Mohamad Khan Jamal Khan
Faculty of Human and Social Development
University Utara
MALAYSIA
ABSTRACT:
Existing literature reveals a gap in the empirical knowledge in respect of determinants of OSH performance in SMEs in Malaysian manufacturing settings. The concept of OSH performance was operationalized and its relationship with the predictors was hypothesized. A questionnaire was developed base on earlier works by Molenaar et al. (2002), and was pretested. The research objective was to identify the determinants of occupational safety and health (OSH) performance in manufacturing SMEs and their relationship with OSH performance. Six hypotheses were developed and tested. Cross-sectional data based on the questionnaire was collected using postal survey method. The study employed simple stratified random selection procedure in selecting sampling units for data collection. One hundred and eighteen SMEs in Peninsular Malaysia participated in this study. Statistical analyses used include Pearson – r correlation, independent T-test, and multiple regressions. Descriptive statistics were also employed. The results revealed that the independent variables – management commitment, employee´s involvement, safety training, and safety incentive were positively related, and safety disincentive was negatively related to OSH performance. These variables significantly explained 68,0 % of the variance in OSH performance of manufacturing SMEs. Correlation analysis revealed significant associations between OSH performance and each of the five variables. The study highlighted that there was significant difference in OSH performance between firms having OSH policy and firms without such a policy. Similarly, there was significant difference in OSH performance between firms having OSH committee than firms without, and there was also significant difference between small and medium size enterprises. The study revealed that there was no significant difference in OSH performance between numbers of years in business, and there was no significant difference between the types industries within the manufacturing sector.
KEY WORDS: occupational safety and health, manufacturing SMEs, Peninsular Malaysia
