A Case Study of Policy and Practice in Occupational Health and Safety in South Australia

Abstract

Work-place focused responsibility for both Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) management and the development of employee skills arising from new legislative and regulatory frameworks have imposed new responsibilities on managers and OHS practitioners in the work-place. The purpose of this research study was to identify and describe designated OHS practitioners' and work-place managers' perceptions of the implementation of OHS policy in the work-place within agencies of the public sector of South Australia and whether these perceptions are congruent with policy and workplace practice. A case study method was selected as the research design and the data gathering instruments were a questionnaire of OHS practitioners, semi-structured interviews of work-place managers and a document analysis. This study revealed that respondent OHS practitioners perceived that they received support from Chief Executives and management for the implementation of OHS. Results also indicated that work-place managers and OHS practitioners held differing perceptions of their respective roles in the area of OHS policy implementation. Policy documentation, intended to support work-place managers, was found to be comprehensive but was perceived by managers as overwhelming and may need to be designed to meet their needs. OHS practitioners' perception of organisational achievement of best-practice in OHS appeared to be linked to policy development and audit activity.