BSMH3083 INTRODUCTION TO OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH

GROUP C
SEMESTER A222 (SESSION 2022/2023)

REFLECTIVE PAPER 2 : REVIEW OF JOURNAL ARTICLE

TITLE: THE ROLE OF SAFETY SUPERVISION IN UPHOLDING WORKPLACE

SAFETY

SUBMITTED TO: PROF. MADYA DR. ZURAIDA BINTI HASSAN

PREPARED BY:

NO NAME MATRIC NUMBER

1 RAMYA A/P THENNARAYASU 278163

DATE OF SUBMISSION: 24TH MAY 2023

 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Review of Journal Articles................................................................................................ 3

References....................................................................................................................... 7
Appendices....................................................................................................................... 8

2
Review of Journal Articles

Every life matters regardless of gender, race, age, religion and nationality.

As well as the employees who are continuously contributing their relentless efforts and

energy towards an organization. Hence, it is an essential element to uphold and instill

an efficient safety supervision in every workplace to ensure that every employee is

protected. Apparently, even if they might not be the ones who decide the organization's

direction, supervisors are primarily accountable for putting the regulations and goals of

the firm into practice. Even when the safety officer is spearheading new safety

initiatives, the majority of firms rely on team leaders to manage them on a daily basis.

.Additionally, the lack of supervisory support for workplace safety would cause the

fragility of safety performance in terms of injury rate to increase by 3.5 times. (Yanar et

al., 2019). Simply put, supervisors are where the action happens. Therefore, in the

upcoming parts, a further and detailed review of four journal articles will be emphasized

regarding the role of supervision in upholding workplace safety.

The first journal article entitled ‘Communication in the workplace: Defining the

conversations of supervisors’ emphasized on unbiasedly observing communication

within the regular job activities of work-group supervisors in one organisation, this study

closes this gap in the literature. The study's objectives were to (a) classify workplace

communication into three categories—task-related communication, relationship-related

communication, and safety-related communication—and (b) investigate how frequently

these conversations occur. The findings revealed instances of task-related

communication (productivity, efficiency, workflow, and human resources),

relationship-related communication (greetings, personal life conversations, workplace

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relations), and communication connected to safety. In addition, they discovered that

task-related communication predominated over relationship- and safety-related

communication in the recorded communications (Newnam & Goode, 2019).

Henceforth, in my opinion, communication between supervisors and the workers are

one of the most essential tools in ensuring safe workplace, so supervisors should be

more prone to communicate in terms of safety-related communication as, according to a

study conducted entitled ‘Risk assessment of fatal accidents due to work at heights

activities using fault tree analysis: Case study in Malaysia’ indicates that inadequate

Leadership and Supervision denoted as the most frequent root cause of accident

scenarios which was 115 times (89.84%) (Zermane et al., 2022).

The second journal article entitled ‘The Interplay Between Supervisor Safety

Support and Occupational Health and Safety Vulnerability on Work Injury’ gives

exposure regarding vital roles that must be played by supervisors in order to prevent the

risk of injury and protect workers. Henceforth, according to Huang et al., (2004),

Establishing safety concerns, distributing equipment and safety tools, resolving safety

concerns, and encouraging safe conduct are all examples of supervisory safety support,

which is defined as " the degree to which supervisors foster safe working practices

among their employees". Lower rates of workplace injuries and other adverse safety

outcomes are linked to increased supervisor safety assistance. According to the study's

conclusions, positive direct supervision can reduce the risk of injury even in workplaces

where policies and procedures, employee education, or employee empowerment are

ineffective in reducing workplace dangers (Yanar et al., 2019). Therefore, as this study's

findings demonstrate, having a supportive direct supervisor at work can lower injury risk

4
for both vulnerable and non-vulnerable employees. A safe workplace cannot be

maintained without the help of supervisors. Employee performance may be increased

even in the most dangerous situations by having a direct supervisor who is aware of

workplace risks and is proactively attempting to decrease them.

The third article journal entitled ‘Safety Intervention Program For Supervisor of

Manufacturing sector in Malaysia: A Quasi- Experimental Research’ where the objective

of this study is to implement a hazard self-assessment intervention programme with the

intention of improving worker safety behaviours. The workplace hazard self-assessment

module was taught to supervisors from high-risk manufacturing companies over the

course of a single day, and they were told to conduct the intervention with their workers

for a period of 12 weeks. An experimental design with a control group was used in a

quasi-experimental study to evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention programme.

The success of the intervention was supported by the data, which showed a significant

change in safety behaviours between the intervention and control groups after the

programme. Thus, this study reveals that by enhancing the safety supervisors skill

through proper training can significantly aid to increase safety awareness among their

subordinates.

The last article entitled ‘Effect of leadership and communication practices on the

safety climate and behaviour of construction workgroups’ was to investigate the effects

of the style of leadership and communication techniques of Australian construction

supervisors on the H&S climate and group behaviour. (Lingard et al., 2019). The

findings of the study implied that the group Health and Safety (H&S) atmosphere and

employees' self-reported H&S behaviours were all positively and substantially

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connected with the transformational and transactional leadership styles of supervisors

as well as communication techniques.The transactional leadership component of

providing contingent remuneration was the strongest predictor of H&S involvement, but

the supervisors' styles of communication and the transformational leadership aspect of

establishing a feasible model were the most significant predictors of H&S compliance

with regulations. The connection between supervisory leadership and employees'

self-reported H&S behaviours was completely mediated by the H&S atmosphere.

Hence, we can come to a consensus that this complete mediation impact suggests that

supervisory leadership techniques influence employees' attitude towards H&S by

fostering powerful and encouraging safety cultures at the group level. That is, when

supervisors are competent, this affects how much workers respect workplace health and

safety, which will in turn promote excellent H&S practices among groups of employees

at the workplace.

As a conclusion, the role of supervisors in upholding workplace safety is

ultimately very high as the supervisors’ influence was far greater than organisational

characteristics like involvement of the top management to H&S and ideals reflected in

organisation H&S policy. Therefore, supervisors should vigilantly practice positive

communication among the workers, assist employees in identifying hazards that exist at

work and showcast an impeccable responsibility towards enhancing workplace safety.

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 References

Huang, Y. H., Chen, P. Y., Krauss, A. D., & Rogers, D. A. (2004). Quality of the
execution of corporate safety policies and employee safety outcomes: assessing
the moderating role of supervisor safety support and the mediating role of
employee safety control. Journal of Business and Psychology, 18, 483-506.

Lingard, H., Zhang, R. P., & Oswald, D. (2019). Effect of leadership and communication
practices on the safety climate and behaviour of construction workgroups.
Engineering, construction and architectural management.

Newnam, S., & Goode, N. (2019). Communication in the workplace: Defining the
conversations of supervisors. Journal of safety research, 70, 19-23.

Prest, R. (2020, October 1). The Supervisor's Crucial Role in Safety

Performance.Occupational Health & Safety. Retrieved May 19, 2023, from
https://ohsonline.com/Articles/2020/10/01/The-Supervisors-Crucial-Role-in-Safet
y-Performance.aspx

Yanar, B., Lay, M., & Smith, P. M. (2019). The interplay between supervisor safety
support and occupational health and safety vulnerability on work injury. Safety
and health at work, 10(2), 172-179.

Zermane, A., Tohir, M. Z. M., Baharudin, M. R., & Yusoff, H. M. (2022). Risk assessment
of fatal accidents due to work at heights activities using fault tree analysis: Case
study in Malaysia. Safety science, 151, 105724.

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Appendices

Journal 1

8
Journal 2

9
Journal 3

10
Journal 4

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