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CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background Of Study
Workplace safety refers to a company’s working environment and includes all variables that affect employee safety and health. Environmental dangers, unsafe working conditions or processes, drug and alcohol addiction, and workplace violence are all examples of this. D. Peterson (1998) In the early 1900s, a dramatic increase in accident expenses in the United States of America as a result of compensation laws and tighter employer responsibility sparked modern concern about workplace safety and a long-term drop in workplace accidents and injuries. Railroads, mining, manufacturing, and other large companies in the United States suddenly grew concerned about safety. Companies began to protect machines and power sources, and machinery manufacturers began to build safer designs. Managers began looking for hidden hazards at work and requiring employees to wear hard hats and safety eyewear. They also established engineering-led safety divisions and safety committees that included both employees and management. The National Safety Council was created in 1913 by firms in the United States to aggregate information. Government authorities such as the Bureau of Mines and the National Bureau of Standards provided scientific support, and one university investigated company and industry safety issues. M.D. Cooper (2000)
In many organizations, poor performance and low productivity can be attributed in part to a lack of attention provided to employee safety concerns. When employees’ basic requirements and the different amenities that they may require to urge them to work hard are not satisfied, they may be hesitant to work hard. Because of bad working conditions, many employees in a variety of organizations have either boycotted work or gone on strike a number of times. This has cost management a significant amount of money because they would have to halt operations and travel to a court of law for hearings on problems including employee safety, health, and welfare. Because of the pain and suffering caused to individuals and their families, reducing workplace accidents and ill health is an essential societal goal. There is also a significant economic aspect. The number of people wounded at work resulted in a variety of expenses for the economy. There are direct expenses for the state’s health care and social security programs. Insurance fees, wasted time, lost output, and lost orders are all costs that employers must bear. Workplace injuries and illnesses are anticipated to cost the economy a significant amount of money. The loss of a key employee from a small or medium-sized business due to injury could have severe consequences for the company and its other employees. Taking additional steps to reduce workplace accidents and illnesses makes good financial and business sense. According to companies, the percentage increases asked by workers have frequently been so large that failure to achieve settlements has resulted in industrial action.
As a result, it is clear that most of the discussion regarding working conditions has centered on income and wage increases. However, when correctly created and implemented, safety measures can help to bring about harmony in the employer-employee relationship, resulting in increased job satisfaction and performance. Employees can be motivated by the organization’s excellent utilization of health, safety, and welfare facilities. However, in this study, safety measures are being utilized to see if they can improve employee performance at Adwumapa Buyers Limited. Article 15 of the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights, which deals with Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, provides that everyone has the right to work in conditions that are acceptable to them. As a result, companies must provide healthy and safe working conditions. Employers would be required to provide and maintain a safe and risk-free workplace and system of work. T. Lee (1998). As a result, employers have a responsibility to:
1. Assist in the provision and maintenance of a safe and healthy workplace and work system.
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2. Ensure the safety of items and substances in use, handling, storage, and transportation, as well as the absence of health concerns.
3. Provide the appropriate information, instructions, training, and supervision to guarantee, as far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety of those other workers engaged in the particular work, taking into account the worker’s age, literacy level, and other conditions.
4. Prevent workplace pollution and safeguard workers from hazardous gases, noxious compounds, vapours, dust, fume mists, and other substances or materials that could endanger their health.
5. Provide and maintain enough safety appliances, suitable fire-fighting equipment, and personal protective equipment at no cost to the worker, and train the worker on how to utilize the appliances or equipment.
6. Provide separate, sufficient, and suitable toilet and washing facilities for male and female personnel, as well as necessary facilities for garment storage, changing, drying, and contamination cleaning.
