Systematic Literature Review on Variables Impacting Organization’s Zero Accident Vision in Occupational Safety and Health Perspectives

The influence of hazard control and prevention toward safety behaviors and safety outcomes in coal-fired power plants using PLS-SEM

INTRODUCTION

The electrical utility industry, which plays a vital role in sustaining other sectors, contributes to high occupational accident rates in the utility industries. The high accident rate shows that there has been insufficient effort made to control unsafe actions and conditions in the workplace. This study aims to examine the influence of hazard control and prevention as leading indicators of safety behaviors and outcomes in coal-fired power plants in Malaysia.

METHODS

This quantitative research was conducted by distributing survey questionnaires randomly to five coal-fired power plants in Peninsular Malaysia. A total of 340 respondents were involved in this research. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) analysis was performed using SmartPLS to validate and examine the relationship of the proposed model.

RESULTS

The results validate the construct of hazard control and prevention consisting of planning, action, managing, and verifying, while the safety outcomes construct consists of occupational accidents, fatal accidents, near misses, and lost time injuries. The results indicate that hazard control and prevention significantly relate to safety compliance, safety participation, safety motivation, and safety knowledge. Moreover, safety outcomes were influenced negatively by hazard control and prevention through safety compliance.

CONCLUSION

The model provides a better understanding of the influence of hazard control and prevention on safety behavior and outcomes.

PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS

The model can be used as guidance for practitioners and researchers in planning and implementing hazard control and prevention to improve health and safety in the workplace.

IoT-Based Emergency Vehicle Services in Intelligent Transportation System

Emergency Management System (EMS) is an important component of Intelligent transportation systems, and its primary objective is to send Emergency Vehicles (EVs) to the location of a reported incident. However, the increasing traffic in urban areas, especially during peak hours, results in the delayed arrival of EVs in many cases, which ultimately leads to higher fatality rates, increased property damage, and higher road congestion. Existing literature addressed this issue by giving higher priority to EVs while traveling to an incident place by changing traffic signals (e.g., making the signals green) on their travel path. A few works have also attempted to find the best route for an EV using traffic information (e.g., number of vehicles, flow rate, and clearance time) at the beginning of the journey. However, these works did not consider congestion or disruption faced by other non-emergency vehicles adjacent to the EV travel path. The selected travel paths are also static and do not consider changing traffic parameters while EVs are en route. To address these issues, this article proposes an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) guided priority-based incident management system to assist EVs in obtaining a better clearance time in intersections and thus achieve a lower response time. The proposed model also considers disruption faced by other surrounding non-emergency vehicles adjacent to the EVs' travel path and selects an optimal solution by controlling the traffic signal phase time to ensure that EVs can reach the incident place on time while causing minimal disruption to other on-road vehicles. Simulation results indicate that the proposed model achieves an 8% lower response time for EVs while the clearance time surrounding the incident place is improved by 12%.

Global evolutional trend of safety in coal mining industry: a bibliometric analysis

Mining safety is recognized as one of the factors influencing the mining industry's long-term viability. Therefore, we did a bibliometric analysis to take stock of safety management in the coal mining industry. This study suggests a three-step strategy, comprising literature extraction and screening, bibliometric analysis, and discussion, to provide an in-depth understanding of the present state and development trend of mine safety research. The findings raise additional concerns which include the following: (i) Coal dust pollution has a direct and indirect impact on the environment. (ii) Most research projects have prioritized technology innovation and development over safety norms. (iii) Most works have come from advanced countries such as China, the USA, the UK, and Australia to the neglect of developing nations, leaving a significant vacuum in the literature. (iv) There are more major safety principles in the food business than in the mining industry, indicating a weak safety culture in the mining industry. Additionally, future research goals are provided, such as creating safer policy guidelines to support technological advancements, constructing effective safety mines, and creating solutions to dust pollution and human errors.

Development of a New Procedure for Evaluating Working Postures: An Application in a Manufacturing Company

Musculoskeletal diseases represent a constant phenomenon in occupational health and safety (OHS) despite the large effort at governmental and technical levels. In the industrial context, numerous studies have dealt with the evaluation of the physical demand of workers. Moreover, numerous studies have investigated the problem, providing tools for ergonomics analysis. However, practical approaches aimed at integrating ergonomics issues in risk assessment activities are still scarce. To reduce such a gap, the current study proposes a procedure for the evaluation of the static working postures of workers to be included in the risk assessment activities. Such an approach is based on the ISO 11226 standard, providing a practical checklist that can be used both at the workstation's design stage and during risk assessment activities. Its effectiveness was verified through a case study at a manufacturing company. The results achieved showed that as well as the non-conformity of the workstations' design, the lack of training of the operators on how to maintain a neutral posture while working can also lead to awkward postures of the trunk and head. Additionally, the proposed methodology allowed us to verify the correctness of each workstation based on the physical characteristics of the workers, providing a useful guideline for the company managers on how to properly assign working tasks.

Integrated Approach for Safety Culture Factor Evaluation from a Sustainability Perspective

Traditionally, sustainable development has been seen as a combination of three pillars: economic, social and environmental development. In recent years, another one has been added to these three pillars, namely culture, as being indispensable in achieving sustainable development. This study proposes an integrated approach for the identification and classification of safety culture factors in the company in a sustainability context. The research design was based on the assumption that safety culture is part of organizational culture that should support the development of corporate sustainability. Firstly, the identification of the safety culture factors (SCFs) based on the literature review was presented. Then, the ISM method was used to identify the interaction between SCFs and to develop the hierarchical structure of these factors. In the next step, ISM was integrated with the MICMAC method to cluster the factors based on driving power and dependence power into four categories. Finally, safety culture factors with high driving power were rated using the fuzzy TOPSIS method from the sustainability dimension perspective. This approach was used in an automotive industry company to improve and develop the company's practices aimed at implementing a sustainable development strategy. A sensitivity analysis was also carried out to monitor the robustness of the approach.

A Systematic Literature Review on Leadership Practices for Safety in the Education Sector

Leadership is increasingly being recognized as a significant aspect of organizational occupational safety. However, there are differences in describing how the leaders manage safety in the organization. This study aims to systematically review and analyze the effective leadership practices for safety in the education sector. The present study incorporated different research designs and the review was based on the published standard, namely PRISMA statement (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis). This study has considered 21 related studies using Web of Science (WOS) and Scopus as the primary databases for this systematic literature review. Further review of these articles resulted in three main themes, namely establishing and conveying the safety vision, supporting learning and professional capacity development, and leading with a safety orientation; thus, producing a total of 12 sub-themes from the three themes. This systematic literature review also provides several limitations and recommendations for future direction.