Commitment And Leadership Towards Health And Safety Policies In Oil And Gas Industry From Senior Management

Factors contributing to safety activities in the oil and gas industry

The global environment is sustainably making progress towards modernization and it is seen that they have been facing various kinds of challenges. The fast development in the global industries has led to the rise in the concerns on the health and the safety issues at the work environment as it is seen that more and more injuries and accidents have been becoming the news headline worldwide. The safety at the work environment is complex and difficult phenomenon and the subject of the safety activities among all the industries has been hard and very complex to attain (Silvestre and Gimenes 2017). It is in need of a lot of policies and measures that needs to be incorporated. Furthermore, safety performance is very much sensitive and complicated issue for the companies to handle as it is seen to be associated with the live and safety of the employees who are working in a project.

Ahmad et al. (2016) explained that occupational risks and hazards have been increasing mainly due to the absence of attention that is provided to the activities related to safety, safety processes and the developments of the procedures in order to restrict the injuries and accidents.

On the other hand, the occupational accidents that take place have been either due to the absence of knowledge, lack of supervision, training and the rules that are associated to the incorporation of these procedures. Furthermore, human errors have led to the carelessness of the employees, negligence and lack of controlling and monitoring (Klettner, Clarke and Boersma 2014). All these factors have an impact on the safety measures and performance and thereby increased the rate of accidents.

The extent of safety and health issues has been a major concern in the current time period as it is seen that the safety of the employees working in the companies have been significant issues. The development of the plans and policies in accordance to the safety and health issues are dependent on the level of leadership. The responsibility and the accountability of the leaders and the managers have a key function to play with the help of which they create an understanding in accordance to the activities the company performs (Zohar 2014). The activities that are performed in the “oil and gas industry” are associated with a lot of risks and therefore it is the responsibility of the management to undertake measures with the help of which safety and health issues can be maintained. The extent of leadership plays a significant role and commitment among the leaders is helpful in the understanding of the risks and hazards associated with the industry with the help of which these issues can be mitigated (Hofmann, Burke and Zohar 2017). This has been the factor that has led to the development of this topic and thereby better understanding of impact of leadership and commitment in the development of the risk and safety issues in the oil industry can be known.

Impact of human factor on safety performance

The main intention of the paper has been to assess and comprehend the responsibilities and the role of the leaders and their extent of leadership and commitment of the senior management in the oil industry in order to create a better health and safety policies (Shen et al. 2015). The paper would be even assess the extent of commitment the senior management holds towards the development of the safety and health policies.  

The aim and the objective that has been constructed for this paper determines the aspects and the elements that have an impact on the safety and the health issues in the “oil and gas industry”. The objectives and aim of the paper is:

• Assess the extent of commitment the senior management holds towards the development of safety and health policies
• Understand whether the senior management has been constructing the right tone for their down line in order to follow the footsteps.

The research question for this paper has been explained as follows:

Q1. What is the extent of commitment the senior management holds towards the development of the safety and health issues?

Q2. How does the senior management construct the right tone for their down line in order to follow that footstep?

The hypothesis of the paper has been determined as follows:

H1: The commitment of the senior management is vital for the enhancement of the “safety and health” issues in the oil industry

H2: The senior management is able to construct the right tone for down lining in order to follow the footstep.

Factors Affecting Safety Performance 

There are several issues that can have an effect on safety activities as the maintenance of safety at the workplace is a complex process and the issue related to the safety performance in the “oil and gas industry” has been observed to be even more complicated to understand. The factors are therefore discussed as follows:

Human factors 

Human factor plays a vital role as it is seen that involvement of humans towards the safety attitude and their nature in order to understand how humans deal with these aspects. The safety of the workplace can be enhanced when the employees give significance to the safety measures and this is how they create an understanding of enhancing the safety scenario (Gholami et al. 2015).

Behavioural factors 

This is known to be the employee performance and motivation development with the help of the constraints of behaviour. The behaviour base safety is known to be the behaviours, which may lead to the mitigation of the risk behaviours and as an outcome mitigate the extent of injuries and accidents. Kouabenan, Ngueutsa and Mbaye (2015) explained that the employees who have riskier attitude are more prone to facing accidents in the workplace.

