Exploratory analysis of ergonomics importance at workplace and safety culture amongst occupational safety and health practitioners

Abstract

This paper is a revised and extended version of a paper that was presented at WCE 2012. The article reports on a study to identify key components which can be used to relate ergonomics awareness and safety culture. These components can be used to facilitate the research which is aimed at determining the elements that influence the ergonomics awareness and the relationship with safety culture in an organization. A survey was done using a sample of 108 OSH practitioners in manufacturing companies in Malaysia. Exploratory Factor Analysis was used to determine the importance of ergonomics at their workplace and their beliefs on the importance of safety culture to be inculcated at their companies. 3 factors for ergonomics importance were identified: (i) Implication of & Need for improvement, (ii) Fitting the job to the workers and (iii) Basic ergonomics consideration. Safety culture questions were focused on the OSH practitioners perceptions on safety climate importance. Three constructs were designed: (i) commitment and leadership, (ii) motivation and (iii) safety management system practice. This finding is significant in order to study the influence of the perceptions of OSH practitioners on ergonomics importance at workplace to the safety culture.