Chandrakantan Subramaniam

Management practice in safety culture and its influence on workplace injury: An industrial study in Malaysia

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine to what extent management practices in safety culture are effective in reducing workplace injuries.Design/methodology/approach – Management practices are an important component of an organizations safety climate. The study was conducted in a major industrial zone in Malaysia. The management practices examined in this study were reward, training, management commitment, communication and feedback, hiring practices, and employee participation. In total, 68 companies participated in this study; the injury data provided by the companies were for three years and 24 musculoskeletal injuries were examined.Findings – The multiple correlation was at 0.43 and the R2 was 0.19. A significant linear relationship between management practices subscale and injury rates was obtained (F=2.28, p=0.14). Rewards, management commitment, feedback and selection were found to reduce injury rates. However, only feedback (t=−2.98) and employee participation (t=2.01) were significant...

Human factors influencing fire safety measures

In recent years, there were several incidents of fire in secondary schools in Malaysia. A study conducted by the Ministry of Education has found that there were outbreaks of fire in 22 primary and secondary schools and in institutions of higher learning for the year 1999 resulting in losses of RM 534,400. This study was carried out to identify fire safety conditions in residential colleges in a local Malaysian university. An audit approach as well as the use of questionnaire was adopted to collect primary data for the study. The audit results show that the overall fire safety condition was at 76 percent compliance level. The survey results showed that only predisposing factors such as knowledge, attitude and belief have a positive relationship with the fire safety behavior and lifestyle (p<0.5). The survey identified six important elements for fire safety and in ranking order they are: belief in the importance of fire safety, perception on the need for immediate response to fire incidence, knowledge in fire safety, attitude of occupants, social influence, and feedback on fire safety issues.

Investigating the influence of human resource practices on deviant behavior at work

The study seeks to investigate the influence of human resource (HR) practices on deviant workplace behavior. Toward this objective, a survey was carried out amongst 372 manufacturing employees in the northern region of Malaysia. Factor analysis revealed four distinct dimensions of HR practices i.e. job description, employment security, internal career opportunities, and result-oriented appraisal. Deviant workplace behavior resulted in one dimension only, i.e. interpersonal deviance. Multiple regression analysis shows that all dimensions of HR practices but result-oriented appraisal were found to influence negatively organizational deviance. The implications of the study are discussed.

Understanding the antecedents of emergency response: a proposed framework

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose a framework for understanding the antecedents of emergency response performance.Design/methodology/approach – Emergency response is vital in cases of emergencies, as prompt and speedy services determine the difference between life and death. Emergency responders normatively work in team and in concert to ensure that mitigation efforts can be accomplished to reduce loss of life and property. As such, it is imperative that emergency responders perform tasks at hand as efficiently as possible as a team.Findings – The paper discusses possible antecedents that determine an emergency response teams performance and offers a conceptual framework based on Robbins model of group behavior and the existing literature to explain emergency response team performance.Originality/value – The paper presents an overview on emergency management, antecedents of an emergency response teams performance, and proposes a framework to investigate the antecedents of an emergency r...

Total productive maintenance and manufacturing performance: Does technical complexity in the production process matter?

This paper intends to discuss some findings from a study of TPM practices in manufacturing organizations in Malaysia. Total productive maintenance (TPM), a resource-emphasized approach moves the paradigm of maintenance by putting emphasis on total employee involvement in the maintenance activities.We studied the relationship between TPM practices and manufacturing performance. We investigated the moderating effect of the level of technical complexity in the production process in the TPM practices and manufacturing performance relationships as well. Significant relationships were found between TPM practices and cost.We also found the moderating effect of technical complexity in the production process on the relationship between TPM practices and manufacturing performance.

Wrongful Behaviours Among Manufacturing Employees in Malaysia: An Exploratory Study

Wrongful behaviour is an important subject that needs to be seriously understood as it represents a reality of work life amongst employees in organizations. Furthermore, managers and practitioners should be concerned about this phenomenon since it may bring harmful effects to the organization in the long run if it is not effectively managed. To do so, managers need to understand the nature of it. This paper reports some findings of a survey conducted among 324 manufacturing employees in some parts of Malaysia. Three different forms of wrongful behaviour have been identified i.e. irresponsible behaviour, nonproductive behaviour and loitering behaviour. The survey generally found that manufacturing employees tend to engage in organizational deviance/wrongful behaviour. Discussion on the findings, their implications to practice and research, and limitations of the studies are also highlighted in this paper.

