Health, Safety and Environment Management Practices in Oman: Evaluation & Recommendations

Abstract

Health and safety regulations, policies, and procedures are put in place to prevent injury or other undesirable events from occurring in the workplace and elsewhere. When people are confronted with the topic of health and safety, they are regularly unaware or uninformed of what it entails. They have, however, unknowingly been practising certain aspects of it their entire lives. Research has shown that due to lack of resources, SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises) tend to have poorer and less effective Health and Safety implementation due to several factors. This can result in not only more injuries, but also a dark figure of Health and Safety violations, making it difficult to assess the extent of the harm. In examining the evolution of H&S throughout the Industrial Revolution's factory processes, emphasis is placed not only on greater transparency and risk-awareness, but also on ensuring uniformity of H&S implementation in the workplace hierarchy. SMEs are drawn to Oman because of the country's fiscal freedom. Oman has a good track record of adhering to international H&S standards while also providing its own regulations. Most notably by the 2008 Ministerial Decree 286. Organizational Health and Safety is an important tool for protecting employees' physical and mental well-being by identifying and removing safety hazards and establishing a safety culture and Health and Safety management practises such as safety training, employee involvement, and employee communication. It is critical to understand the characteristics of SMEs that impact HSE implementation because they are critical to working toward a more effective Health and Safety culture, implementation, and thus working environment. Costs, managerial commitment, and safety culture are the major challenges that SMEs face when implementing H&S practises. The objective of this study is to identify the health and safety management practices that are being implemented and the ones that Small-Medium Enterprises in Oman deem as not vital to their operational activities.