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1 – 10 of over 3000Chike F. Oduoza, Reem Alamri and David Oloke
Deployment of health and safety standards in extremely hazardous work environments such as oil and gas sector, is essential to minimise accidents leaving employees permanently or…
Abstract
Purpose
Deployment of health and safety standards in extremely hazardous work environments such as oil and gas sector, is essential to minimise accidents leaving employees permanently or temporarily incapacitated. The purpose of this research, is to understand why there are frequent accidents in case country's oil and gas sector, with a view to recommend solutions to mitigate problems.
Design/methodology/approach
Research methodology involved extensive review of the literature to appreciate background, and current research on typical accidents and safety measures taken at oil and gas construction sites to minimise accidents in a middle east country. Interviews, questionnaires and case stidies were deployed to acquire data which highlighted major reasons for accidents occurrence at oil and gas construction sites, and safety tools and techniques that could reduce accident rate if adopted by companies.
Findings
Findings, showed that oil and gas construction projects in case country were prone to health and safety related risks, challenges and accidents due to failure to comply with standards and legislation. Construction site teams and shop floor staff were rarely involved in development of safety policies, and some had no understanding of requirements and procedures underpinning safety during operations. Research recommended rapid application/adoption of international standards underpinned by ISO 45000 series and staff training at all levels. Deployment of robots and use of machine learning technology were suggested to implement risky tasks in the sector.
Originality/value
Research was based on rampant accidents occurring in hazardous oil and gas sector in country studied. Enforcement of health and safety standards, and use of modern tools and techniques were recommended to minimise accident rate.
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Rhoda Ansah Quaigrain, De-Graft Owusu-Manu, David John Edwards, Mavis Hammond, Mabel Hammond and Igor Martek
Occupational safety issues among employees remains a contemporary and omnipresent concern. In developing countries, safety-related problems are amplified, resulting in higher…
Abstract
Purpose
Occupational safety issues among employees remains a contemporary and omnipresent concern. In developing countries, safety-related problems are amplified, resulting in higher incidences of serious accidents and occupational diseases. This study aims to evaluate employees’ knowledge and attitudes toward occupational health and safety, and how these influence overall occupational health and safety compliance. Ghana’s oil and gas industry provides the contextual backdrop for this research, given it is characterized by high rates of injury.
Design/methodology/approach
A positivist and deductive research strategy was used to quantitatively analyze both primary and secondary data sources. A structured survey was administered to industry employees, and multiple linear regression was used to establish the effects of employee’s knowledge and attitude toward occupational health hazards on overall health and safety compliance.
Findings
The findings indicate that most employees had both a high level of knowledge and positive attitude toward mitigating occupational health hazards. Moreover, the study reveals that most employees complied with occupational health safety practices. However, the study also reveals that the effect of employees’ knowledge and attitude toward occupational health hazards does not translate into deployment of comprehensive safety practices. Interestingly, female employees were found to be more knowledgeable and compliant with occupational health and safety practices than their male counterparts.
Practical implications
Premised upon the findings, the study recommends: implementation of relevant education and training programs encompassing the proper usage of machinery and equipment, tailored hazard safety training appropriate to specific employee job requirements, effective dissemination of risk information and governance initiatives that enforce strict adherence to correct safety procedures.
Originality/value
The study uniquely examines the influence of employee’s knowledge of health and safety to overall compliance within the oil and gas industry. Cumulatively, the study’s findings and recommendations contribute to improving the occupational health and safety outcomes within the industry.
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Shamim Mohammad, Shivaraj Huchhanavar, Hifzur Rahman and Tariq Sultan Pasha
The extant literature underlines the inadequacies of legal and policy frameworks addressing the safety and health concerns of sandstone mineworkers in India. Notably, Rajasthan, a…
Abstract
Purpose
The extant literature underlines the inadequacies of legal and policy frameworks addressing the safety and health concerns of sandstone mineworkers in India. Notably, Rajasthan, a state renowned for its extractive industries, mirrors these concerns. Against this backdrop, this paper aims to critically evaluate the relevant legal and policy landscape, with an emphasis on the recent central statute: the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code of 2020 (OSHWCC). Given that the Code subsumes the key legislation pertaining to the safety and health of mineworkers, an in-depth critical analysis is essential to forge suitable policy interventions to address continued gross violations of human rights.
