Industrial Safety Training of Line Management: A Step Ahead

Towards Successful Operation Management

Ali A. K. Mohammed Ali , Rahim K. Jassim , Adnan G. Abuarafah

Abstract
Industrial safety deals with how to prevent injuries and accidents that occur in
the organisations. These injuries and accidents have cost the organisation rare values in
human resource and information. Therefore safety should be in the forefront of any
managers thinking and a priority in the organisations strategy. Not only because of
the humanitarian reasons but also because of the financial benefits.
It is the managers responsibility to see that he does everything within his power to
provide a safe working environment for his workforce. The factors that motivate safe
practices at the job site are generally identified as follows:
Humanitarian concerns.
Economic costs and benefits
Legal and regulatory considerations.
This research paper evaluates the line managers knowledge in industrial safety,
identifies the weakness points and provides a general knowledge to skill the line
management in different organisations of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Understanding sources of accidents have become a major area of research in the
field of Operation Management. Therefore this research paper also develops a training
program and a step by step employer and employee responsibilities in order to minimise
the losses in human and financial resources. Finally a summary of practical criteria of
best practice for industrial safety strategy implementation and a general discussion and
conclusions have been drawn.
1. Introduction
In the last two decades the term of industrial safety has been adopted as a result
of the increase of use of the new technology in all kinds of establishment, institutions,
factories etc., whether educational, health industrial, commercial etc. or any
organisation in which human or properties are the major resources. Recently the term
of Health, Safety and Environment which has many definitions i.e. the guidelines that
develop the safety criteria (precautions and measures) that provides a safe working
environment from all risks and danger that could threaten the health and life of the
workforce has gained more reputation in many third world countries industry such as
UAE and KSA, but is understood to be only for;
Related to industries.
It is related to fire safety.

College of Technology at Makkah, P.O. Box 20109, Makkah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Email: drali11@hotmail.com
Fax: 00966 2 522 0116

College of Technology at Jeddah, P.O. Box 42204, Jeddah 21541, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Email: rkjassim@yahoo.com
Fax: 00966 2 630 1804

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With the development of society, the term industrial safety is concerned with
human and properties of an organisation. Safety deals with securing or reducing
accidents at work environment, which has a negative impact on the organisation
operations at many levels. Accidents cost money to any organisation and could affect
the worker moral through:
1. Damage the machinery or buildings.
2. Delay in the production or business.
3. Losing experienced workers partially or totally.
4. Compensation to the injured worker or public.
5. Organisations losing part of there reputation.
6. Legal expenses.
2. Industrial Safety in Saudi Arabia
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is one of the Gulf States that has shown an interest in
industrial safety. This interest has been articulated by the ministerial act no (2139)
dated 4th Shabaan 1403, in which it defines the safety as number of rules and
regulations that deals with safety prevention from fire. This act was a unique safety law
and management philosophy because its includes safety and security under one
umbrella which is called Safety Management. This unique philosophy has been adopted
in Saudi Arabia despite the conflict between safety and security. This act emphases that
the aims of safety regulations can be summarized as follows:
Protection worker, properties, belongings, and information from conspiracy
accidents, fire, theft, forging, and earthquake which lead to injuries and death, financial
losses, information losses, and delay in production against machine and human errors,
and confederate.
3. Line Management Role
The role of line management is not only to govern the workers, but also to
protect the workers and the organisation properties. In most organisations of KSA
(Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) unfortunately managers are mostly chosen by referral or by
relatives without considering the background and KSA (Knowledge, Skills and
Abilities).
Line managers Requirement
The manager takes responsibility for planning, monitoring, and controlling the
business performance. Usual first tasks are to set the goals and objectives to prepare a
preliminary budget, schedule and select the group members, setting a general training
program if required. Also ensure required supplies are available and generally try to do
whatever is needed to maximise the group performance and safety in order to keep the
business moving. To do this the manager has to have certain skills and characteristics.
Two viewpoints have been advanced outlining skills and characteristics required being a
good manager
1- Personal characteristics
The personal characteristics are necessary to manage the group. Such personal
attributes include aggressiveness, confidence, poise, decisiveness, resolution, toughness,
integrity, versatility and quick thinking.
2- Skills and Problems
Skills and problems are fundamentally interconnected for the following reasons:

The managers require certain skills in order to deal efficiently with the
human factors most likely to create problems for them in managing the
group.

