The Impact of Business Leaders' Formal Health and Safety Training on the Establishment of Robust Occupational Safety and Health Management Systems: Three Studies Based on Data from Labour Inspections.

Øyvind Dahl,Espen Olsen,Torbjørn Rundmo

doi:10.3390/ijerph19031269

Abstract

The impact of occupational safety and health (OSH) training is a neglected topic in safety research. In Norway, such training is mandatory for all business leaders. Hence, the Norwegian working life forms a particularly interesting case for studying the impact of OSH training. On the basis of data from labour inspections performed by the Norwegian Labour Inspection Authority (NLIA), this article examines the impact of business leaders’ mandatory OSH training on the establishment of robust OSH systems. Three separate studies have been conducted. In study 1, cross-sectional data from inspections of 29,224 companies are analysed. In study 2 and 3, longitudinal data from inspections of 1119 and 189 companies, respectively, are analysed. The analyses reveal that mandatory OSH training of business leaders is positively associated with compliance with legal requirements related to the minimum content of OSH systems. This means that mandatory OSH training is important for the establishment of robust occupational safety and health management systems.

Highlights

Accident investigations continue to illustrate how non-compliance with safety regulations plays a crucial role in the development of accidents (Hopkins, 2011)
occupational safety and health (OSH) training [15], this is the first study to report that managerial OSH training is positively related to the establishment of robust OSH systems across branches in Norway
Data from labour inspections illustrated that managerial OSH training was positively related to OSH compliance; companies where the manager had undergone formal OSH

Summary

Introduction

Accident investigations continue to illustrate how non-compliance with safety regulations plays a crucial role in the development of accidents (Hopkins, 2011). This demonstrates that adherence to safety rules and procedures, generally referred to as safety compliance, may be important in maintaining safety at work in modern workplace settings. The majority of safety research focuses on the individual level with the aim of identifying the causes of unsafe acts and violations at the sharp end of organisations (e.g., [10,11]). Research on safety management often focuses on the relationship between leadership and individual behaviour at the sharp end of the organisation [12,13] It is not well understood how managerial training influences compliance at the organisational level. The majority of research in this area has focused on employees’ subjective judgements and

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Conclusion