Training program for occupational safety behavior in workplace of production company in hanoi basis for accident prevention and reduction

Training program for occupational safety behavior in workplace of production
company in Hanoi: Basis for Accident prevention and Reduction.
(Summary)

A RESEARCH PROPOSAL PRESENTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE
SCHOOL
SOUTHERN LUZON STATE UNIVERSITY LUCBAN, QUEZON, PHILIPPINES
THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY S.R. VIETNAM

IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE
DOCTOR IN BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

Advisor : Prof Placino Milo
Student name :

August, 2013

Pham Thi Ninh


Chapter 1
INTRODUTION
1.1 Background:
Safety behavior presents a paradox to practitioners and researchers alike because
contrary to the assumption that self- preservation overrides other motives (Maslow,
1970), careless behavior prevails during many routine jobs, making safe behavior an
ongoing managerial challenge. Studies in Industrial countries showed that about 90%
of accidents occur because of unsafe behavior and human errors and only 10% of
those belong to unsuitable workplace and equipment (FGhofranipour, Iranian J Publ
Health, Vol. 38, No 2,2009,pp125). Even if workers do not have the right knowledge,
attitude and behavior toward safety measures in a safe workplace, all efforts for an

accident-free workplace will be in vain.. Clearly, therefore, safe behavior in routine
work poses managerial challenges.

In case of Vietnam, occupational accident is a very important issue in industries,
especially in recent years the number of occupational accidents occurring more and
more as Industry is growing.
Statistics show that in 2010, there were 5125 cases of occupational accidents. The
year of 2011 there were 5896 cases of occupational accidents, up 15.04% compared to
2010 (Report of labour accident in 2011 .Number: 303 / TB-MOLISA).
And flow this report the causes of labor accidents is behavior of worker (80%).
Also, according to the report of the MOLISA (Ministry of labor, invalid and social
affair), the material damage caused by occupational accidents occurring in the first 6
months of 2011 (expenses relating to medicine, funeral, compensations for families of
deaths and injury, ...) was 143.331.800.000 vnd (2.62 times increase over the same

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period in 2010), damage to property was 17.609.900.000 vnd (7.89 times increase
over the same period in 2010).
Thus more then 80% of accidents occur which are attributable to human factors. That
is the attitude, knowledge, behavior of workers for safe work
With the purpose of this study, the author considers to have the research on one
typical local big company on the field of production and erection in Hanoi area. The
result of the study and recommendations could apply to others on the same field and
area.
The company selected was LILAMA 69-2 who with more than 50 years of constant
development, is known as one of the experienced for vessels, pipe manufacturer and
erection contractor in Vietnam
. Follows report of LILAMA 692, in 2010, 2011,2012, 3 serious accidents were

happened lead to die and many accidents or incidents not formally recorded
Thoroughly analyzed two years incident and investigation data and identified that
most of the workplace incidents are triggered by unsafe behaviors, persistence of
inherited traditional beliefs and overconfidence of workers.
It is obviously that the safety management system in the company is top down with
very “state owned training style”. The behavior based safety is something not yet
familiar within the companies.
1.2. Problem statement.
In general, the study was aimed to determine the effectiveness of the safety
program and recommend safety training program on the safety behavior of workers
and the reduction or prevention of accident in a production company in Hanoi,
Vietnam.).
Specifically it seeks to answer the following questions:

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1. What is the profile of workers in LILAMA 69-2 company.
2. What is the frequency and types/classification of work related accidents in
LILAMA 69-2 company?
3. What is the leading causes of work related accident in LILAMA company?
4. What is attitude of workers among safety and the safety climate in LILAMA 69-2?
5. What is the behavior of the management of LILAMA 69-2 towards safety program
in the company?
6. What safety program is appropriate to improve the safety behavior of workers and
safety climate in LILAMA 69-2?

Chapter 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
Theoretical and conceptual framework

Conceptual framework:

Respondents Profile:
Department
Worker
Position
Safety behavior and
.
attitude
of workers.
Safety
Behavior
of employ

Perception of respond
.

ANALYSIS
AND
EVALUATION

Recommendation
safety
training
program on the
Safety
in workplac
safety
behavior
of

worker and the
prevention
and
reduction

Perception of
respondents on
commitment of
management about
safety.

.

