Assessment of adherence to and compliance with occupational health and safety standards in public organizations in Tanzania: A case of regional administration and local government

Abstract

This study explored adherence to and compliance with occupational health and safety standards in public organizations in Tanzania with reference to regional administration and local government. The social cognitive theory was used as the theoretical framework. The study adopted a descriptive research design. The target population was 500 people. A sample of 120 respondents drawn from the regional administration and local government, Tanzania was used., Simple random sampling, and purposive sampling were used to obtain different categories of respondents. The data collection methods were questionnaires and interviews. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) program was used to code and process the data that was gathered through the questionnaire and used to analyze quantitative data. Qualitative data was analyzed using thematic and content analysis. It was revealed that the factors affecting the adherence and compliance of OHS standards such as individual factor, institutional factor, economical factor and leadership in power are thought to have an impact on employees' decisions to adhere and comply with occupational safety and health rules. The findings show that “experience” makes employees learn more about OSH and the risks associated with enforcing it. Moreover, research findings indicate that employees who have more years of experience at work tend to neglect OSH practices. In addition to that data findings imply that staff training in the workplace reduces accidents and injuries making employees more cautious when performing their duties. It was concluded that OSH practices are not only significant to stakeholders in the organization but also third parties, thus why the law requires every organization to set guidelines rules and effective occupational health and safety practices in their work place. Furthermore, the OHS committee lacked full support to execute their duties concerning employee’s wellbeing as they had limited resources to conduct trainings to employees as well as presence of few OSH equipment in the organization. Lastly, Training and education concerning occupational, health and safety regulations are not provided effectively to employees. Respondents revealed that people who get training concerning OSH practices are head of departments who in contrary do not share the details to the targeted audience who are directly working in the field.