Module 14 Instrumentation
For this study, the
researcher will formulate a research instrument which the respondents will
answer. The research instrument will be
composed of three sections. The first
section will contain the demographic data of the respondent – gender, age, number
of years employed in the organization, job title, department, and the number of
times attended the annual safety training and education program. This information will be useful in describing
the respondents of this study. The
second section will ask the respondents on what they think are the lagging
indicators that is affecting the productivity of their company. They will be asked to write at least 3 or a
maximum of 5. Most likely the identification
of these lagging indicators will be based on their personal experiences in the
organization.
Part 3 of the research
instrument will be twenty-five statements which will measure the impact of the
safety education and training program on the identified lagging indicators of
the respondents. The research instrument
will use a 7-point Likert scale with this label –
1 – Highly Agree
2 – Moderately Agree
3 – Agree
4 – Cannot Decide
5 – Disagree
6 – Moderately Disagree
7 – Highly Disagree
So for each statement, the respondent will encircle one response, as
indicated above. This will show their
degree of agreement or disagreement with the statement. The tone of each statement will be based on
the conceptual framework and theoretical framework of this study.
Module
15 Data Collection Procedures
For this study, the data collection
will be through a survey questionnaire that the researcher will formulate. The
respondents of this study will be chosen randomly, as discussed in an earlier
module. The respondents will be chosen from all departments and from all the hierarchical
layers – from the frontliners to the top management. All these randomly chosen respondents will
give their informed
consent, which is usually in the form of a document which they will sign. The informed consent will also have to give all
the pertinent and relevant research information, such as risks and
benefits, to the potential subject, allowing him or her to make
an informed decision regarding participation.
The survey questionnaire (as
described in Module 14) will contain all the data needed for this particular
study. As mentioned in Module 14, each
segment of the formulated survey questionnaire will contain pertinent data
which will answer the research questions that were raised by this study. The respondents will be chosen randomly, and
they will be assigned into two groups – one is the control group, and the other
one is the experimental group. After
undergoing or not undergoing the safety education and training program, the
respondent will then answer the survey questionnaire. To minimize non-responses, the research will
check each submitted survey questionnaire and ensure that all the items are
answered. This can be handled easier if
the survey questionnaire is online or done in the computer since the respondent
cannot proceed to the next number without leaving a blank.
In terms of data analysis, since the
methodology is quantitative, the researcher will use the weighted mean for each
item in the survey questionnaire. The
interpretation of the numerical weighted mean will be based on this –
1 – 1.49 - Highly Agree
1.50 – 2.49 – Moderately
Agree
2.50 – 3.49 – Agree
3.50- 4.49 – Cannot
Decide
4.50 – 5.49 – Disagree
5.50 – 6.49 – Moderately
Disagree
6.50 – 7.50 – Highly
Disagree
To find out if there are relationships
between certain variables in the study, the researcher may use a paired sample
t-test or ANOVA. In this study, there
will be a certain time lag between the time the respondents have to attend the
safety education and training program and the time they will fill up the survey
questionnaire. Moreover, there will also
be a control group and the test group as one of them will not be allowed to
attend the safety education and training program. This is where the paired sample-t-test will
be most useful. Another option is to use
the ANOVA if the researcher finds out that the means between the two groups is
considerable.
Module
16 Limitations/ Delimitations
This
study is limited only to the identification of the lagging indicators and how
the safety education and training program impacts on it. The leading indicators will not be included
in the study so the researcher must be well-versed in identifying which is
which. The anticipated weakness may be
that the researcher will misidentify a leading indicator as a lagging indicator
which may affect the outcome of the study.
Module
17 Ethical Issues
Since
the study will be done in the corporate setting where there is a possibility
that respondents may be able to say things which will show the negative side of
running things in the company. These comments may be misconstrued by the
management and there might be repercussions on the poor employee. With this scenario, it is then important to
discuss the ethics of research especially when this situation arises.
The
above scenario falls under one of the more important areas in ethical issues in
research – study design and ethics approval.
As described earlier, since the respondents are employees of a big
business organization, they can be classified as vulnerable subjects since anything they
say may be used against their employment in the company. In a way, they are economically
disadvantaged. Consequently, it is very important that the researcher is
careful with the respondent information and not allow any sensitive data be
directly attributed to a specific employee, especially if such data may present
the organization in a negative light.