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Chapter 3
RESEARCH DESIGN
3.1 Research design and location of the study:
In my research, I use descriptive with the use of survey. The questionnaire designed
keeping in view easy of response from employees of production companies to gauge
their understanding about Safety.
In this research, I chose a company which is typical big local company. Who faced
with some incident happened in years recently. By using a questionnaire sent to the
company's employees, which assess the current status of the company safety climate,
and also from this set of questions for managers to express their views then to
evaluate the company's commitment to QHSE problems in their company’s
workplace.
The Behavioral Safety Questionnaire comprise of 36 questions distributed amongst
the areas: Safety Attitude within the company, Personal Attitude to Safety, Working

conditions at workplace, Supervisor Attitude to worker safety, Job Loyalty shown by
the employee, Serious Attitude to Safety, Training needed, Management attitude.

3.2. Data collection Procedure and data analysis method:
To collect data, the researcher will use a researcher- made questionnaire and selected
interview. The next step is to convert the qualitative answers to quantitative data so
that further statistical analysis, short listing of group of employees for psychological
therapies will be target.
First, the 32 questions of the Behavior Safety Questionnaire are categorized in eight
disciplines above. After categorization, all available answers to the 32 question will
be rate from 1 to 4 keeping in view the criticality and nature of that aspect as safety

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culture. In this way, all 32 questions are numbered and employees’ scores are
calculated as a whole, as well as for each of the eight disciplines. Benchmark was
obtained by giving numbers to highest scores for desire answer to that particular
question for each of the eight disciplines. In this way the highest number is allotted
to the desire safety behavior.. In a similar manner, numbers are allotted to other seven
disciplines based on their importance in our workplace culture. Therefore, final
benchmark of ‘>76’, ‘>60,<76’ ‘>50,<61’, “<50’ are fixed for most desirable safety
behavior at workplace.
Encoding of data: data will be cleaned (hand with outline and missing value) before
entering into computer using Excel - Data analysis and evaluation by using Excel
program.
3.4. Questionnaire design
Questioner is designed from several closed type questions with either single or
multiple choices. The model behind the Cornell Selectee Index, a questionnaire
designed to indicate the presence of emotional maladjustment which can be answered

by a ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ was used as the basis F.L. Marcuse, “Areas of Psychology”, The
State College of Washington, Harper & Brothers Publishers, New York, (1983).

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Chapter 4
PRESENTATION,

ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

OF

DATA

By use software, the researcher calculated average mark of safety behavior.
Average
total

S.No Area

Benchmark %

1 Safety Attitude within Department (D)

2.99

6.00

49.8%

2 Working condition

5.87

8.00

73.3%

3 Personal Attitude Toward Safety (PATS)

12.47

24.00

52.0%

4 Serious Attitude towards safety (SATS)
Supervisor Attitude Toward worker Safety
5 (SATW)

12.62

22.00

57.3%

2.43

4.00

60.8%

6 Job Loyalty (JOB LOY)

1.01

2.00

50.3%

7 Training needed (TR)

4.38

6.00

73.0%

8 HSE Department Behavior (HSE)

3.81

8.00

47.7%

45.58

80.00

57.0%

(WC)

Total

SD

Total
mean

t stat

P-value

Benchmark
0.028022

-2.67351

0.046817

8

0.165244

-3.28244

0.002317

12.47

24

0.233127

-2.84114

0.003562

12.26

22

0.233127

-2.96849

0.003437

TR

4.38

6

0.0961

-2.6129

0.051348

HSE

3.81

8

0.15738

-3.43693

0.001841

D

2.99

6

WC

5.87

PATS
SATS

Analysis problem base on the total marks of eight areas, Mean, SD and P-value
in Table.

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Chapter V
SUMMARY OF FINDING, CONCLUSION, AND RECOMMENDATION
5.1. Findings:
From data analysis in Chapter 4 We come to below signification findings:
•

LILAMA 69-2 is big company and solid experience on its field of expertise.
Workforce is educated and experience. Company management is willing to
change to cope with new condition of development.

•

. Despite some effort on safety management such as regulatory training or
effort to meet the authority requirement for safety, company still face with
high rate of fatality accident and loss time accidents in past few years. Still
some accident not yet formally reported (typical for conservative local
company).

•

From company statistic and from the data analysis findings on research survey
We can see that un-relevant workplace safety behavior and perception could
be the main reason leading to incident in LILAMA. The Root cause could be
un-relevant safety management system and safety approach within the
organization to promote behavior based safety (The behavior based safety
approach not yet exist in LILAMA 69-2).

•

Data analysis on 4.2.4 showed that the safety attitude of the workforce within
LILAMA 69-2 is on low side. The safety climate may be not good as many
people have no sense and interest on safety at workplace.