Design/methodology/approach
The critical analysis of legal and policy frameworks on silicosis in sandstone mineworkers is based on a comprehensive reading of existing literature. The literature includes relevant laws, case law, reports of the Rajasthan State Human Rights Commission and National Human Rights Commission, publicly available data and key scholarly contributions in the field.
Findings
Although the OSHWCC has made some changes to the existing regulatory architecture of mines in India, it has failed to safeguard the safety and health of mineworkers. Notably, the vast majority of mines in India – constituting approximately 90%, which are informal, seasonal and small-scale – remain beyond the jurisdiction of this Code. In Rajasthan, there are specific policies on silicosis, but these policies are poorly implemented. There is a serious shortage of doctors to diagnose silicosis cases, leading to under-diagnosis. The compensation for silicosis victims is insufficient; the distribution mechanism is complex and often delayed.
Research limitations/implications
The central and many state governments have not established the regulatory institutions envisaged under the OSHWCC 2020; therefore, the working of the regulatory institutions could not be critically examined.
Originality/value
The paper critically evaluates laws and policies pertaining to silicosis in sandstone mineworkers, with a special emphasis on the state of Rajasthan. It offers a comprehensive critique of the OSHWCC of 2020, which has not received much attention from previous studies.
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Zechen Guan, Tak Wing Yiu, Don Amila Sajeevan Samarasinghe and Ravi Reddy
The aim of this paper is to review and analyze the research literature on the health and safety issues of migrant workers in the construction industry from 2000 to 2022.
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to review and analyze the research literature on the health and safety issues of migrant workers in the construction industry from 2000 to 2022.
Design/methodology/approach
5 steps method is used to conduct a systematic review to achieve the objectives. After scanning two authoritative search engines “Web of Science” and “Scope”, 60 articles are selected from 225 publications for identification and review. These identified articles are classified by research fields, countries and time span.
Findings
The review finds that with the increasing influence of migrant construction workers, the number of publications on the health and safety of migrant workers has shown a rapid upward trend. Moreover, language barriers are the most dominant safety risk factors encountered by on-site migrant workers. This systematic literature review also summarizes the definition of migrant workers and solutions to reduce safety risk factors.
Originality/value
The research data on the health and safety issues and risk factors of migrant workers in the construction industry is still limited. This literature review summarizes the research trends and contributions of the literature in this field in the past 22 years and provides theoretical support for future research on the safety management of the migration construction field.
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Millicent Asah-Kissiedu, Patrick Manu, Colin Anthony Booth, Abdul-Majeed Mahamadu and Kofi Agyekum
For construction organisations to be effective at implementing an integrated safety, health and environmental (SHE) management system, they require the right level of…
Abstract
Purpose
For construction organisations to be effective at implementing an integrated safety, health and environmental (SHE) management system, they require the right level of organisational capability. This capability includes the policies, systems and resources of the organisation. However, within the academic literature, it is unclear which organisational attributes of construction companies are important for implementing integrated SHE management. This study aims to explore the organisational attributes that determine integrated SHE management capability and their relative priorities.
Design/methodology/approach
The study used a literature review supported by expert verification and a subsequent three-round expert Delphi technique accompanied by applying the voting analytical hierarchy process.
Findings
The study identified 20 attributes grouped under five main thematic categories. These are strategy (the organisation’s vision and top management commitment); process (the organisation’s procedures and processes for SHE management); people (organisation’s human resources, their competence, roles, responsibilities and involvement in SHE management); resources (organisation’s physical and financial resources for SHE management) and information (SHE related documents, data, records and their communication across an organisation). While these thematic categories and the attributes within carry different weights of importance, the strategy-related attributes are the most important, followed by the people-related attributes.
