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WHC4003 SUMMARY Occupational Health Management
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WHC4003 – SUMMARY:Occupational Health Management (OHM)
Case 1 – OHM and its stakeholders
1. What is OHM?
Occupational health management (OHM), important due to changing nature of work (e.g.
WLB, workplace violence) in a changing environment (e.g. aging labour population).
EU-OSHA (2016). Second European Survey of Enterprises on New and Emerging Risks (ESENER-2). Overview
report: Managing Safety and Health at Work (pp. 15-38).
OHM: Occupational safety and health is a cross-disciplinary area concerned with protecting
the safety, health and well-being of people engaged in work. The goals of occupational health
programs include the fostering of a safe and healthy work environment. Occupational health
systems may protect the people influenced by the work environment.
EU-OSHA (2012). Management of occupational safety and health. An analysis of the findings of the European
Survey of Enterprises on New and Emerging Risks (ESENER). European Risk Observatory Report (pp.14-27).
Luxembourg: European Agency for Safety and Health at Work.
The International Labour Organisation (ILO): according to the ILO, an OSHMS is ‘a set of
interrelated or interacting elements to establish OSH policy and objectives and to achieve
those objectives’. ‘An OSHMS is an integrated set of organisational elements involved in the
continuous cycle of planning, implementation, evaluation, and continual improvement,
directed toward the abatement of occupational hazards in the workplace.’
The development of the new strategy towards OSH management across industrialised
countries can be explained by several interrelated strands:
Voluntary OSHM systems
o Not state-regulated
o first promoted by commercial organisations, large corporations and
associations (e.g. industry associations)
o more complex and more formalised in terms of specifications
o are generally in the form of standards or guidelines
Mandatory OSHM strategies (systematic), such as the EU 1989 Framework directive
(e.g. obligatory risk assessment and to use preventive services)
o arise from government legislation and dictate a limited set of core principles
for the management of OSH to be implemented by employers. Their use is
then enforcedthrough inspections, fi nes and other corrective measures
o relatively simple and applicaple to all types of enterpises
Although OSH management has gained considerable attention among the different
stakeholders in OSH, there is a lack of systematic reviews on their effects on worker health
and safety and associated socioeconomic and health-related outcomes. Yet, studies regarding
the effectiveness of voluntary and mandatory OSHMSs both show positive effects.
Implementation of OSHMS can be beneficial under certain circumstances.
The implementation of OSHMSs is highly constrained and determined by the enterprise’s
context (e.g. structure, size, activity, technology) and objectives.
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, 2. Where did OHM come from, where is it derived from? (focus on last decades)
EU-OSHA (2012). Management of occupational safety and health. An analysis of the findings of the European
Survey of Enterprises on New and Emerging Risks (ESENER). European Risk Observatory Report (pp.14-27).
Luxembourg: European Agency for Safety and Health at Work.
Downward trends in fatal and non-fatal accidents at work in many industrialised countries.
Recent changes in the world of work — including shifting demographic patterns, economic
globalisation, and the emergence and diffusion of new technologies — have caused general
public concern about the apparent deterioration in job quality in industrialised countries.
Physical risks such as exposure to vibrations and noise are still prevalent despite a decline in
the proportion of the workforce employed in traditional, physically demanding sectors. Trend
towards the increasing incidence of psychosocial risks at work including stress, bullying or
harassment, and violence. Most of these hazards are related to new forms of employment
contracts and job insecurity, the ageing workforce, work intensification, high emotional
demands at work, and poor work-life balance.
Work-related health problems result in a lot of sick leave days and have costly consequences
for both individual e.g. loss of income, treatment, and employers e.g. sick pay, recruitment
costs. Therefore, OSHM is important.
In the 1970s and early 1980s, several industrialised countries introduced detailed OSH
regulatory initiatives aiming to dramatically reduce workplace injuries and work-related ill
health, which remained notable despite the rise in standards of living. These initiatives had at
least three main principles of government intervention. Firstly, they put an emphasis on the
responsibility of employers for OSH policy. Secondly, these initiatives introduced better
standards and comprehensive legislation, which were still fragmented in many countries, to
improve health and safety at work and to better enforce regulation. Thirdly, they promoted
workers’ participation in OSH policy. These first OSH initiatives were ineffective because of
the passive and fragmented strategy.
More about legislation. There should be regulations about OSH.
In the late 1980s and the 1990s thee was a new strategy towards the promotion of
occupational safety and health management (OSHM), which emphasised how workplace
hazards should be identified and tackled from a managerial standpoint. Such a new strategy
also represented a shift from prescriptive legislation to a goalsetting philosophy, which is
based on the premise that employers (and employees) are best placed to identify hazards and
tackle the associated risks.
OHM is more seen as management practice, how organisation can embed OSH in their
organisation.
