Safety Science 51 (2013) 29–36

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Safety Science

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The main benefits associated with health and safety management systemscertification in Portuguese small and medium enterprises post qualitymanagement system certification

Gilberto Santos a,⇑, Síria Barros a, Fátima Mendes b, Nuno Lopes a

a Escola Superior de Tecnologia, Polytechnic Cavado e Ave, Barcelos, Portugalb University of Minho, Guimarães, Portugal

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history:Received 4 August 2011Received in revised form 25 January 2012Accepted 3 June 2012Available online 21 July 2012

Keywords:OHSAS 18001Occupational Health and SafetyManagement System (OHSMS)ISO 9000Quality Management Systems (QMSs)

0925-7535/$ - see front matter � 2012 Elsevier Ltd. Ahttp://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2012.06.014

⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +351 258802260.E-mail address: gsantos@ipca.pt (G. Santos).

The purpose of this study is to characterize how Portuguese Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) viewthe Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems (OHSMSs) certification process, after receivingthe Quality Management System (QMS) certification. References were based on the ISO 9001 standard fora QMS and OHSAS 18001 for OHSMS.

The method used to evaluate the implemented systems, was by form of questionnaire. Those ques-tioned had to have a certified quality management system, an implemented OHSMS and be a SME. Thequestionnaire was sent to 300 SMEs; 46 responses were received and validated. Of them, only 12 SMEshad the OHSMS certificate according to OHSAS 18001. Within those 12 companies that participated: 7SMEs are from the industrial sector; 3 belong to the electricity/telecommunications sector and 2 SMEsare from the trade/services activity sector.

The size of the sample was small, but corresponds to Portuguese reality. Moreover, 34 SMEs did nothave the OHSMS certificate. The questionnaire requested the main reasons for SMEs to opt for non-cer-tification and it was related with high costs, while the main reasons to certificate were, among others,needed to eliminate or minimize risks to workers.

The main benefits that Portuguese SMEs have gained from the referred certifications have been,improved working conditions, ensuring compliance with legislation and better internal communicationabout risks and hazards. Also presented are the main difficulties in achieving an OHSMS certificationincluding high certification costs, difficulties motivating personnel, difficulties in changing the company’sculture and increased bureaucracy.

� 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction

The OHSMS (Occupational, Health and Safety Management Sys-tem) provides a set of tools that enhance safety risk managementefficiency related to all the organization’s work activities. This sys-tem should be considered as part of the management sys-tems of any organization (Santos et al., 2008). Moreover,according to Granerud and Rocha (2011) the OHSMS is a system-atic means for employers to handle challenges and reduce haphaz-ard attitudes to risks and problems in the work environment.OHSMS certification makes it possible for firms to document a cer-tain pattern of working conditions to demonstrate to both the pub-lic at large and its own customers that they are living up toestablished production standards.

ll rights reserved.

On the other hand, also according Granerud and Rocha (2011),the OHSMS certification is a form of soft regulation requiring thecompany to fulfil certain legal obligations, as well as engage inorganizational processes to promote the continuous improvementof health and safety conditions. The OHSMS certification itself lib-erates companies from direct public control and can thus be re-garded as a self-regulatory regime. Furthermore, in recent years,these systems have further developed, so that now companiescan have their management systems certified. This developmentis consistent with the demand of external accountability in otherareas, initially exemplified by the ISO 9001 quality standard devel-oped in the early 1990s (Power, 2008). The ISO 9000 series is a setof international quality management standards and guidelines.Since the initial publication in 1987, the standards have gained aglobal reputation and due to their generic nature have wide rangesof application fields in different branches of industry (Celik, 2009).Thus, both ISO 9001 and later standards in other fields are charac-terized by the establishment of an internal systems of regulation

30 G. Santos et al. / Safety Science 51 (2013) 29–36

and control within companies; systems that are certified and au-dited by external auditing agents (Hohnen and Hasle, 2011). Addi-tionally, regulations based on ISO 9000 have been created to guidecompanies in developing systems for management and preventionof worker risks. Annexes A and B of ISO 9001–2000 give variousclauses and sub-clauses related to the necessary elements of thisstandard (Vinodkumar and Bhasi, 2011).