7. Make sure there is enough clean drinking water at work.
Adwumapa Enterprise Limited is a Ghanaian private company. Cocoa and Shea butter are exported to the United States and Europe. It was founded in 1996, and the Ghana Cocoa Board certified it. It employs seven hundred and sixty-two people. In the Aowin-Suaman political district, Adwumapa Buyers Company has six districts. It should be emphasized, however, that Adwumapa Buyers Limited’s districts are not political districts, but rather how the company, Adwumapa, prefers to refer to its individual work sites. 4 The Aowin-Suaman electoral district consists of two districts: the Aowin and Suaman constituencies. The Adwumapa Buyers Limited has three districts or areas of work within each constituency. The Adwumapa Buyers have three (3) districts in the Aowin constituency alone: districts A, C, and D. Districts A, B, and C make up the Suaman constituency. It should be noted that the Aowin political constituency’s Adwumapa district, letter B, has been closed down. Adwumapa Buyers Limited has six (6) district managers, eighty-eight (88) purchasing clerks (PCs), fifteen (15) depot keepers or supervisors, seventy-nine (79) depot boys, and twelve (12) security personnel in the Awoin-Suaman political district. In the Aowin-Suaman political districts, the total number of workers in the Adwumapa buyers’ limited is 200. The district manager oversees the actions of the other staff, including purchasing clerks, depot keepers, depot boys, and security personnel, in each of the Adwumapa buyer’s districts. The purchasing clerks travel to the villages to acquire cocoa beans from the farmers, while the depot keepers or supervisors supervise the work of the depot boys. The cocoa beans at their respective depots are guarded by security personnel.
Statement Of Problem
The rise in industrial unrest, which has resulted in strikes and employee boycotts, has prompted a thorough examination of workplace safety measures. Employee motivation by employers is well known for increasing productivity and improving the employer-worker relationship. Employers have a general duty under section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 to safeguard the safety of their workers at work to the extent that it is reasonably practicable. Motivation may be a necessary aspect for Adwumapa Buyer Company Limited’s personnel to improve their performance. However, initiatives in the area of safety must be implemented in order to improve the performance of various levels of individuals at work inside the organization. Because there are senior and junior workers, strategies may differ for each group. Such tactics, on the other hand, may only be successful if they are founded on research with personnel from the various categories mentioned. The research will look into the use of safety measures as a way to improve employee job performance.
Objective Of Study
The following are primary objective of the study:
1. To identify the most important facilities contributing to the enhancement of employees’ job performance.
2. To assess if safety has any effect on the employees of Adwumapa Buyers Company Limited.
3. Examine if the allocation of resources to safety measures affects the performance level of employees.
Research question
The following research question guides this study:
1. What are the most important facilities that contribute to the enhancement of employees’ performance?
2. Does safety have any effect on the employees of Adwumapa Buyers Company Limited?
3. Does the allocation of resources to safety measures affects the performance level of employees?
Significance of study
The necessity to handle numerous industrial conflicts between employees and employers in order to ensure activity coordination and boost production prompted the researchers to conduct a thorough investigation and develop solutions to address such issues. As a result of poor employer-employee relations, productivity can suffer. For example, it is well known that in the past, worker strikes resulted in factory closures, resulting in significant company losses. The study will seek to shed more light on the numerous reasons that contribute to poor employee performance, which can have an impact on productivity. The study will also show how to put in place safety and performance measures to improve staff performance.
Scope of study
This study focuses on identifying the most important facilities contributing to the enhancement of employees’ job performance. It also assesses the allocation of resources to safety measures and the performance level of the employees. And to assess the effects of safety on the employees. Lastly, to determine how improvement in safety measures leads to a corresponding increase in job performance. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of safety measures on the job performance of workers. This study is delimited to Adwumapa Buyers Company Limited, Ghana.
Limitation of study
Finance, inadequate materials and time constraint were the challenges the researchers encountered during the course of the study.
Definition of terms
Job Performance: Job performance assesses whether a person performs a job well. Job performance, studied academically as part of industrial and organizational psychology, also forms a part of human resources management.
Safety Measure: Safety measures means a set of actions either reducing the frequency of occurrence of a hazard or mitigating its consequences in order to achieve and/or maintain an acceptable level of risk.
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