DOS AND DONTS FOR A SAFER WORKPLACE: A STUDY OF PAKISTANI PHARMACEUTICALS

• Main Author: KARIM SEHRISH
• Format: Article
• Language: deu
• Published: University of Oradea 2016-07-01
• Series: Annals of the University of Oradea: Economic Science
• Subjects: Transformational leadership, Safety knowledge,Safety climate, Safety attitude, Social exchange, Social Cognitive theory
• Online Access: http://anale.steconomiceuoradea.ro/volume/2016/n1/47.pdf

Purpose of present study was to examine the impact of transformational leadership and safety knowledge on safety climate in pharmaceutical industry of Pakistan. The study also explored the mediating role of safety attitude on these particular relationships. The survey was conducted on employees working in different pharmaceuticals in Rawalpindi. Data was collected from 105 employees using adopted questionnaires consisting of measuring each variable on five point Likert scale. For data analysis statistical tools such as correlation and Regression were tested using SPSS 21.0. Results indicate that transformational leadership is significantly associated with safety climate while employee safety knowledge has no significant impact on safety climate, as safety climate is employees’ perception about safety within their organizations so leaders have a major role in making employees’ perception regarding safety and social exchange theory supported the whole phenomenon. There is relatively a low understanding of safety knowledge concept in Pakistani organizations and even if this concept is developed in the organizations and is well understood and practiced, the lack of required cultural transformation and support will be a major obstacle to its success in these organizations for years to come. This empirical study identified different factors which directly affect safety climate and proposed a mechanism which will further help different organizations, which are working with more labor, to reduce injury rate and to minimize their expenses caused by workplace accidents as unsafe attitudes along with less safety knowledge lead towards injuries and eventually high organizational costs. It will also help to understand the importance of leadership style in designing employee attitudes and perceptions about the organizations. Results further showed that safety attitude partially mediates the relationship between transformational leadership and safety climate. Results were supported with different reasons and future implications and limitations are also discussed.