Due to this, certified management systems are increasinglybeing used by enterprises to document and develop conformancein a variety of different areas. Within the past decade, the applica-tion of certification has spread from documenting quality stan-dards to additional areas, including the management ofoccupational health and safety (OHS) (Granerud and Rocha,2011). Thus, according to Fernández-Muñiz et al. (2007), severalfields are showing increasing interest in safety culture as a meansof reducing accidents in the workplace. Literature shows thatsafety culture is a multidimensional concept; signifying that now-adays, companies which desire greater profitability and betterorganization implement the quality systems. Their aim being areduction of defective products and lost time, as well as, strivingfor customer satisfaction and excellence.

The progressive implementation of ideas and techniques relatedwith quality management is one of the clearest demonstrations oforganizational innovation in the industry in the last few decades.From the standpoint of risk prevention literature, it has been ar-gued that the use of advanced quality management systems hashelped reduce accident rates due to the fact that quality manage-ment methods are based on the principle of prevention rather thancorrective actions. Hence, the concept of an OHSMS has becomecommon over the past 20 years (Robson et al., 2007). The peoplethat work in safety management and at the same time are mem-bers of quality teams, assure that quality management goeshand-in-hand with risk management. The actions that are carriedout to achieve quality are the same actions necessary, for example,to achieve effective risk management (Herrero et al., 2002). In linewith this, OHSAS 18001 has become compatible with the ISO 9001.This means compliance requirements for OHSAS 18001 are similarto those for ISO 9001. Though, the fact is OHSAS 18001 is an occu-pational health and safety reference, whereas ISO 9001 is a qualitymanagement standard (Vinodkumar and Bhasi, 2011). Hence, if theaim of achieving quality is to remove deviations in the productionprocess, it is clear that the occurrence of an accident is an unfore-seen and undesirable situation. Thus, the implementation of qual-ity control mechanisms is intended to reduce failures in thesystem, including workplace accidents (Arocena et al., 2008).

For this and other reasons, the study’s questionnaire was sentonly to the companies that had their QMS (Quality ManagementSystem) certified. If the history of quality management is analyzed,one can observe that the concept of quality evolves from qualitycontrol to quality assurance. In quality assurance, the planningand company culture are directed with the client and the end prod-uct in mind. In terms of safety, the workers and managers of thecompany are the clients and safety is the product (absence of inju-ries and illnesses) (Roberge, 1999). In line with this, if the evolutionof quality management is analyzed, the results should show thatthree stages exist: (a) quality control, (b) quality assurance, and(c) total quality. If the same analysis is carried out for the safetymanagement system, three similar stages would be found: (a)safety control, (b) safety assurance or guarantee, and (c) totalsafety (Herrero et al., 2002). Considering the increase in industrialaccidents and loss of life, material and environmental issues, moreand more organizations are voluntarily embracing managementsystem certifications. These management system certificationsare expected to integrate safety management with the rest of thefunctions of the organization (Vinodkumar and Bhasi, 2011). Fur-ther, it would be expected that the joint use of advanced quality

management techniques and innovative occupational risk preven-tion management would generate some synergetic effect in reduc-ing occupational risk. However, companies need a peaceful andhealthy working environment, protecting their assets from acci-dents, illnesses or discomfort in the workplace. Choudhry et al.(2007) considers that an organization is a safety culture in whichsafety is regarded as being an issue that concerns everyone. As a re-sult, safety rules should be understood and adhered to; all inci-dents must be reported and investigated quickly for actions to betaken, and to increase learning. ‘‘Changing or new work environ-ment’’ is a broad term covering new trends in work environments(Koukoulaki, 2010). In the 1980s, researchers suggested that theincreasing importance of small enterprises indicated the beginningof a new era for industrial production in which the industry wouldbreak away from the dehumanising effects of Fordism and Taylo-rism (Piore and Sabel, 1984). On the other hand, in the past fewdecades a fundamental need has grown for change regarding safetycontrol in the process industries sector (Knegtering and Pasman,2009). Due to this, and considering the increase in industrial acci-dents and loss to life, material and environmental issues, more andmore organizations are voluntarily embracing management sys-tem certifications (Vinodkumar and Bhasi, 2011).

