Boustras, Georgios

Management of health and safety in micro-enterprises (less than 10 employees) is a critical issue due to the relatively high level of injuries in such firms. It is also an under-researched area in the international safety literature. The present paper is based on a nationwide survey with the cooperation of the relevant health and safety enforcement authority among micro-firms in several economic sectors. Micro-enterprises comprise a major percentage (95.4%) of business firms in a small economy like Cyprus. The survey examined the perceptions and work attitudes of workers and their relationship with safety performance of the particular firms.This paper presents the results related to the perceptions of employees. A previous paper presented the results focusing on employers. Information was collected on their demographic characteristics and major influencing factors of safety performance like employee participation in safety decisions and safety training. The safety performance measure, an index comprising several safety performance aspects was assessed by the health and safety (labour) inspectors, in order to overcome potential problems of common method bias when all data are obtained from the same group of respondents.The findings suggest that safety performance has a positive and statistically significant correlation with safety training provided by the firm. It has also a positive and statistically significant association with the safety information available to employees and with the perceived safety conditions. The effect of the participation of workers in safety decisions and their organizational commitment, although significantly correlated with safety performance as individual variables, are not statistically significant after controlling for the effect of the other variables mentioned above. The results show the important relationship between safety training and other good practices (like provision of information and improved safety conditions) on safety performance in micro-firms.

Micro-firms are vitally important for the economy of most countries, not only developing economies, but also advanced industrial economies, as shown by the relevant statistics. For example, ‘In 2007, 89% of firms in the United States (U.S.) had less than 20 employees and 79% had less than 10' (Cunningham et al., 2014). According to Eurostat (2015), 29.2% (i.e. about 30%) of the EU employees work in micro-enterprises (<10 employees), while about 20% are employed in small firms (<50 employees). In other words, about half of the European workforce is employed in micro- and small firms. The average contribution for the period 2008-2013 of micro-firms to value added of the euro area economy was 22% (ECB, 2013).

Management of health and safety in micro-firms (<10 employees) is a critical issue due to their lack of resources and the limited – in certain cases – knowledge on the subject. It is also an under-researched area in the international safety literature. The present paper is based on a Nationwide Survey with the cooperation of the relevant health and safety authority among micro-firms in several economic sectors. Micro-firms comprise a major percentage of business firms in a small economy like Cyprus. The survey involved the workers and the owners/managers of the firms, but also obtained information for compliance and safety performance of the particular firms from safety inspectors. The present research approach overcomes potential problems of common method bias when all data are obtained from the same group of respondents. The main purpose of this survey is to explore the organizational determinants of safety performance at the workplace in micro-firms.The paper presents only the results related to the perceptions of owners/managers and safety inspectors. Information was collected on demographic characteristics of firms and major influencing factors of safety performance such as employee participation in safety decisions, worker willingness to use personal protection measures, and safety training. The analysis of data has produced some interesting results showing the relationship between safety policy and good practices on the one hand and safety performance on the other, even in micro-firms. The safety performance measure, an index comprising several safety performance aspects assessed by the health and safety inspectors, has a positive and statistically significant correlation with the existence of safety policy in a firm, as stated by the owners/managers of firms. It has also a positive and statistically significant association with the written risk assessment of new equipment and the perceived employee willingness to use PPE (personal protection equipment).

The purpose of the paper is to investigate the association of organizational health and safety policies and procedures (OHSPs) and safety perceptions of employees as reflected in safety climate with safety performance. Furthermore the impact of OHSP on work attitudes like job satisfaction and job commitment is also considered. Employee safety policies are considered within the context of a broader policy of corporate social responsibility. The study examines the need for formulation of a proactive safety strategy and its implementation. The research context is Cyprus, a small peripheral European country, which has a service-based, small firm dominated economy. Such an environment presents special problems and barriers in the formulation and implementation of safety policies and procedures and offers an interesting and so far relatively under-researched context for testing relationships between policies and safety outcomes. The results of this study illustrate that OHSP, safety climate, and organizational commitment have a statistically significant association with safety performance.

The aim of this chapter is to lay out the foundation for effectively dealing with the risks that have been uncovered with the use of risk assessment. In other words, this chapter builds upon the results of the previous chapter that presented ways of assessing the various risks. Literature provides a number of examples and a number of techniques, and at the same time focuses on paradigms that relate to large(r) organizations, as they portray a much wider test-bed for the trial of theoretical concepts, as well as provide a considerable population that can account for a vast number of observations that can lead to the development of new theoretical concepts.