies, etc.) that might pose any conflict of interest with the submitted manuscript. The author(s) also agree to make any relevant materials and data available upon request by the editor or UNIMAS Publisher.