The majority of studies find that small enterprises have an in-creased risk of accidents compared to large enterprises (Sørensenet al., 2007). According to the European Agency for Safety andHealth at Work (2002), ‘‘Changing Work World’’ issues can be sum-marized as new work organizational forms, new contractual rela-tionships, use of work time, new technologies, changes to theworkforce, and changes in occupational health and safety systems.Trained and experienced workers who die or become injured resultin disruptions to work progress and undeniably represent a reduc-tion in construction, or industry performance. Nonetheless, diffi-culties may arise when researchers use different techniques tomeasure safety performance. Traditional measures of safety perfor-mance rely on some form of accident or injury data. Another tech-nique is behavior sampling, which requires one or more trainedobservers to observe workers on-site to determine whether theyare working safely or unsafely (Choudhry et al., 2007). Moreover,human resources are the most valuable resource of any companyor country, but not always the most valued. Thus, the greatest assetof any organization, any region or any country, are people and theirknow-how (Santos et al., 2011).

It is important to know that helping organizations continuallytackle occupational safety and health challenges and improvingfactors which influence health and safety, safety management sys-tems (SMSs) have recently resulted in increasing diffusion betweencompanies (Bottani et al., 2009). But the major shortcoming withmost of the safety culture models is their failure to integrate intogeneral models of organizational culture (Choudhry et al., 2007).Consequently, to achieve excellence in prevention, safety must beintegrated into all the organization’s decisions and actions. The fo-cus of prevention must be more organizational and strategic thanmaterial, given the important role the human component playsin the causal chain of workplace accidents (Fernández-Muñizet al., 2009).

According to Vassie and Cox (1998), the main reasons for inter-est in a safety scheme by SMEs are the desire to improve or ensurethe health and safety of employees, and to raise awareness acrossthe organization. Thus, according to Vinodkumar and Bhasi (2011),analysis of his study’s data revealed that employees in companieswith OHSAS 18001, ISO 9001 and no certification at all perceive thesafety variables from different levels. OHSAS 18001 certified orga-nizations are significantly higher compared with the others. In Por-tugal, only a few companies have an OHSMS implemented afterQMS certification and, among them, only a small percentage hasa OSHAS 18001 certified system. On the contrary, a large number

G. Santos et al. / Safety Science 51 (2013) 29–36 31

of companies have the Portuguese Standard NP 4397:2008 OHSMScertification, though many among them are not quality or environ-mentally certified, such as many building companies. Therefore forthis study, the OHSAS 18001 was the only certification used which,as a result, decreased the study‘s statistics. However, it is believedto reflect the Portuguese’s business reality.

The objective of this study was to characterize the situation ofPortuguese SMEs in the field of OHSMS, identify the reasons fornon-certification, as well as certification, uncover the difficultiesassociated with the OHSAS 18001 certification process and finally,discuss the main benefits that arise from this certification in SMEswith the ISO 9001 QMS certification.

2. Methodology

Portuguese industry is mainly composed of Small and MediumEnterprises (SMEs), which have been essential to the developmentof the country (site SMEs Portugal, 2006). SMEs comprise 75% ofthe total labor force employed in industry, trade and services.According to the Ministry of Economy and Innovation (Site MEIPortugal, 2006) website, SMEs consists of 99.5% of national busi-ness, generating 74% of employment and 59.8% of sales nation-wide. They represent the real economy in Portugal. In recentyears, there has been an increase in the number of quality certifiedcompanies, and also, a smaller increase in safety certifications. As aresult, an investigation was undergone as to the importance ofimplementing these systems in Portuguese SMEs. A questionnairewas the instrument used to survey several Portuguese SMEs. Thesurvey enabled a large amount of information to be collated eco-nomically, despite the high failure risk of an initiative of this kind.Upon return of the questionnaire, the same were validated, as rec-ommended by literature specific to the area, through a pre-test(Mendes, 2007). Six companies were involved. They representedvarious sectors of activity with at least one certification systemimplemented. The first phase’s aims included finding the resultsof the investigation as well as identify possible difficulties in inter-preting the questions. The questionnaire was sent via e-mail orpersonal delivery. Based on the results obtained in the first phase(pre-test), some questions were removed, redesigned or changedin the questionnaire with the end goal being to improve the study‘saccuracy.

The questionnaire was organized into various sections: 1 – Gen-eral Description of Company; 2 – Quality System Company; 3 –Safety System; 4 – General Questions. The questionnaire lookedat two main areas: (a) reasons for non-certification vs. certification,

Table 1Main sections and question main topics of the questionnaire.

