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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal – Vol. 11, No. 8
Publication Date: August 25, 2024
DOI:10.14738/assrj.118.17394.
Solanki, K. (2024). Investigating the Causes of Work-Related Injuries and their Impact on the Employee Health and Safety in
Organizations in GCC Region. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 11(8). 297-302.
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
Investigating the Causes of Work-Related Injuries and their
Impact on the Employee Health and Safety in Organizations in
GCC Region
Kalpana Solanki
City University, UAE
ORCID: 0000-0003-3202-8254
ABSTRACT
Ensuring employee health and safety has been considered the top priority by OSHA.
Although employee health and safety have been considered paramount in ensuring
effective company operations around the world yet limited efforts are being taken
by the organizations to enhance employee health and safety. This research paper
aims to explore the various industrial hazards and their impact on the employee
health and safety in the GCC region. This research uses primary and secondary data,
Qualitative and quantitative data analysis techniques to test the hypothesis.
Descriptive statistics including relationship charts, frequency analysis, and ANOVA
testing were included to reach the conclusion. The response was received 100
responses from different industries in GCC region to whom the survey was
disseminated. The researcher has also used open publicly available data through
the published information by the General Organization for Social Insurance (GOSI).
The results conclude close inverse relationship between the dependent and
independent variables where the (Independent variable) is Employee safety and
health and the dependent variables are electric hazard, fire hazards, fall hazards,
ergonomics hazards. The reduction in the hazards will lead to increase in the
employee safety and health.
Keywords: Employee safety and health, electric, fire, fall, ergonomics hazards, industrial
safety.
INTRODUCTION
Employee health and safety has been extremely important in industrial, manufacturing and
service organizations around the world. In the past 10 years a positive growth has been seen in
development of safety standards and protocols and the implementation of the modern health
and safety measures by organizations in the GCC region.
The number of industrial accidents has reduced in the past decade compared to the previous
time period. This is due to the more proactive approach by the government and the employers.
Despite of the increasing occupational safety initiatives even today the industrial accidents are
happening. An increase can be witnessed in the fire related hazards specially during the
summer months. In GCC thus there is a long way to go till the 100% health and safety of the
employees is guaranteed by the employers.
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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal (ASSRJ) Vol. 11, Issue 8, August-2024
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
LITERATURE REVIEW
1. Employee health and safety initiatives focus on risk assessment, hazard identification,
and the implementation of preventive measures to safeguard employees from
occupational injuries and illnesses.
2. The concurrence of a multiday blackout event with heat wave conditions to more than
double the estimated rate of heat-related mortality across all three cities, and to require
medical attention.
3. Fire risks pose a substantial threat to the apparel manufacturing industry since they can
lead to immense property damage, potential loss of life, disruption of business
operations, and reputational damage. In an emerging economy like Bangladesh, fire- related hazards are crucial due to the numerous deadly industrial fire incidents in recent
years
4. This paper is to use machine learning to create a prediction model that detects the
probable factors impacting fatal falls from heights accidents at the Malaysia
construction industry.
5. Work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) are the main causes of physical
diseases of workers in the construction industry. The occurrence of WMSDs can result
in project delays, cost overruns, workers’ worsened health status, and even
unanticipated safety risks. Ergonomic rules and instrument-based methods have
enabled automatic postural ergonomic evaluation and intervention, while a research
gap lies in how to consider more comprehensive personalized factors and how to
integrate individual risks for project-level risk control.
Hypothesis:
• H1 Employee safety can be enhanced by reducing electric hazards
• H2 Employee safety can be enhanced by reducing fire hazards
• H3 Employee safety can be enhanced by reducing fall hazards
• H4 Employee safety can be enhanced by reducing ergonomics hazards
Independent variable: Employee safety and health
Dependent variables: Electric hazards, Fire hazards, Fall hazards, Ergonomics hazards
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The researchers have used the primary as well as secondary information along with quantative,
qualitative and analytic methods. Information was collected through the survey via a targeted
response from the respondents from various industrial sectors in GCC region.
The researcher has also used the open publicly available data using the open published
information by the General Organization for Social Insurance (GOSI) on yearly basis for the
years 2016 to 2021.
The sample included employees working in small, medium and large-scale organizations and
business on middle and entry level jobs in the GCC. The sample survey was conducted using
Likert scale and relevant measurements which was circulated to 100 respondents out of which
70 respondents responded to the survey questions.
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299
Solanki, K. (2024). Investigating the Causes of Work-Related Injuries and their Impact on the Employee Health and Safety in Organizations in GCC
Region. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 11(8). 297-302.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.118.17394
The below (figure 1) MODEL displays that if the fall, electric, fire and ergonomics related
hazards are controlled and reduced in the organization then it will have a positive impact on
the employee health and safety.
Figure 1: Proposed safety model
The below (Table 1) statistics frequency analysis shows that the average mean for Fall related
hazards was 1.3200 whereas electric related Hazards mean was 1.3900. The fire hazards were
measured as the mean of 1.3000 and the ergonomics was at the mean of 1.4800.
Table 1
Fall Hazards Electric Hazards Fire Hazards Ergonomic Hazards
N Valid 100 100 100 100
Missing 12 12 12 12
Mean 1.3200 1.3900 1.3000 1.4800
Std. Error of Mean .04688 .04902 .04606 .05021
Std. Deviation .46883 .49021 .46057 .50212
Minimum 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00
Maximum 2.00 2.00 2.00 2.00
Sum 132.00 139.00 130.00 148.00
ANALYSIS OF THE SECONDARY DATA
The below mentioned data was collected through a study using the open published information
by the General Organization for Social Insurance (GOSI) on yearly basis for the years 2016 to
2021. The data from one year in each category were compared with a reference year using the
index value method and simple linear regression. Moreover, the researchers calculated the
injury-to-worker ratio for each year as well. Index values of work-related injuries in Saudi
Arabia by age group between 2016 and 2021- (6) Comparing the different age groups to the
30-34 age group revealed a minimal decrease in slope (S) with S = -3.8 in 2016 and S = 1.7 in
2021 (Table 2)
Index value by time, (30-34) = 100
Table 2
Age groups 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
20-24 33.62 27.74 24.65 22.38 23.51 24.63
25-29 103.47 94.18 86.24 86.25 80.62 81.43
30-34 100 100 100 100 100 100
Fall hazards Electric hazards
Fire hazards Ergonomics hazards
Employee health
and safety