Open AccessEnhancing Workplace Safety Culture in the Mining Industry in Ghana
Author(s) -
Felix Kwame Opoku,
Isaac Kosi,
Dominic Degraft-Arthur
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
ghana journal of development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 0855-6768
DOI - 10.4314/gjds.v17i2.2
Subject(s) - safety culture , occupational safety and health , supervisor , effective safety training , work (physics) , business , work safety , operations management , marketing , engineering , management , risk analysis (engineering) , medicine , public health , mechanical engineering , health education , nursing , pathology , occupational health nursing , economics
The paper concerns organisational safety culture and how it may be applied to reduce employee accidents in the mining industry in Ghana. A sample of 340 managerial workers of three mining companies in the Tarkwa Nsuaem Municipality was selected using the simple random sampling technique. Data for the study was gathered using a survey questionnaire. The Structural Equation Modelling analysis technique was performed to establish the relationship between safety culture and each of the five dimensions of workplace safety (work safety, management safety practices, safety programmes, supervisor safety and co-worker safety). It was found that safety culture is a significant positive predictor of work safety (R2 = 0.039), management safety practices (R2 = 0.272), safety programmes (R2 = 0.159), co-worker safety (R2 = 0.225) and supervisor safety (R2 = 0.199). The study concluded that workplace safety can be improved by enhancing the safety culture in the mining industry in Ghana. The study recommends that in order to curb the incidence and occurrence of accidents and injuries in the mining industry in Ghana, Human Resource (HR) managers should lay more emphasis on ways that would enhance the safety culture of all employees in the industry.
Keywords: Safety Culture, Mining Industry, Workplace Safety, Industrial Accidents, Ghana