Main sections Questionnaire main topics

General description of the company Number of employees; volume of business;Quality management system Year of ISO 9001 certification;

Main reasons for quality management systeMain difficulties;Main benefits that arose from certification (ncustomer satisfaction, products innovation,Main drawbacks;Quality tools that the company uses;

Occupational, health and safetymanagement system

Main reasons for Health and Safety non-cer

Year of occupational health and safety manMain reasons for occupational health and saMain difficulties;Main benefits that arose from certification, acosts of accidents and occupational diseasesorganization; risks of accidents, through theand hazardous.Main drawbacks;

and (b) benefits gained from certification. This area contained aLikert scale where four points were used for evaluating every ques-tion’s statement. The scale was assigned values from one to four toindicate the level of agreement or disagreement with the state-ment. Due to the questionnaire’s structure, the systems managerneeds to first assess their certified management systems. Then,they must make a quantitative analysis of the benefits, importanceand impact- mainly, of the QMS and OHSMS. Inherent argumentswere also identified regarding the implementation of certificationmanagement systems.

After the questionnaire was approved, it was sent to SMEs via e-mail, with the collaboration of the ‘‘Portuguese SMEs Association’’.Companies’ addresses were collected from the ‘‘Portuguese SMEsAssociation Database’’. The list of companies with quality certifica-tions, were collected from Business Association–Portugal’s site(Associação Empresarial de Portugal). This sample is comprisedof a heterogeneous group of industry, including the, founding yearand the number of employees. The final questionnaire was orga-nized according to Table 1. Both qualitative and quantitative an-swers were asked, depending on the question’s nature and theavailable data.

The questionnaire was sent to 300 SMEs which are QMS certi-fied. The survey was carried out via e-mail, accompanied by a coverletter which indicated the goals of the investigation. Of the 300SMEs, 162 were located in the central region of Portugal (includingthe Lisbon area), 114 in the northern region (including the Oportoarea) and 24 in regions south of Lisbon. According to the data avail-able from the Portuguese ‘‘SMEs Association’’ this distribution isproportional to the location of SMEs within Portugal (site SMEsPortugal, 2006).

According to Fig. 1, about 80 questionnaires were received. Themain criteria for validation were to be a SME, to have the ISO 9001QMS certification and to have answered the main questions com-pletely. Thus, only 46 were completed properly. Data was workedand the results presented (Mendes, 2007); however, it is knownthat there are SMEs with other certified systems, among themthe OHSMS. Additional criteria was to have the OHSAS 18001OHSMS certification. Initially only 7 SMEs fulfilled such criterion;though, some SMEs were in the process of getting the OHSAS18001 certification. In the end, an additional 5 questionnaires werecompleted and validated, which totaled 12 SMEs with OHSAS18001 OHSMS certification. Some SMEs have implemented theOHSMS but it is not certified. Hence, those questionnaires werenot validated. 34 SMEs do not have the OHSMS certification. Addi-tionally, the questionnaire inquired about the main reasons for

branch of activity; main products and markets, etc.

m certification;

ew costumers, image, competitiveness, business increase, quality improvement,organization improvements, etc.);

tification;

agement systems certification according OHSAS 18001;fety management systems certification;

mong others: ensuring compliance with legislation; number of accidents at work;; absenteeism; number of employee suggestions; to fortify the image of theprevention of occupational risks; internal communication for workers about risks

Fig. 1. Number of questionnaires sent, received and validated.

32 G. Santos et al. / Safety Science 51 (2013) 29–36

non-certification. This was the sample for one question and themain reasons for non certification are presented.

All the SMEs that cooperated with this investigation had theQMS certification but belonged to different sectors of activity.According to Fig. 2, within the 12 companies that participated,58.3% (7 SMEs) are from the industrial sector, 25% (3) belong tothe electricity/telecommunications sector, and 16.6% (2 SMEs)are from the trade/services activity sector. Although many SMEsconnected to the building sector have the Portuguese StandardNP 4397:2008 OHSMS certification, it was felt that they still havea long way to go. It is one of the sectors with the highest deathrates in Portugal. The size of the survey was very small; however,it reflects Portuguese reality. Thus, a detailed statistical responseanalysis not carried out. What this study presents are the benefits,drawbacks, and difficulties concerning the OHSMS certificationprocess.

