Table 1 demonstrates the classification of emerging codes, categories and themes from the semi-structured interviews during the content analysis. Results are presented in detail within this framework below.
Table 1 Classification of themes, categories and codes according to the content analysis
Theme
|
Category
|
Code
|
Poor direct safety management and supervision
|
Ineffective safety system
|
- Inadequate safety training for workers and safety staff
- Inappropriate quality and design of personal protective equipment
- Managers not carrying their safety management role effectively
- Sub-standard or inappropriate safety equipment promotes accidents
- Supervisors not emphasizing and prioritizing safety
- No separate allocation of funds to improve safety
|
|
Poor safety monitoring
|
- Managers' lack confidence to deal with safety hazards or issues
- Safety officers not enforcing safety practices and lacking experience and authority
- Inadequate number of safety officers on site
- Irregular safety inspections
- Contractors not prioritizing safety equipment and training
|
Unsafe workplace conditions
|
Unsafe physical environment
|
- Excessive noise impairing concentration
- Use of worn-out and defective equipment
- Working in high-temperatures
|
|
Unsafe psychological environment
|
- Work-related fatigue
- Excessive workloads
- Delayed salary and wage payments reducing safety incentives
- Poor social working environment
- Inadequate pay and financial detract from focus on safe behaviour
- Low safety motivation
- Little encouragement for workers to contribute to safety
- Work-related stress
- Separation from family
- Low level of organizational commitment
|
Workers' perceptions, skills and training
|
Workers not skilled enough to deal with safety issues
|
- Lack of experience and skills in dealing with hazards.
- Taking greater risks when doing common tasks
- Need for more sharing of previous experiences with hazards
- Hazards becoming ‘normalized’ over time
- Inadequate safety orientation for new workers
- Use of untested work practices
|
|
Active errors
|
- Workers distracted by making errors
- Not seeking help when minor incidents occur
- Workers ignoring safety instructions for machinery
- Low level of safety efficacy
- Unrecognised health conditions contributing to errors
|
Broader organisational factors
|
Unsafe management culture
|
- Prioritizing work outcomes over safety
- Management purchases low-quality safety products and equipment
- Condescending safety supervision and bullying
|
|
Organisational impact on workers' safety
|
- Lack of attention to workers' emotional and mental needs
- Lack of organizational safety training at appropriate levels
- Workers underestimating routine hazards
- Poor organisational safety culture influencing workers’ behaviour
- Inadequate staffing
- Incidents may occur even when workers behave safely
|
NOTE. This table gives an overview of the themes and categories identified in the interview data. Every category is described with extracted codes from the interviews.
MaxQDA provides tools for analysing and synthesising qualitative data. Table 2 describes the codes included in the “Ineffective safety system” category of the “Poor direct safety management and supervision” theme (theme 1).
Table 2 Frequencies of the codes of “Ineffective safety system” category of the “Poor direct safety management and supervision” theme (theme 1)
Codes of the “Ineffective safety system” category
|
Frequency
|
Percentage
|
Percentage (valid)
|
Inadequate safety training for workers and safety staff
|
10
|
52.63
|
55.55
|
Inappropriate quality and design of personal protective equipment
|
7
|
36.84
|
38.88
|
Managers not carrying their safety management role effectively
|
5
|
26.31
|
27.77
|
Sub-standard or inappropriate safety equipment promotes accidents
|
5
|
26.31
|
27.77
|
Supervisors not emphasizing and prioritizing safety
|
4
|
21.05
|
22.22
|
No separate allocation of funds to improve safety
|
4
|
21.05
|
22.22
|
Interviews with code(s)
|
19
|
94.12
|
100.00
|
Interviews without code(s)
|
1
|
5.88
|
-
|
Analysed Interviews
|
20
|
100.00
|
-
|
Theme one: Poor direct safety management and supervision
Poor direct safety management and supervision was mentioned as a factor influencing unsafe behaviours. It comprised two categories: ineffective safety system, and poor safety monitoring.
Ineffective safety system
Ineffective safety system was cited as the extent to which supervisors and managers put safety as main priority regardless of administrative pressure (e.g., supervisors not emphasizing and prioritizing safety)” (P11 refers to participant 11):
P11: “I think that supervisor’s positive attitude toward the safety leads to a better safety compliance on site. When I as a supervisor ignore safety regulations or disregard reporting the hazards, in essence, safe work practices have been given lesser priority in our workplace.”