Role of management processes in preventing occupational accidents

Economic factors 

By leaving behind the human expense of facing an accident, the economic impact can be dangerous. It is seen that a lot of working hours are lost due to the accidents that are taking place in the work place (Zwetsloot, Leka and Kines 2017). This leads to the rise in the cost of maintaining the employees and therefore the indirect cost increases for the company.   

Psychological Factors 

The psychology of the employees is a vital factor that contributes to the safety performance. Wan Ahmad, de Brito and Tavasszy (2016) explained that psychology of the employees is very much complicated and therefore it depends on the fact that the employees will perform more safely with the supervisors who is regarded to be someone who respects their employees and they undertake their activities in accordance to the company policies in accordance to the safety activities.

Social Factors 

The social and the individual factors are the element of risk which is dependent in the motivation in order to face the risks and avoid the risk altogether and is known to be one of the effective determinants of safety which is associated to behaviour (Jitwasinkul, Hadikusumo and Memon 2016). The risks which deals with the unsafe and the safe practices is dependent on the cognitive biases related with the safety of the employees who are going through risks, which takes place in a rational manner but this evaluation of risk is not realistic, in an outcome that is creating increased amount of risk and increased level of accidents and injuries lead to death.    

Management practices of the safety performance 

The management processes are focusing in order to prevent the occupational accidents at the workplace, which is regarded to be a process to control the accidents taking place at the workplace. Liang and Renneboog (2017) have explained that management practices are significant factors for a company and it plays an efficient role in mitigating the injuries and the accidents in the workplace. Kirat (2015) cited that management practices are able to create safety culture. The management practices that are constructed by the management consists of commitment of the management, training and rewards. These aspects have been discussed as follows:

Training 

The training that is given to the employees is contributing factor as it is seen that proper training to the employees would improve their knowledge with respect to the health and safety issues (Hughes et al. 2015). This encourages the employees to take decisions in association to the safety concerns and these decisions are undertaken by the entire company in order to improve their level of performance and development of the health and safety plans.

Importance of training and rewards in improving employee knowledge on health and safety issues

Rewards 

The rewards that are provided to the employees is helpful in creating motivation to the employees. The development of motivation among the employee encourages them to undertake training and awareness programmes with the help of which they are able to understand the health and safety issues and thereby learn the policies with the help of which the accidents and injuries within the working environment can be reduced (Finnerty et al. 2017).

 Management Commitment 

The commitment of the management is one of the key factors as the aspects and the leadership that are undertaken by the management determines the efficiency level of the “safety and health issues” in the oil industry. The commitment of the management towards the health and safety issues is helpful in determining the costs that are related to injuries and thereby plan and construct plans and policies with the help of which these issues can be developed (George et al. 2016).  

Introduction 

This segment determines the kind of data that would be utilised in order to attain the result that is desirable in accordance to this topic. It is due to this fact that the methodology would be explain the approach, design and the data gathering process so that the effectiveness and the reliability of the data can be ascertained and thereafter data analysis can be undertaken.

Research Approach 

The researcher in this paper is in need of theories and frameworks that would be utilised in order to collect the desired data (Pilbeam et al. 2016). The researcher in accordance to the current topic has implied deductive approach simply due to the fact that models and theories that have earlier been utilised would be used and no new theories and frameworks have been constructed by the researcher for this paper.

Research Design 

The design refers to the ideology that would be utilised with the help of which an idea about the effect of leadership and commitment on the “safety and health” issues in the “oil and gas industry” would be understood (Kaynak et al. 2016). In this manner descriptive reserach design is selected so that all the aspects would be explained descriptively in order to gain an idea on the topic.

