Successful health and safety management leadership

Abstract

The emergence of implementation and certification of the occupational health and safety management system implies that companies should be able to measure the results and achievements from such implementation. The decision to do the specific research came with my current position in Amdocs organization. Amdocs has a successful health and safety management system. Most of the companies in Cyprus are not paying attention in their health and safety culture which is very important for every organization. The research focuses on the positive health and safety culture of an organisation and how that influences a successful health and safety management. It presents how a company can achieve a positive health and safety culture and the benefits that it offers to the company its self. Through this i want to influence all the organizations to have their own health and safety department. The objectives of this research are to investigate the health and safety management at Amdocs, as well as the health and safety culture. The intention of the research analyses whether the accident rate is really an indicator of a positive culture. It investigates other indicators that lead to a poor or negative culture such as, a lack of compliance with relevant health and safety law and the safety rules and procedures of the organisation, poor selection procedures and management of contractors, poor levels of communication, cooperation and control, a weak health and safety management structure, either a lack or poor levels of health and safety competence. However the level of management regarding the implementation of this new regulation in the company is also investigated. The main points investigated are: the leadership and commitment to health and safety throughout and at all levels of the organisation, the involvement of all employees in the procedures, how effective the communication is between managers and employees, supervision and health and safety training. The research is collected by various authors concerned with the research on human behaviours and habits, the definition of health and safety culture, as well as indicators that lead towards a positive health and safety culture. Also with individual's perception regarding this culture in the organisation. Data for the pnmary research were collected through semi-structured interviews. 20% of the workforce was interviewed and an additional 20% of managers of Amdocs were also interviewed. Most significant finding of this research is that we have lots of benefits offered by implementing a successful health and safety management to an organization. It has also been acknowledged in the literature review by Hughes and Ferrett (2007) that it is much easier to achieve and demonstrate legal compliance, it enables significant health and safety risk to be addressed in a systematic manner. Also it can be used to show legal compliance, it indicated that the organization is prepared for an emergency and it illustrates that there is a genuine commitment to health and safety through the organization.