3. What is a stakeholder and what stakeholders are involved in OHM? (levels, etc.)
Amponsah-Tawiah, K. & Mensah, J. (2015). Harmonising stakeholder interests: The role of occupational health
& safety. African Journal of Business Management, 9(9), 394-401.
Socially responsible business behaviour focus less on how companies give money away,
but on how companies make money. There is a need to manage health and safety on a pro-
active basis.
An organization depends on multiple stakeholders with varied interest that needs satisfaction
to ensure its success and survival. Most of the times with the limited resources left for
organizations it becomes impossible to satisfy every stakeholder’s interest at a time, therefore
organizations are torn between whose interest must be satisfied.
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,Since the health and safety of employees and their quality of life addresses or aids in
addressing the concerns of most stakeholders, it should become the steering wheel of the
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) concept which has become a household concept within
the extractive industry and the balancing act for the stakeholder theory.
Stakeholder theory
Organisations operate in a network of market and non-market relationships with individuals,
groups and other organisations which are all stakeholders.
Stakeholder any group or individual who can affect or is affected by the
achievement of the organisations objectives
The pragmatic questions that have plagued the stakeholder theory since its inception, is well
epitomised by Jones (1980):
1. What are the groups called stakeholders?
2. How many of these groups must be served?
3. Which of their interests are most important?
4. How can their interests be balanced?
5. How much corporate money should be allotted to serve these interests?
Some scholars in their identification and prioritisation of stakeholders and their interests have
used such concepts as legitimacy, power and urgency. For an entity to be classified as a
stakeholder and therefore gain recognition or attention from an organisation, it should have
some legitimate claim to the organisation and for the claim to receive the needed attention and
on time, the stakeholder should have some powers and the claim itself should be urgent.
Shareholders. (an owner of shares of a company) Profitability and performance are
two key issues at the heart of most shareholding decisions. If occupational health and
safety issues are integrated into CSR, companies may achieve increase in productivity,
consumer loyalty and even additional value for shares. Are concerned with the image
of the organization and have a huge impact.
Governments through legislations regulate the activities of organisations operating in
the country. Legislations are used to attract investors into the country even as they are
used to protect the interest of the country and its citizens. Governments depend on
corporate and income taxes from organisations and their employees respectively, to
develop their economies. Taxation and regulation of organisations are made possible
through their continuous existence, which is dependent on their performance and
profitability- two variables, dependent on the performance of employees. Issues like
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, the quality of life and health and safety of employees, which have the potential of
affecting their performance and hence the continuous existence of the organisation
should therefore be of equal interest to governments just as issues of taxation and
regulation.
Most senior management staffs in their bid to meet performance targets are
sometimes forced to employ various measures, which compromises the interests of
employees. This they might do by cutting down on resource allocation to the health,
safety and environment sector in order to meet their performance targets, which are
mostly measured in monetary terms. Compromising on the health and safety of
employees to achieve performance targets is a misplaced priority.
Non managerial staffs (employees) are concerned more about earning money and
supporting their families. Rates of pay and job security are of prime interest to
employees basically because they will want to maintain a high quality of life for
themselves and their families.
Trade unions represent the interests of employees in the organisation. They become
very visible and active during the drawing up and signing of collective bargaining
agreements between employers and employees.
Customers as stakeholders of an organisation are always in search of value for their
monies. Organisations are more likely to produce quality and cheaper products with
quality and healthy workforce, who work under healthy and safe conditions and have
better conditions of service.
Creditors (e.g. banking industry). The performance of an organisation which is a
function of its employees can also cause the organisation to file for bankruptcy.
Suppliers and contractors just like creditors look out for credit worthiness in their
dealings with organisations. the credit worthiness of an organisation is dependent on
its performance, which is dependent on the health of its employees (productivity).
Members of the community of which employees of organisations are a part, desire to
be employed by organisations established in their locality. The organisation is only
able to employ more people when it has expanded. The expansion of the organisation
however, depends on the efforts put in by existing employees.
Human rights and environment issues as propagated by NGOs are directed at restoring
human dignity. Good health and safety regulations stand for human dignity.
4. What is policy implementation?
Implementation the realization of an application, or execution of a plan, idea, model,
design, specification, standard or policy. Implementation is important: even proven effective
intervention strategy can be not effective when poorly implemented.
Buse, K., Mays, N., & Walt, G. (2005). Making health policy (Chapter 7 Policy implementation; pp. 120-136).
Maidenhead: Open University Press.
Implementation process of turning a policy into practice. Implementation is seen as a
complex, interactive process, in which a wide range of actors influence both the direction of
travel, as well as the way that given policies are executed, within the constraints of existing
institutions. Implementation is a political process shaped by government capacity and system
complexity.
Implementation gap difference between what the policy architect intended and the
end result of a policy.
5. What are barriers/facilitators towards implementation of OHM?
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