Participants mentioned that employers must provide adequate and appropriate protective personal equipment to workers exposed to risks. Management often overlooks personal protective equipment (PPE) as a key to worker safety, for example:
P3: “Our duties are such that we need to be very careful, when we use personal protective equipment. We are very cramped for space and the precision is reduced and the incidence of accidents may even increase. I do not wear my safety helmet at all times because due to the poor design of helmets, it reduces visibility and precision while working, especially when it comes to the hazards that may arise from the items above head height.”
Inadequate safety training for workers was the most frequently reported cause of work-related accidents. Workers reported they did not have the knowledge, confidence or skills to recognize potential hazards:
P14: “… [lack] the specific skills and knowledge required for workers to perform their specific tasks correctly. Workers here just attend general safety courses at the beginning of their employment and there are no specialized training safety courses according to our job health and safety requirements. We cannot keep displaying our confidence in dealing with health and safety issues and addressing these challenges. You know what I’m saying? Well-trained workers have the capacity to predict potential hazards, work safely and even teach the newer workers.”
P6: “I mean untrained and inexperienced workers are not able to meet their job performance standards, they are more likely to experience work-related stress and are susceptible to workplace accidents. Managers and supervisors who ignore their responsibilities to provide adequate and appropriate job-related health and safety training for workers could face an increase workplace accidents and injuries.”
Poor safety monitoring
Poor safety monitoring was identified as contributor to inhibiting safe behaviours. Some participants referenced a lack of the authority and experience of the safety unit safety (e.g., Safety officers not enforcing safety practices and lacking experience and authority), for example:
P1: If we do not use personal protective equipment or overlook requirements for safety, safety officers will not blame us because our work experience is more than them.
Many participants expressed that periodic inspections were not carried out to identify hazards that may cause safety issues at work (Irregular safety inspections):
P18: Specialists do not audit our workplace regularly to identify potential hazards and assess the risks. If inspectors attended the site periodically (at least once every three months), they could assess potential risks that may result in workplace accidents.
Theme two: Unsafe workplace conditions
Two categories of unsafe workplace conditions that were mentioned as significant determining factors in creating risks for workers were unsafe physical environment and unsafe psychological environment.
Unsafe physical environment
Unsafe physical environment mainly referred to ventilation, temperature, noise, heat, humidity and other changeable environmental factors affect industry safety (e.g., working in high temperatures), for example:
P16: I give all protective clothing and equipment such as safety shoes, face shields, gloves and so on to my workers and I want them to use this equipment, but in a high temperature and pressure area they cannot work with safety equipment for more than five minutes (Now that I'm talking to you, the temperature of the site is 40 ° C). This is what I’ve experienced so far, and I cannot force them more than that.
According to participants, if a tool or equipment was defective it would not be taken out of service for repair (use of worn-out and defective equipment):
P10: A barrier to safe behaviours would be that equipment and tools are very worn-out and defective. Due to the defective and old machinery and equipment on the site, we cannot practically carry out many of our duties in compliance with the safety principles.
Unsafe psychological environment
Beyond unsafe physical environment, unsafe psychological environment was also referred to as a hidden danger that petrochemical industries are facing. Lack of motivation, work-related fatigue, low appreciation or gratitude towards co-workers, work-related stress due to heavy workload, no sense of belonging to the organisation and preoccupation with inadequate pay (inadequate pay and financial detract from focus on safe behaviour) are perceived to detrimentally affect workers’ safe behaviours at work:
P12: I think it would be important for all workers to be focused on their duties while at work and have no financial concerns…unfortunately, when I'm working, my thoughts are involved in spending on living costs and I cannot focus on my work.
In addition, participants mentioned appropriate treatment by the organisation such as involving workers in decision making, talk on safety visions is related to promote safety motivation and will encourage workers' safe behaviours. As alluded to above, little encouragement for workers to contribute to safety may also contribute to unsafe behavioural patterns:
P14: Our managers do not pay much attention to the workers’ viewpoints which undermine the workers’ self-confidence. When we propose our perspectives on safety decisions, management does not accept our suggestions.
Theme three: Workers' perceptions, skills and training
Workers' perceptions, skills and training were mentioned also may be a contingency factor affecting workers' safe behaviours mainly include two categories: workers not skilled enough to deal with safety issues and active errors.