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Because certain problems are most likely to confront the managers, they
required particular skills in order to handle them.
The most important skills for successful managers are[1]:

Risk Management Skills- involve eradication or minimisation of the adverse

effects of the pure risks to which an organisation and staff are exposed.
Communication skills- being a good communicator is an essential management
skill.
Organizational skills- are vital to good management. Characteristics included
in this skill are planning and goal-setting abilities, along with the ability to be
analytical.
Group or team building skills- involve developing empathetic relationships
with other members of the group. Being sensitive to the needs of others,
motivating people, and building a strong sense of team spirit.
Leadership skills-several different attributes and behaviours can be catalogued
under leadership skills. These included setting a good example, seeing the big
picture, being enthusiastic, having a positive outlook, taking initiative, and
trusting people.
Coping Skills-successful managers require coping or stress-management skills.
Respondents indicated that both flexibility and creativity were involved in
effectively coping with change, as were patience and persistence.
Technical skills-successful managers require a good background in their field.
4. Line Managers knowledge in Industrial Safety
A survey has been conducted in small and medium sizes of Health, Technical
Education, Industrial and Commercial sectors in order to evaluate the line management
knowledge in industrial safety of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as an example of Arab
countries.
The questioner questions of the survey were as follows:
What is the nature of your industry?
Do you consider your staff safety is one of main factor in your business
strategy? How
Do you have industrial safety procedures in place?
Do you have a safety review system?
Have you conducted any industrial Safety to your staff to keep them inform
about the hazardous substances and the preventive methods?
Do you provide your staff with protective gears, devices, equipment and
materials? What are they?
Have you conducted any medical check up for your employees, such as hearing
test, eyes test, etc.
Do you have an accident registry?
Do you have a safety officer or a safety committee?
Results
The results as shown in Table (1) were rather shocking for the following reasons
Most of the organisations were hesitant to fill in the questioner and some were
reluctant for various excuses.
Lack of understanding the meaning of industrial safety. A large number
considers the IS as a preventive measures from fire only.
Lack of information about the hazardous substances.

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Contradiction in the answers which make the % of error 25.

In order to analyse the results, we have classified the questioners into four
sections, Preventive procedures (1), Training (2), Industrial Safety Officer and Auditing
(3), Accident Registry (4).
Health
Yes
No
11%
89%
(1)
15%
85%
(2)
21%
79%
(3)
31%
61%
(4)
Table 1 Survey results

Education
Yes
No
66%
34%
0%
100%
15%
85%
12%
88%

1 00%

Industrial
Yes
No
20%
80%
35%
65%
30%
70%
40%
60%

80%

3
4

60%
40%
20%

0%
3

Figure (1) Heath sector results

1 0 0 %
8 0 %
6 0 %
4 0 %
2 0 %
0 %
1

Figure (2) Education sector results

1 00%
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
1

Figure (3) Industrial sector results

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Commercial
Yes
No
0%
100%
0%
100%
10%
90%
0%
100%

1 00%
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
1

Figure (4) Commercial sector results

5. Discussion and Suggestions

One factor that can set an organisation apart from its competitors whether in health,
technical education, industrial and commercial, in the private or public sectors is its
employees. Then the safety of the organisation employees can have a significant impact
on the organisation productivity, level of reputation and survival. Although is known
accidents will never be entirely eliminated, but can be isolated or minimized.
Nevertheless accident prevention could be regarded as a necessity measured by money,
reduce suffering, work atmosphere and quality of life. Accident elimination on any
organization should be in the forefront of any managers thinking for preventing or
reducing accidents.
Several observations can be made from the results that obtained from the questioner,
which are reported in Table 1 and Figures 1-4.
The preventive procedures (1) percentage of technical education is higher than
other sectors. This is due to the fact that the technical education is aware of the
importance of industrial safety, but there was lack of training, industrial safety
officer and accident registry. The Health, Industry and Commercial sector results
were alarming as can be seen in table (1), action need to be taken immediately.
In the industrial sector, the training, industrial safety officer and auditing were
relatively higher than the results of other sectors, but still low if the percentage of
error is considered. . This is because of level of danger that encounter in this field.
In all sectors one of the line management responsibilities is to protect their staff.
This is can be done by employing a industrial officer or conducting a industrial
safety training. The results have obviously indicated none or weak of that took
place which means that the line managers have a lack of knowledge in the
importance of industrial safety to their organisation.
5.1 Practical criteria of best practice for Industrial Safety
This section summaries practical criteria that is seen to be important to create a good
polices and practices of industrial safety implementation.
A- Employer responsibilities

In order to get action taken in the field of accident prevention, then the
safety policies and practices MUST BE included in the organisations strategy.
The managers have three fundamental factors on which to base their strategies
for generating and maintaining management activity in industrial safety. These
three factors for accident prevention are generally identifies as follows [2]:
Legal: the legal argument is based on the statutory requirement of the
government legislation.

