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A STUDY ON EMPLOYEE SATISFACTION ON OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH IN
APPAREL INDUSTRY
also decreased because of accidents. These 3 METHODOLOGY
factors stimulate to study prevailing
Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) This research was commenced by
practices and issues at the ABC apparel reviewing the relevant literature on OSH in
holdings to enhance factory performance by apparel industry as well as academic
proposing cost effective and applicable journals. To identify the major safety issues
safety methods. in the apparel industry the secondary data
recorded in the medical center of the ABC
Therefore, the objectives of this study Company were used.
are to determine the major safety issues in
ABC Company, investigating the employee This study was based on qualitative
satisfaction on OSH in ABC Company and methodology. The questionnaire was
identifying the alternative methods to reduce developed with both closed and open ended
the major safety issues in Apparel Industry. questions in local language. The internal
consistancy of the questionnaire was tested
2 LITERATURE using Cronbach’s alpha value. The Kaiser-
Meyer-Olkin (KMO) test was done to
OSH is a major issue for employees, observe the appropriateness of conducting
and how management deals with this issue is factor analysis.
of both academic and practical significance.
The most frequent organizational To identify the major safety issues
approaches used to produce a sufficient level existing in the company a bar chart was
of safety have focused on the optimal design drawn with the relavent percentages. Next
of equipment (i.e., an ergonomic approach), the exploratory factor analysis was
adherence with government-imposed conducted to extract independent factors
standards (i.e., a legislative approach), or from qustionnaire. Then the extracted
compliance with the terms of collective factors were used to investigate the
agreements. satisfactory level of employees on OSH in
the company.
The modal response to safety issues
from a managerial perspective has been Finally, safety practices of top apparel
reactive, emphasizing the importance of giants in Sri Lanka were studied having face
management control on the one hand and to face interviews with safety officers to
employee compliance on the other (Barling determine the possible methods to reduce
& Hutchinson, 2000; Reason, Parker, & safety issues in ABC Company which are
Lawton, 1998). This approach emphasizes not currently in practice. Also employees’
rule enforcement, the punishment of suggestions provided in questionnaire to
infractions, and incentives for achieving enhance the level of safety at work were
predetermined safety goals, all of which are considered to determine the possible
consistent with a control-oriented approach methods to reduce prevailing safety issues in
to management (Arthur, 1994). ABC Company.
At the employee level, there is also 4 DATA COLLECTION AND
evidence to indicate that high-performance ANALYSING
work systems increase job satisfaction To identify the major safety issues in
(Berg, 1999) and decrease employee fatigue the apparel industry, the secondary data of
(Godard, 2001a). The consistency of these accidents in last year were used. The
findings across different outcomes invites monthly accident data in 2016 were
speculation as to whether high-performance recorded by the medical center of the ABC
work systems might also affect OSH. Company .The primary data of employee
Accordingly, the aim of this study was to satisfaction on OSH in apparel industry were
increase employee satisfaction on OSH and obtained through questionnaire . Each
hence gain the high-performance. questionnaire consisted of 24 questions.
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