•

. The perception of managers and supervisors are different with the workers as
the communication or safety management process is not effective.
Management might not correctly evaluate the safety status within the
company, therefore the efforts to improve the company's safety did not bring

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expected result. Beside that the QHSE methodology and staff in-charge may
be not friendly enough to encourage good safety climate.
•

All of the above findings shows that it is necessary to apply new safety
program within the company. With un-relevant attitude to safety of workers,
with not so good safety climate, with not appropriate safety communication
and big gap on safety status perception between managers and workers, the
improvement on safety behavior in workplace may be the solution to bring up
safety level in the company. In other hand with educated workforce and
willingness of management to change, Behavior Based Safety program may be
relevant to improve both safety behavior in workplace and communication
between managers and workers.

5.2 Recommendations:
From data analysis and findings in Chapter IV, We found that LILAMA 69-2 even
with good designed facilities and available safety management system and competent
workforce, is facing numbers of accidents and incidents – safety issues. These safety
issues mostly related to safety behaviors of workforce and commitment of
management:
Knowledge of workplace safety of workers is limited. Unsafe attitudes and behaviors
are common. Safety Climate in workplace is not so good. The sense of safety first
does not yet exist or still something people could not see. Even many managers said
that they care about safety, but it seems that the commitment of management and
methodology on safety management are not so effective.

It is obviously that the

company needs considerable effort to improve safety in workplace. This changing
process may be effective only by employ new safety management methodology with
good reference in the world.

In this context, the researcher would recommend

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LILAMA to deploy the methodology of Behavioral Based Safety (BBS) on safety
management in workplace as it was successfully and effectively implemented in
developed countries in past 15 years, but still very new for Vietnam.
Why?
As stated in Chapter II, BBS is a methodology to use scientific psychology to
understand why people behave to their way they do when it come to safety. Typically

it creates an attitude and awareness that will reduce the chance of injury. BBS
introduces systematic, ongoing approach or process that clearly defines how people
can reduce the risk of injury to people in your work team. BBS helps to bring about
the result of a proactive and positive safety culture where risk awareness and accident
prevention are core values. Besides ensuring safe behaviors, BBS can also bring the
reinforcement to people’s values with regard to finding low risk alternatives to unsafe
attitudes, beliefs and actions. So implementation of BBS in the company will bring:
-

Creating new safety climate and culture in the company with mutual agreeable
decision making and interactions (from top and from bottom)

-

Bring up safety behavior and attitude to the workforce by systematically
monitoring and discussing workplace safety behaviors

-

Bring up management commitment to higher level. Mutual trust between
management and workforce

And then introduction and implementation of BBS program therefore is the basic of
accident prevention and reduction.

5.2 BBS training program development for LILAMA 69-2:

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Although difficult to control, 80% to 95% of all accidents are triggered by unsafe
behaviors. Consequently, it makes good commercial sense to target unsafe behaviors
if the associated human and financial costs are to be reduced. Very often, however,
these behaviors interact with other negative features (termed `resident pathogens’)
inherent in workflow processes or present in the working environment. In the same
way as pathogens (e.g. cancer-causing cells) are present in the human body, every
organization has its fair share of accident-causing pathogens.
Typically, companies use accident rates as the primary outcome measure of safety
performance simply because they signal that something is wrong within the
company’s safety management system. Because of the way they are calculated,
companies also use them as a benchmark to compare the effectiveness of their safety
management systems against others in the same or other industries.
Research results showed that the un-safe working behavior and un-safe attitude of
employees (even managers) is on warning range. It is appeared that the company
management should consider to establish the working program to improve behavioral
safety in working place.
Training program objectives

This BBS training program objectives are:
•

To familiar managers and professionals on general aspects of BBS and how
they can facilitate the roll out of BBS program

•

Help managers/ supervisors to develop strategic leadership to lead BBS to get
improvements in safety levels, and indirectly increase productivity, quality
and work satisfaction in the company

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•

Help workers and technicians to understand BBS and BBSO and apply to
working place with intension to improve safety behavior and safety
performance

In overall, the arm of the program is to help company to create positive safety culture
with expectations:
•

Employees will be able to:
o Recognize safe behaviors
o Acknowledge unsafe behaviors
o Points out unsafe behaviors
o Understands the risks
o Understands benefits of working safely
o Agrees that unsafe behaviors are not worth the consequences
o Suggest proper safe behavior
o Agree a formal contract for safety improvement

•

Management should be:
o Stop unsafe acts before they lead to an incident
o Replaces unsafe behavior with safe habits
o Helps employees make better choices about working together.

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