Originality/value
The results of this study should enable construction companies and key industry stakeholders to understand construction companies’ capability to successfully implement an integrated SHE management system. Furthermore, construction companies should be able to prioritise efforts or investments to enhance their SHE management capability.
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Montserrat Crespi-Vallbona, Ester Noguer-Juncà, Nuria Louzao and Lluís Coromina
Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 5 and 8, respectively, indicate that decent work and gender equality are challenges that business organizations must face in order to achieve…
Abstract
Purpose
Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 5 and 8, respectively, indicate that decent work and gender equality are challenges that business organizations must face in order to achieve the social well-being and sustainable development of communities. Considering these goals, the present article aims to define the concept of fair work and examine the current degree of knowledge among staff in the hotel sector in Barcelona about the indicators of the Fair Labor Responsible Hotels (HJLR) certification.
Design/methodology/approach
A mixed methodology is used to analyze the primary data. A survey of 248 employees is complemented by nine semi-structured interviews with experts, general managers and heads of department of independently owned hotels and national and international chains.
Findings
The results show that this certification is necessary for the economic and social sustainability of the hospitality sector and to raise awareness that fair work is an urgent need. However, these currently tend to be little more than artificial actions.
Originality/value
The paper aims to emphasize the perspective of real actors in hotel industry about the actors' considerations of fair work to enhance the actors' job involvement and satisfaction.
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Natasha Pennell and Gabriela Sabau
This paper aims to investigate the role of multidisciplinary course requirements in shaping student attitudes toward sustainability and education for sustainable development…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate the role of multidisciplinary course requirements in shaping student attitudes toward sustainability and education for sustainable development. Previous research indicates that students conceptualize sustainability based on their academic discipline; thus, this research investigates whether there is a difference in student attitudes toward sustainability at Grenfell Campus, Memorial University of Newfoundland, where students are encouraged to cross the borders of their academic disciplines.
Design/methodology/approach
This research reports on the findings from a mixed-methods study to assess the impact of program requirements on student attitudes toward sustainability and education for sustainable development at Grenfell Campus, Memorial University of Newfoundland. In phase one, an anonymous survey was administered to students regarding their perceptions and attitudes toward sustainability and education for sustainable development. The survey yielded 100 usable responses. Phase 2 consisted of a series of 10 semi-structured expert interviews with key faculty and staff at Grenfell Campus and a representative from the City of Corner Brook, which gave further insights regarding sustainability programming and campus culture.
Findings
Contrary to previous research, the results of this research indicate that the School of Study does not have a statistically significant impact on student attitudes toward sustainability. This may be attributed to Grenfell Campus’s Breadth of Knowledge requirement within the School of Arts and Social Science and the School of Science and the Environment, which requires that students take elective courses from a broad range of subject matter to develop their holistic awareness of social, cultural, scientific and political issues.
Practical implications
The results of this research indicate that students who are exposed to broad multidisciplinary requirements may be more likely to have positive attitudes toward sustainability than students who focus on a single discipline.
Originality/value
A limited number of studies investigate the impact of core program requirements on student attitudes toward sustainability. This paper promotes an effective way of raising sustainability-literate young people/citizens in a Canadian higher education context.
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Pooja Mishra and Tatavarty Guru Sant
Sustainable development (SD) is widely acknowledged as the center around which all development efforts should revolve. Banking is a crucial component of SD, and the adoption of…
Abstract
Purpose
Sustainable development (SD) is widely acknowledged as the center around which all development efforts should revolve. Banking is a crucial component of SD, and the adoption of sustainable banking practices by various banking institutions is a powerful catalyst for its achievement. This paper aims to investigate the level of adoption of environmental, social and governance (ESG) indicators in India and the extent to which financial institutions use these strategies. In addition, the banks have been classified according to their sustainable banking performance and showing a relationship between ESG and sustainability.
