This studied the impact of OHSAS 18001 certification (18001) on safety performance across 5,147 Spanish firms.
First, they covered existing research – finding limited work. Findings across studies were inconsistent, with some finding improvements in safety performance and in others no improvement.
Some existing work suggests that safety management system (SMS) & certified system adoption is more common in sectors with more accidents, and where the adoption of certified systems was heavily based on corporate image and stakeholder perception.
Results:
18001 certifications was only loosely and inconsistently linked to improved safety performance – and depended on industry sector.
For minor and serious accidents – certified firms tended to have better performance. However, this was also correlated to firm size, where larger firms were more likely to be certified and have a lower rate of accidents.
For fatal accidents, a positive correlation was found between certified firms and higher fatality rates, compared to non-certified. Findings support previous work where sectors with more accidents had a greater tendency towards certification; however this wasn’t statistically significant for fatal accidents.
Regarding firm size and the generally lower rate of accidents, there was some exceptions, e.g. ‘Extractive industries’ having more fatal accidents.
The authors note that the lack of strong connections between certification and accident reductions supports their assertion (& previous research) that firms with worse performance seek certification, in part, for “social legitimacy”, i.e. to be seen as making positive steps to addressing risks which may impact their image or financial performance.
Further, the lack of strong connection may suggest a “lack of internalization of OHSAS 18001”, whereby adoption of the standard “could be mostly symbolic rather than substantial … used as a legitimation tool intended to improve the corporate image rather than as an effective tool” (p38, emphasis added).
Adoption of certification may also reflect a tendency to “bureaucratize OH&S (Dekker, 2014) and focus on procedures rather than actual improvement of practices” (p38).
Given the selection effect of sectors with more accidents adopting the standard, the authors note their findings suggest that previous research which didn’t control for this factor should be viewed more cautiously.
They argue that the assumption that OHSAS certification is associated with better health and safety performance “is not completely confirmed” (p38), although certified companies did tend to have better performance in minor and serious work accidents in some sectors.
Authors: Heras-Saizarbitoria, I., Boiral, O., Arana, G., & Allur, E. (2019). Journal of safety research, 68, 33-40.
Study link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsr.2018.11.003
Link to the LinkedIn article: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:ugcPost:6969762252568633344?updateEntityUrn=urn%3Ali%3Afs_updateV2%3A%28urn%3Ali%3AugcPost%3A6969762252568633344%2CFEED_DETAIL%2CEMPTY%2CDEFAULT%2Cfalse%29
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