Process of data gathering 

In this paper, primary data would be used and therefore respondents would be selected from a large pool of people. The researcher has selected the respondents from the employees as well as management personnel so that feedback from the employees as well as the management in accordance to this topic can be understood (Mendes et al. 2014). Quantitative data would be used for this paper and therefore closed ended questionnaire has been prepared and responses would be collected with the help of the same. A total of 35 respondents have been selected and their responses would be used for the purpose of analysis.

Significance of commitment from senior management

Data Analysis Plan 

The analysis of the data would be done with the help of Microsoft Excel and the analysis would be done in order to reach a result that would be used to construct the conclusion of the paper and desired outcome is achievable.

Ethical Consideration 

The researcher has abided with the ethics and therefore true and valid resources have been used with the help of which the authenticity of the results are attainable and fair results can be achieved (Guo, Yiu and González 2016).   

This section would assess the data that has been collected and conclusion of the paper can be attained with the help of which the extent of leadership and commitment towards the safety and health issues in the oil industry would be understood. It is due to this fact that frequency analysis as well as correlation and reliability test would be done in order to understand in association to the current topic.

Frequency Analysis  

The first question is the demographic question and therefore tries to answer the gender of the respondents. It is seen that 62.9% of them are male and the rest of 37.1% are female.

The next questions are related to the topic and therefore each one of them have been evaluated in order to have an idea of the topic. The table below addresses all the questions in an effective manner.

Variable	Strongly disagree	Disagree	Neutral	Agree	Strongly agree
Are safety tools and equipment available in the oil industry?	11.4%	31.4%	22.9%	22.9%	11.4%
Are proper trainings given to the employees regarding the health and safety issues?	14.3%	25.7%	22.9%	22.9%	14.3%
Is the effective monitoring of the operational activities of the oil industries already undertaken?	5.7%	25.7%	22.9%	14.3%	31.4%
Is the commitment among the leaders present towards the development of the health and safety issues?	8.6%	17.1%	14.3%	28.6%	31.4%
Is leadership directly related to the development of better health and safety policies?	8.6%	14.3%	17.1%	28.6%	31.4%
Is proper path followed by the senior management to maintain the health and safety policies?	8.6%	22.9%	20%	20%	28.6%

In accordance to the question that safety tools and equipment are available in the industry, it is seen that most of the respondents disagree to it. The question that is asked in respect to the training given to the employees in accordance to health and safety provides the fact that most of the respondents remain neutral to it. The next question that is asked to the respondents associates to whether effective monitoring of the operational activities within the oil industry is undertaken. The responses reveal that most of the respondents strongly agree to it.

The question that is asked to the respondents is related to whether commitment among the management and the leaders are present towards the development of the health and safety issues. The respondents reveal that most of the respondents agree and strongly agree to this question. The respondents even strongly agree and agree to the fact that leadership is directly related to the development of an effective safety and health policies. The respondents are generally agreed to the fact that proper path is followed by the senior management in order to maintain health and safety policies. This indicates that health and safety practices have been maintained moderately by the senior level management in the oil and industry and therefore leadership and commitment among the senior management plays a vital role in the health and safety issues in the oil and gas companies.    

 Reliability 

Reliability Statistics
Cronbach’s Alpha	N of Items
.628	6

Item Statistics
	Mean	Std. Deviation	N
Are safety tools and equipment available in the oil industry?	2.91	1.222	35
Are proper trainings given to the employees regarding the health and safety issues?	2.97	1.294	35
Are the effective monitoring of the operational activities of the oil industries already undertaken?	3.40	1.333	35
Is the commitment among the leaders present towards the development of the health and safety issues?	3.57	1.335	35
Is leadership directly related to the development of better health and safety policies?	3.60	1.311	35
Is proper path followed by the senior management to maintain the health and safety policies?	3.37	1.352	35

The value that is attained in accordance to Cronbach’s Alpha indicates the fact that the data set for the concerned topic is reliable as the value is 0.628 and therefore the value is within 0.6 to 0.9, which signifies that reliability of the data set is maintained and is available and therefore all the variables are reliable in accordance to this topic.  

Correlation 

The correlation analysis is undertaken in order to understand the mutual relationship among all the variables that have been taken into consideration. The table below addresses the correlation analysis of the concerned variables.