Safety management practices and safety compliance in small medium enterprises: Mediating role of safety participation

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of safety participation as a mediator in the relationship between the six facets of safety management practices (i.e. management commitment, safety training, worker’s involvement, safety communication and feedback, safety rules and procedures, and safety promotion policies) and safety compliance. Design/methodology/approach A survey of 74 employees of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the northern region of Peninsular Malaysia was carried out. Self-reported measures were used to obtain data on workplace safety dimensions and safety behavior. The partial least square structural model analysis was used to ascertain the proposed relationships. Findings The present study found that only three dimensions of safety management practices (management commitment, safety training, and safety rules and procedures) were significantly related to safety compliance. Of these, safety participation mediated the link between management commitment and safety training and safety compliance. Research limitations/implications The small sample size may limit the generalizability of the findings. Second, the correlational nature of the study did not permit causation to be implied. However, despite these limitations, while safety performance can be theorized to trigger the establishment of safety management practices, such theoretical perspective tends to connote reactivity rather than proactivity of the decision-making process. Practical implications The study highlights the role of the voluntary behavior of employees in promoting a safe work environment. Business owners are recommended to provide safety training in which the employees are stressed on their crucial role in safety and use this knowledge to educate and convince their co-workers to work safely. Originality/value Literature indicates the lack of studies on safety research in SMEs. Furthermore, such studies are justified because SMEs are likely to have more risks of occupational accidents and injuries. More importantly, this research highlights the importance of the voluntary behaviors of employees (i.e. safety participation) in promoting a safe work environment. As SMEs tend to have limited resources to implement a comprehensive OSH management system, using the employees as the safety agents at work can be an effective way toward accomplishing safety performance.

Shared Cultural Characteristics Similarities in Malaysia’s Multi-ethnic Society*

Abstract The dimension of cultural characteristics is essentially ignored by the growing literature on organizational diversity, focusing on demographic diversity and general perceived similarity instead. This study aims to identify the similarities in cultural characteristics among ethnic groups in Malaysia. Ergo, conducted within the context of interethnic relations in Malaysia based on a phenomenographic approach; thence, found four categories namely the community embeddedness, the survival culture, the conformity culture and the respect culture. These exemplify the interethnic relations based on cultural characteristics and norms similarities. The cultural characteristics similarities between major ethnics in Malaysia in this study are indications of dynamic and interactive exchange occurring between ethnics. The consequences of these findings are discussed and elaborated in this article.

The effect of management commitment to safety, and safety communication and feedback on safety behavior of nurses: the moderating role of consideration of future safety consequences

Abstract This paper proposes that the consideration of future safety consequences would moderate the relationship between management commitment to safety, and safety communication and feedback on nurses’ safety behavior. Survey data was obtained from 229 nurses in Abuja’s secondary healthcare facilities in Nigeria. Bootstrapping was conducted to investigate the standard error of the estimates and the t-values using SmartPLS 3.0. Results showed that management commitment to safety positively relates to safety compliance and safety participation, while safety communication and feedback positively relates to safety participation. Furthermore, the consideration of future safety consequences was found to moderate the relationships between safety communication and feedback, and safety participation. Nevertheless, in the context of management commitment to safety and safety participation, the direction of the moderation was not as hypothesized. The research provides empirical evidence in support of the consideration of future safety consequences as a moderator. This contributes to the utility of self-efficacy theory, field theory, and construal level theory. Furthermore, to achieve optimal safety in the hospital environment, hospital managements should give high priority to nurses’ safety, provide proper safety communication and feedback, and pay closer attention to the consideration of future safety consequences when making decisions on how to improve hospital safety.

The impact of preventive maintenance practices on manufacturing performance: A proposed model for SMEs in Malaysia

Preventive maintenance (PM) plays important role to avoid or mitigate potential stoppages and disruptions of equipment or machinery from occurring in daily operations. PM emphasized total employee involvement and it is important for companies as well as Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs). SME sectors contribution to the Malaysian economy makes up 95% of the total manufacturers, however PM remain relatively lacking. The ability, reliability and effective maintenance management is highly important in order to achieve desired manufacturing performance. Therefore, organizational capability in planning, controlling, implementing and monitoring PM activities is important. Furthermore, empirical evidence on the potential impact of PM practices towards manufacturing performance with organizational capability as a moderating effect is still limited and indecisive. Henceforth, this paper aims to explore and investigate potential relationships between PM practices and manufacturing performance moderated by or...