Workers not skilled enough to deal with safety issues
According to participants’ views, in order to improve safe behaviours, workers need to display their readiness and confidence when dealing with safety challenges, and share their experiences to prevent similar future events, focusing on their adaptation to change their behaviours in accordance with environment requirements (inadequate safety orientation for new workers):
P14: It seems that due to different working and environment conditions in southern Iran's petrochemical industries, new workers' adaptation to the work environment is a time-consuming process. These workers are more likely to be injured than experienced workers and need proper orientation to be safe in the workplace.
As a result, taking greater risks when doing common tasks and risk behaviour based on experience represents a major barrier to effective safe behaviour at work. for example:
P10: It’s actually a general problem that when I have worked at height, my confidence to not wear a safety belt is often problematic, because it’s my daily task. And that happens quite often. Then I just don’t think need to wear it.
P17: “A lot of times in our work units… doing routine job tasks quickly while talking to colleagues or thinking about the problems in life without considering safety regulations and procedure can lead to a mistake, quite often slow down the response to preventing incidents … because we assume that we are quite expert in our daily tasks.”
Active errors
According to interviews conducted with supervisors, those human errors that had immediate consequences were usually caused by operational personnel such as the workers of the operations and repair department. These errors were the direct cause of the incident in the events leading to the accident. Some workers expressed that they were distracted by making errors at work due a variety of concerns such as financial problems, work-family issues and so on which can be a major cause of occupational injuries:
P3: My worries about something made me forget to close the passage that day… I lost my concentration and made mistakes because I thought about that all that day.
Many participants agreed that minor incidents helped to deal with serious incidents. Additional problematic situation was the low level of safety efficacy. Workers felt that when they met safety challenges, their ability to engage in safe behaviours at work is limited:
P17: I think that many of the company's workers wouldn’t be able to keep their confidence and belief to face unpredictable challenges and situations. Therefore, they cannot enact safe behaviours in the face of hazards.
A number of participants reported that unrecognized health conditions contributed to errors and hazards. Chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, heart disease and osteoporosis were the leading cause of occupational accidents, for example:
P12: … as you probably know, workers who are working in the company have been suffering from osteoporosis and their bones have been weakened by osteoporosis... But caring for their health is not one of company's safety policies, which increases workers' exposure to workplace accidents.
Theme four: Broader organizational factors
In regard to situational factors, the majority of the participants mentioned that broader organisational factors could lead to the occurrence of unsafe behaviours. In addition, unsafe management culture, and organisational impact on workers' safety were identified as main categories of broader organisational factors.
Unsafe management culture
In relation to the unsafe management culture, the most commonly cited problems related to negative management approach to provide high quality product for workers, and the low priority that management puts on safety, especially when safety goals conflicts with the production (prioritizing work outcomes over safety):
P5: Well If the condition presents a risk of danger and serious injury or a device stopped working properly, our employer has asked us to work without he eliminates the hazards. And in this moment, there is no right for us to refuse to work in these unsafe situations.
Participants also reported management attitude towards pinning blame on certain individuals rather than solving safety problems when a safety incident occurs (condescending safety supervision and bullying):
P4: If we make mistakes, our supervisor blames us in public. When a safety problem occurred, our supervisor made threats to workers and workers cannot criticize him for his behavior.
Organisational impact on workers' safety
Organisational impact on workers' safety was achieved through influencing workers’ behaviour by organisational safety culture. participants noted that workers infrequently underestimate the risk of duties that they perform regularly that then could lead to workplace accidents and injuries. (workers underestimating routine hazards):
P18: When workers are exposed to relatively constant and well-known risks in their work activities for a long time, they will underestimate the risk of occupational hazards and this will provide the basis for the incident.
Many interviewees expressed that if a supervisor considers workers' needs and empathizes with their problems, pays attention to their welfare, provides appropriate training safety training for workers; and then it is likely that workers will be encouraged to work safely (e.g., lack of attention to workers' emotional and mental needs), for example:
P11: Well, basically our supervisors in this organisation, not as a mentor, but as a head and superiors, deal with workers and do not care about our psychological needs and desires. If they pay attention to our problems and we earn respect from the organization, we will also be mutually committed to organisation's safety.
With regard to aspects related to inadequate staffing, safety professionals emphasized that in petrochemical industries workers' awareness and ability to recognize potential safety hazards is required and safety should be strictly monitored and managed at all levels to minimize and eliminate risks:
P13: There are not enough young workers in the organisation. So, we do not have enough people to cover response to emergencies in the rotating shifts. Particularly when a colleague is absent and others are not trained in the skills demanded of emergency response plans.