Correlations
	Are safety tools and equipment available in the oil industry?	Are proper trainings given to the employees regarding the health and safety issues?	Is the effective monitoring of the operational activities of the oil industries already undertaken?	Is the commitment among the leaders present towards the development of the health and safety issues?	Is leadership directly related to the development of better health and safety policies?	Is proper path followed by the senior management to maintain the health and safety policies?
Are safety tools and equipment available in the oil industry?	Pearson Correlation	1	.742**	.202	.193	.125	-.016
Sig. (2-tailed)		.000	.244	.266	.475	.928
N	35	35	35	35	35	35
Are proper trainings given to the employees regarding the health and safety issues?	Pearson Correlation	.742**	1	.382*	.248	.028	-.027
Sig. (2-tailed)	.000		.024	.151	.874	.876
N	35	35	35	35	35	35
Is the effective monitoring of the operational activities of the oil industries already undertaken?	Pearson Correlation	.202	.382*	1	.099	.414*	.258
Sig. (2-tailed)	.244	.024		.571	.013	.135
N	35	35	35	35	35	35
Is the commitment among the leaders present towards the development of the health and safety issues?	Pearson Correlation	.193	.248	.099	1	.252	.058
Sig. (2-tailed)	.266	.151	.571		.144	.740
N	35	35	35	35	35	35
Is leadership directly related to the development of better health and safety policies?	Pearson Correlation	.125	.028	.414*	.252	1	.368*
Sig. (2-tailed)	.475	.874	.013	.144		.029
N	35	35	35	35	35	35
Is proper path followed by the senior management to maintain the health and safety policies?	Pearson Correlation	-.016	-.027	.258	.058	.368*	1
Sig. (2-tailed)	.928	.876	.135	.740	.029
N	35	35	35	35	35	35
**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
*. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).

The above table explains that relationship among the tools and the equipment used in the oil industry and proper training to the employees has indicated high correlation. On the other hand proper training and effective monitoring has a moderate and positive correlation. There exists a moderate and positive correlation among effective monitoring and leadership leading to development of health and safety issues in the oil industry. It is even seen that leadership and the path that is followed have moderate and positive correlation and thereby it is seen that all the variables are positively correlated to each other even though most of them are moderately correlated and only one of them is highly correlated to each other. This indicates that leadership and commitment has an essential role to play in the enhancement of the safety and health issues in the oil industries and therefore the management and the leaders should undertake steps and actions in order to enhance the health and safety practices within the working environment of the oil and gas industry.

Conclusion

The outcome that is attained from the analysis of the data determines that leadership and commitment among the leaders plays a significant factor in the development of the “health and safety practices” in the oil industries. The authenticity of the results can be determined once the outcome has been able to address the constructed hypothesis and the objectives of the paper. It is seen that according to the constructed hypothesis, it is seen that commitment among the senior management is essential for the enhancement of the “safety and health” issues in the oil industry as frequency, reliability and correlation analysis have determined the same. The analysis that has been done even determines the fact that senior management is even able to construct the right tone for down lining in order to follow the footstep so that better and effective practices can be attained. The result has even addressed the objective as it is seen that senior management and their leadership and commitment plays a vital role in the enhancement of the safety health practices in the oil industry. The second objective that looks to discover whether the senior management has been constructing the right tone for the purpose of down lining in order to follow the footsteps and the outcome has indicated the fact that the senior management has created a proper guideline which can be followed for the development of a better health and safety performances within the working environment in the oil industry. Hence, the role of the senior management is vital and their commitment and leadership is essential for the development of the safety and health practices in the oil industry.

The outcome leads to the provision of suggestions that can improve the activities and the operational activities. It is therefore recommended that senior management should undertake awareness programs for their employees in order to empower them and accordingly they can make decisions with the help of which better safety and health issues can be created. It is even recommended that frequent monitoring of the health and safety activities should be done in order to remove the tools and equipment that are obsolete and introduce new tools that would be helpful to the employees as well.         

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