CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.2 Background to the Study
Organization is made up of group of people who come together to achieve a common goal (Ogundele, 2012). As highlighted in related literatures (Ezekiel, Nandi, Thuo&Wanyonyi; 2012 and Agbola, 2012), it is a common knowledge that wherever there are people or group of people working or staying together, health and safety matters will naturally be a concern, although the magnitude may vary due to the level of risk exposure that are peculiar to some organizations. According to Amposah-Tawaih and Dartey-Baah (2014), human resource practitioners have realized the need to maintain healthy and safe workplace programmes and activities as a source of competitive advantage to curtail increasing 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) pointed out that, health and safety issues has been brought to the fore as a result of the need for organization to achieve its goals/objectives through a sustained growth and competitive advantage, thereby contributing to the collective wellbeing of the society. This assertion presupposes that employees’ health and safety is paramount in the achievement of the organizational set goal. According to Dwornoh, Owusu and Addo (2013), the extent of health and safety policies in organization in which employees operate goes a long way to determine the success or failure of such organization. According Gyekye (2005), safety is the condition of being protected against physical, social, spiritual, financial, emotional, occupational, psychological, educational or other types or consequences of failure, damage, error, accidents, harm or any other event which could be considered non-desirable. Dwomoh, Owusu and Addo (2013) stated that health and safety is not only a sound socioeconomic and political policy; rather a basic human right. The further warned that all activities and arrangements in organization must be in the right position to protect and safeguard human lives from work- related accidents and illness.
The concern for health and safety management is informed by the damaging consequences that follows 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 as to fulfill their responsibilities as an employer to ensure that workers have a safe work-place (Hale, Heming, Carthey&Kirwan, 1997 as cited in Nor, Jeffery, Krassi, Rumchevb, &Satvinder, 2009). A positive safety culture can be an effective tool for enhancing employee job satisfaction in an organization and creating good atmosphere in the workplace (Padmakumar, Swapna&Gantasala, 2011), By extension the opinion of Padmakumar, Swapna and Gantasala, (2011) suggest that an effective and efficient health and safety policies will help organizations to benefit financially through reduced lost work hours and accident related compensation cost, increased employees’ motivation, higher quality product, and reduced turnover; all -of which lead to improved employee satisfaction. This means that organizations ought to ensure that employees are not exposed to a risk level that will affect their physical, emotional and mental health. Ezekiel, Nandi, Thuo and Wanyonyi (2012) Observed that, most organizations in Africa do not give adequate attention to health and safety policies; They further posited that employees that work in a healthy and safe environment will certainly be feeling satisfied and motivated to give their best.
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