Design/methodology/approach
An ESG framework has been developed for the Indian banking system that focuses on the behavior of banks. The evaluation of literature helps to identify the gaps in particular frameworks for analyzing sustainable banking practices in developing nations because of the variation in economic criteria between developed and developing countries. An attempt to construct a common framework for measuring the banking sector’s sustainable efforts has been done in the past. Specifically in India, where the social and environmental dimensions of sustainability are of equal importance to governance indicators, these studies fall short of providing relevant indicators. Multiple financial reports, nonfinancial reports, corporate social responsibility reports and business responsibility reports of this sector were analyzed using content analysis techniques against ESG indicators for sustainability attainment.
Findings
The result of this study shows that both the sectors are disclosing their environmental indicators more as compared to other dimensions. While the analysis says that private companies are going better than public companies in terms of disclosing their ESG indicators. As compared to the international banking sector, adoption of Global Reporting Initiatives standards, United Nations Environment Programme Financial Initiatives (UNEP FI), Green Credit Policy and Equator Principles (EP) is near to the ground in India. IDFC bank is the only entity that started implementing EP practices and Yes bank also is doing a wonderful implementation of the green policies and is the signatory to UNEP FI.
Practical implications
The current state of sustainable banking in India is reflected in the implementation of the proposed framework. To better integrate sustainability problems into banking, this study provides helpful information for banks and other stakeholders. In addition, this study corrects the lack of research in the Indian context on sustainable banking.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge by far, this is one of the prime studies to inspect the degree of ESG disclosure by the Indian banking sector in their sustainability report.
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Ranjita Islam, Muhammad Ali and Erica French
This study aims to provide an understanding of how directors perceive the relationship between board independence and corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance which has…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to provide an understanding of how directors perceive the relationship between board independence and corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance which has remained under-researched.
Design/methodology/approach
The qualitative data were collected through semi-structured interviews of 19 directors from 14 organisations operating in Australia. Data were analysed following the six-phase process of thematic analysis.
Findings
The findings indicate that independent directors contribute to board CSR decisions in two major ways: they bring an outsider view to the board, and they monitor managers in taking decisions that consider the interests of the broader stakeholder groups.
Research limitations/implications
The in-depth analysis of director independence and CSR highlights the structural and behavioural aspects of director independence and CSR playing out in board rooms. Propositions are offered which can be tested to advance the research in this arena.
Practical implications
The findings suggest that efforts are required at organisational policy level to ensure the effectiveness of director independence for CSR.
Originality/value
This study provides insights into the “black box” of boardroom dynamics highlighting important contextual factors influencing director independence and CSR decisions previously under-explored.
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The purpose of this paper is to develop a multistakeholder scale for assessing an excellent human resource (HR) function to demonstrate the extent to which it is focused on…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop a multistakeholder scale for assessing an excellent human resource (HR) function to demonstrate the extent to which it is focused on creating value from the perspective of its key internal and external stakeholders.
Design/methodology/approach
At the first stage, an in-depth literature review was conducted to extract the best practices for an excellent HR function. Then, to test the validation of the developed framework, it was sent to HR academics and practitioners in different countries. The survey responses were analyzed using the methods of the structural equation modeling (SEM) and confirmatory factorial analysis.
Findings
This study proposes an excellent HR multistakeholder assessment scale consisting of ten criteria based on the perceptions of internal and external HR stakeholders.
Research limitations/implications
This study suggests a framework for assessing overall HR excellence based on the perceptions of key internal and external HR stakeholders. In addition, it is recommended that future researchers empirically test the developed scale across various industries and firm sizes.
Practical implications
HR managers, by using this framework, could continuously assess their HR excellence and compare their HR excellence with other companies’ HR excellence in the industry and then plan for continuous improvement in different HR areas to improve their stakeholders’ experiences.
Originality/value
This paper identifies the enablers and results of an excellent HR department and designs a multistakeholder feedback scale to better understand key internal and external HR stakeholders’ perceptions.
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