Furthermore, the
respondents’ personal should never be printed or shown to the company,
especially their names. In this study,
the researcher will not ask for the names of the respondents in the survey
questionnaire. This will ensure that the
respondents will answer the survey questionnaire with more confidence and
accuracy, since they know that there will be no way that the information they
give in the survey questionnaire will haunt their present employment. It is
also the duty of the researcher to ask for the respondents’ consent and that
their act of sharing information should be explained and obtained to the owners
or the top management to ensure confidence and accuracy in the data to be
gathered. Confidentiality, anonymity, and
the respondents’ informed consent are the more important considerations when it
comes to ethics in research.
Module
18 Definition of Terms
For purposes of this
study, the following terms are being defined as they are used in the context of
this study –
Lagging Indicators - They measure an organization's historical safety
performance and are traditionally used to identify variance from established
safety goals. (www.grainger.com)
Leading Indicators – They
are proactive, preventative and
predictive measures that monitor and provide current information about the
effective performance, activities and processes of an environmental, health,
and safety (EHS) management system that drive the identification and
elimination or control of risks in the workplace that can lead to incidents and
injuries (www.grainger.com)
Occupational Safety and Health – is concerned with
protecting the safety, health and welfare of people engaged in work or
employment. (www.actu.org.au)
Safety Culture - this is about
people and how they work together. It refers to the core values, beliefs, and
behaviours resulting from a collective commitment by leaders and individuals
throughout the organization that appropriately prioritizes safety against other
organizational goals to allow business objectives to be undertaken without
undue risk (www.arpansa.gov.au)
Safety Education and Training Program - a process that aims to provide your workforce with knowledge and
skills to perform their work in a way that is safe for them and their
co-workers. Furthermore, an effective workplace safety plan includes
instructions and guidelines to identify hazards, report them, and deal with
incidents. (www.connecteam.com)
Module
19 Summary
This study is going to investigate the impact
of education and training on reducing safety lagging indicators in
organizations. It is going to identify situational
factors that impact safety culture to reduce occupational health and safety
incidents. It will also find out the
effectivity of the safety education and training programs in reducing safety
lagging indicators in organizations. Finally, it is going to point out the steps involved in creating a generative safety
culture, by making education and training a fundamental continual improvement
programme in changing hearts and minds of the workers.
The
independent variable in this study is the safety education and training program
while the dependent variable will be the degree of reduction in the safety
lagging indicators. The guiding theory
for this study will be the behavioural learning theory.
A
short literature review of this study featured a study that was conducted in 60 companies in order
to determine what kinds of indicators were used for OSH performance measurement
by these companies with different levels of OSH performance. The results reveal
that the indicators most commonly used in all of the companies are those
related to ensuring compliance with the statutory requirements. The study also
revealed that the leading indicators are much more often adopted in companies
with a higher performance level.
The
second study investigated 18 papers
done between 2010 to 2019 in order to recognize the common leading and lagging
indicators. Four of the papers used
correlation between the lagging and leading indicators. The research results pointed out that the
leading indicators can be used to discriminate the variances in the safety
performance of projects. The
findings showed how leading and lagging indicators are correlated to one
another during construction projects.
The leading indicators were analyzed.
They had data on safety talks, hazards testified which led the researcher
to conclude that safety leading indicators are complicated.
The
study will use the quantitative method and the researcher will formulate a
survey questionnaire which the randomly selected respondents will answer.
Statistical analysis in the form of the weighted mean, the paired t-test and
the ANOVA will be used to find out the relationship between the variables being
studies.
Listed below are the relevant dates
of submission for this proposal.
March 6, 2021 –
Submission of modules of the research
March 15, 2021 –
Writing the Introduction chapter
March 22, 2021 –
Writing the expanded literature review
April 26, 2021 –
Writing the Methodology chapter and formulating the survey questionnaire
May 3, 2021 –
Validating the survey questionnaire
May 10, 2021 –
Conducting the safety education and training program
May 11, 2021 – Distribution
of the survey questionnaire
May 17, 2021 –
Analysis and Interpretation of the Raw Data
June 14, 2021 –
Writing the Conclusion, Recommendations, and Summary Chapter
June 21, 2021 –
Doing the Bibliography, Appendix, etc
June 28, 2021 –
Submission of the Thesis
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