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Humanitarian: humanitarian is based on the notion that any employer/employee is

responsible to ensure the general well-being of his fellow men.
Economic; the argument is based here on the fact that accident cost an organisation
money.
Any organisation or establishment, regardless of its business should study,
identify and minimise and eliminate the sources of risk and danger that could
cause accidents and could endanger the health or life of human present in the
organisation. These sources can be identified as follows:
Machinery and equipment
Electrical connections, wiring and electrical equipment
Heating, Cooling and ventilation systems.
All piping and pressurised piping.
All kind of transportation, lifting machinery both inside and outside
buildings.
Anything that causes fire
Anything that is considered Hazardous material that causes explosion,
oxidation, irritative, flammable, toxic, poisonous etc.
Any source that cause physical harm such as noise, vibration etc.
Setting a budget for training on health, safety and environment issues.
Adequate training the employee in workplace environment and in health and
safety regulations.
Management at all levels MUST enforce attendance at appropriate training
sessions
Supervisors are responsible for having their employees attend required training.
Providing and maintaining a safe working environment.
Providing and maintaining work facilities for the employees safety.
Ensuring that plant, workshop, storage etc used by employee at work is so
arranged, designed , made and maintained that it is safe for the employee to use.
Developing procedures for dealing with emergencies that may rise while
employees are at work.
Providing the employees with information to their employees and students on
the specific hazards associated with their activities and the safety procedures to
be followed.
During each employee's performance evaluation, the supervisor needs to
consider the individual's adherence to prescribed safety responsibilities.
Creating a database system to help the line managers to generate internal reports
on frequency of injuries, severity of injuries (in days lost), contributing factors
(events, sources demographics) and costs (treatment and worker compensation).
This report can be used by safety managers to answer questions such as: What
factors contribute to these injuries? Does my company have an effective safety
programs?.etc.
Disciplinary/Dismissal action up to and including termination may be
appropriate for failure to comply with or follow required safety
procedures/policies.
Safety surveys or inspections by outside activities including regulatory agencies
will be brought promptly to the attention of the offices indicated below to ensure
proper coordination:

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B- Employees responsibilities
The employee should take all the following practicable steps,
Ensuring that your actions do not put yourself or others at risk.
Knowing the emergency procedures if an emergency arises.
Using all protective gear, devices, equipment and materials.
Knowledge of hazardous substances and the preventive methods.
It is the responsibility of every employee to report unsafe conditions and actions
to their supervisor or the safety officer.
5.2 Industrial Safety Training of Managers and Staff Members
In todays fast-paced economy the competition is an issue of services and
products. Much attention has been directed to a better service and best product and how
this can be achieved through utilising the human resources. Managers and staff
members are one of these human resources and their knowledge in industrial safety is
the main factor to eliminate the accidents. Then the organisation should create a
complete model of team development.
The most important element of the team development is training which includes
all activities designed to improve the skills, knowledge, and capabilities of the managers
and staff members. Improvements can come from many sources and can affect many
areas of job performance, for example
Improvements in individual skills may allow specific managers to perform their
assignment more safely, effectively and efficiently.
Improvement in managers behaviour may allow team members to devote a
greater percentage of their effort to safety and technical activities.
Improvement in either individual skills or team capabilities may facilitate
identifying and developing safer ways of doing the job.
The industrial Safety Training Program can be summarised in following points
A- Responsibilities of managers in Industrial Safety
Aim: To raise management awareness of their responsibilities for Industrial Safety
B- Business Strategy and competitive advantage
Aim: To raise management knowledge in business strategy and the relationship
between the strategy and the staff member safety.
C- Risk Management
Aim: To advise the manager on the need for and how to minimise, eliminate
and control the risk.
D- Effective and Efficient Management
Aim: To provide managers with the sufficient background on how to
carryout their duties effectively and efficiently [3].
E- Hazardous Control
Fire Prevention
First Aid and CPR
Using Fire extinguisher.
Emergency procedure
6. Conclusions
One of providing safe workplace environment is to determine the hazard and
then take all the practicable steps to eliminate, isolate or minimise the harm of hazard.
This can be implemented through a good Health and Safety polices and practices which
required that users (managers and staff) have knowledge of safety measures.

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Managers and top management of any organization should be aware of the

industrial safety practice in order to be able to adopt it in their organization and should
bear in mind that [4].
Safety is everyone's responsibility.

Mandatory training is a key component of many safety efforts.

All employees are expected to carryout their assignments in a way that

prevents injury to themselves and others.

Managers must be alert to recognising and resolving potential safety and

environmental hazards so that risks for employees, volunteers and
visitors are identified and reduced or eliminated.

Top management and line managers are responsible to point a safety

officer or safety committee and must establish, follow, and enforce safe
practices and procedures.

Every individual must know the potential hazards associated with their
duties and follow all applicable safety practices and procedures.
One of the conclusions from the survey is that there was a lack of government
strict regulations to enforce the industrial safety measures in order to be taken seriously
by the management.
7. References
[1]- Jassim, R.K. Competitive advantage through the employees: A practical guide to
be presented at the Arab Second Conference in Management, Cairo Egypt 6-8 Nov.
2001.
[2]- Bamber L. Principles of the management of risk Chapters 9 and 10 , Safety at
Work, third Edition 1995.
[3]- Tyco Health and Safety in the Workplace Issue One : February 2000.
[4]- University of Connecticut, Health and Safety regulations, USA, 2001.

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