EFFECT OF PERCEPTION OF ORGANISATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY POLICIES ON EMPLOYEE SATISFACTION
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EFFECT OF PERCEPTION OF ORGANISATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY POLICIES ON EMPLOYEE SATISFACTION
Chapter one
INTRODUCTION
1.2 Background for the Study
Organisations are made up of people who work together to attain a shared goal (Ogundele, 2012). As highlighted in related literatures (Ezekiel, Nandi, Thuo, and Wanyonyi; 2012 and Agbola, 2012), it is common knowledge that wherever there are people or groups of people working or staying together, health and safety issues will naturally arise, though the magnitude may vary due to the level of risk exposure that is unique to some organisations.
According to Amposah-Tawaih and Dartey-Baah (2014), human resource practitioners have realised the need to maintain healthy and safe workplace programmes and activities as a source of competitive advantage to curtail rising health-care costs;
assist in the attraction, acquisition, and retention of employees; better manage the employer-employee relationship; meet the needs of an increasingly diverse workforce; and boost employee morale, Okoye and Okolie (2014) stated that health and safety issues have come to the forefront as a result of the necessity for organisations to fulfil their goals/objectives through sustainable growth and competitive advantage
hence contributing to the collective wellness of society. This argument assumes that employees’ health and safety are crucial in achieving the organization’s stated goal.
According to Dwornoh, Owusu, and Addo (2013), the level of health and safety policies in the organisations where people work has a significant impact on the organization’s success or failure.
Gyekye (2005) defines safety as the condition of being protected from physical, social, spiritual, financial, emotional, occupational, psychological, educational, or other types or consequences of failure, damage, error, accidents, harm, or any other undesirable event.
According to Dwomoh, Owusu, and Addo (2013), health and safety are more than just good socioeconomic and political policies; they are also fundamental human rights. The organisation also advised that all efforts and measures must be in place to preserve and safeguard human life from workplace accidents and illnesses.
The concern for health and safety management is informed by the damaging consequences that follow the failures of organization’s management to protect and pay adequate attention to the health and safety of their workers and thus, to comply with occupational health and safety legislation in order to fulfil their responsibilities as an employer to ensure that workers have a safe work-place.
A positive safety culture can be a useful technique for improving employee job satisfaction and generating a nice mood in the workplace (Padmakumar, Swapna, & Gantasala, 2011).
By extension, Padmakumar, Swapna, and Gantasala (2011) believe that effective and efficient health and safety policies will benefit organisations financially by reducing lost work hours and accident-related compensation costs, increasing employee motivation, producing higher-quality products, and reducing turnover, all of which lead to increased employee satisfaction.
This means that organisations must ensure that employees are not exposed to risks that will harm their bodily, emotional, or mental health. Ezekiel, Nandi, Thuo, and Wanyonyi (2012) observed that most African organisations do not pay appropriate attention to health and safety standards. They also postulated that employees who work in a healthy and safe atmosphere will undoubtedly be satisfied and inspired to give their all.
According to Ria, Anis, and Oci (2012), the goal of health and safety regulations is to provide a safe working environment in which employees are safeguarded from workplace accidents or bad events.
According to Tiwani (2014), health and safety as it relates to employee job satisfaction is a difficult metric to measure, but forward-thinking organisations recognise that it exists and can thus justify the costs of their safety programmes in relation to the productivity benefits that they provide.
Locke (1969), as referenced in Gyekye (2005), defined employee work satisfaction as the degree to which an employee feels positive about his or her employment.
In a similar vein, Locke (1979) in Gyekye (2005) defines job satisfaction as a pleasurable or positive emotional state resulting from an appraisal of one’s job or job experiences, as well as the perceived relationship between what one wants from one’s job and what one perceives it to offer.
These definitions establish a relationship between employee job satisfaction and perceptions of the workplace’s health and safety standards. These concepts can be used to explain the sudden surge in the urgent need for improving employee work satisfaction, as well as the recognition it now receives from human resources practitioners.
Casio (1996), as referenced in Makori, Thou, Kiongera, and Muchiwa (2013), stated that staff, like any other resource, require maintenance and care to maximise output.
The provisions of this vital component of an organization’s life are critical since organisational objectives define what the organisation intends to do and achieve in its field of business using available human capital.
Agbola (2012) described health and safety policies as a management function that focuses on all processes that protect employees and others affected by an organization’s operations, goods, and services from dangers.
Health and safety policies are crucial to the achievement of organisational goals. According to Akpan (2011), the recognition of employees as the most valuable asset in modern management may be predicated on their unavoidable involvement in the manipulation of all other organisational assets or resources for productivity.
Akpan (2011) observed that management’s perception of human importance in the organisational setting has been demonstrated through deliberate strategic decisions aimed at attracting desired labour, one of which is the organization’s effort to provide a safe and healthy work environment.
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