Assessment of workplace safety climate among power sector employees: A comparative study of cross-culture employer in Pakistan

Abstract

Pakistan’s power sector has undergone extensive reforms to improve its technical and monetary performance over the last two decades. However, despite its fast-growing and hazardous nature, safety research remains limited in this context. This study aims to address this gap by assessing the level of safety climate in the power sector and comparing the safety climate in plants operated by multinational companies (MNCs) and local companies (LCs).To this end, five power plants operating in the southern part of the Punjab region (in Pakistan) were included in this study. The Nordic Occupational Safety Climate Questionnaire (NOSACQ-50), an analytical tool comprising of 50 items across seven dimensions, was used to determine the level of safety climate. An independent T-Test was then applied to compare the means in two different setups to draw a conclusion about overall safety climate differences. In MNCs, overall management/leadership perception improved; however, workers in both setups responded similarly in many cases. The lowest observed score in both setups was related to worker’s prioritization of safety and risk non-acceptance. The study highlights the importance of a company’s policies, procedures, and leadership commitments in creating a stronger safety climate by instilling trust in workers. The study further demonstrates that cross-cultural and strong policies devised by multinational companies help to improve the overall safety climate andconcludes that promoting an efficient and positive safety climate in the power sector is a long journey and that can only be achieved if all workers and leaders take on an active role.

Organizational Factors and Safety Performance Levels among Local and Multinational Oil and Gas Companies in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria

“…The finding from this study supports the research hypothesis, that cultural diversities tend to affect organizational factors in oil and gas companies. Arooj et al [16] also observed that the management of multinational power companies in Pakistan had a higher level of management commitment to safety than the local companies. A high level of management commitment to safety has been shown to foster more willingness by the employee to report safety issues, better team collaboration, and more efficient supervision from the safety supervisors and line manager [17].…”

“…The result gives an indication that workers in multinational companies are given more decision latitude when carrying out their task. Arooj et al [16] reported that multinational companies provided more management safety empowerment to their workers than local companies. Several studies have shown that higher decision latitude increases job satisfaction, improves performance, and enhances creativity.…”

“…From the study, out of the 10 organizational factors measured, the multinational companies had higher levels of performance than the local companies. Arooj et al [16] reported that multinational companies also had better safety culture than the local power companies in Pakistan. Out of the 10 measured organizational factors, the mean difference of seven of the organizational factors was significantly different from zero.…”