Survey data created in an Excel spreadsheet was then exportedto SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences). SPSS is a powerfulstatistics software which provides the user with complex statisticalcalculations. However, two obstacles got in the way: (1) the smallsample size, and (2) knowing what statistical test to use and howto interpret the results correctly. Thus:

1. Statistical techniques – it was used primarily for inductive anddescriptive statistics: average, frequency plots, the principalcomponent analysis, cluster analysis and statistical inferenceto find important conclusions about the population inferredfrom the analysis of the sample, bearing in mind that smallsample size is a limitation.

2. Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin (KMO) test and Bartlett’s sphericity test –the KMO and Bartlett test are two statistical procedures thatmeasure the quality of the correlation between variables. TheKMO is a statistic test that varies between 0 and 1 and com-pares the zero-order correlations with the partial correlationsobserved between the variables.

3. Internal Consistency Cronbach’s Alpha – Cronbach’s Alpha iscommonly used to measure internal consistency of a group ofvariables (items). It can be defined as the correlation that is

58.3%

25%16,6%

Electricity/TelecommunicationsIndustryTrade / ServicesConstruction

Fig. 2. Distribution of certified companies in health and safety at work by sectors.

expected between the scale and other scales using the samehypothetical universe with an equal number of items that mea-sure the same characteristic.

4. Cluster analysis is also a technique of exploratory multivariateanalysis that groups variables into homogeneous groups orcommon characteristics. Each observation belonging to a partic-ular cluster is similar to all others belonging to that cluster, andis different from the observations belonging to other clusters.The analysis of the survey was directed to the most relevantitems of the questionnaire. Regarding OHSMS certification, forexample, there were 14 items and correspond to the items out-lined in Fig. 3.

3. Survey results

The first system that was certified in Portuguese SMEs was theQuality Management System (QMS). After this system was consol-idated, the certified Environmental Management System (EMS) fol-lowed. In some cases, the Occupational Health and SafetyManagement System (OHSMS) was the last to be analyzed. Thishas been more or less the general rule that Portuguese SMEs haveadopted when researching the number of certifications, wherequality (QMS) stands out in first place, followed by the environ-mental certification (EMS) and finally the OHSMS certification.Hence, this study presents the results of OHSMS certification, afterthe QMS certification.

3.1. Occupational Health and Safety Management System (OHSMS)

At this point, the OHSMS was analyzed in each organization.According to Table 2, of the 46 SMEs participating in the survey,26% are certified by the same work health and safety system. Theresults prove that there is still a lot to do in Portugal regarding thisfield.

3.2. Reasons why SMEs do not have OHSMS certification

In Table 2, the percentage of SMEs that do not have the sameOHSMS certificate, or a non-existing system is 73.91%.

As can be seen in Table 3, the main reasons for non-implemen-tation of an OHSMS are as such: 29.5% stated the investment re-quired to implement the certification is too high, 23.5% considerthe certification a superfluous cost, only 20.5% believe the safetycertification to be a form of positive marketing. A secondary reasonincluded 14.7% which stated that ‘‘the benefits do not outweigh thecosts necessary’’. Less relevant reasons were that 8.9% believed‘‘the risks of accidents are low’’ and 2.9% claimed ‘‘lack of invest-ment support’’. In some SMEs that work in industry, the risks ofaccidents are low. In a sense, many SMEs are not yet aware of

Fig. 3. Distribution of main benefits that companies have obtained from the certification of OHSMS.

Table 2Percentage of PME that has the OHSMS certified.

Valid Frequency Percentage Cumulative percentage

Not 34 73.91 73.91Yes 12 26.09 100.0Total 46 100.0

G. Santos et al. / Safety Science 51 (2013) 29–36 33

the safety problems of modern day business. Many have financialdifficulties besides not having an OHSMS system. Although, someare implementing (but not certifying) a rudimentary OHSMS.

3.3. The main reasons which led to OHSMS implementation

The number of companies with the OHSMS certificate in Portu-gal is very small but it is gradually growing. Therefore, the interestin this work was to study the degree of importance organizationsput on implementing and certifying the OHSMS in their organiza-tion. Table 4 shows the groups and includes the reasons that led tothe implementation of the health and safety at work in SMEs forsaid group.

Table 3The reasons for non-certification option.

Reasons for non-certification option M

1 – The investments required to implement the certification are high 292 – Consider the certification a cost 233 – Consider the certification as a form of marketing 204 – The benefits do not outweigh the costs necessary 145 – The risk of accidents are low 86 – Lack of investment support 2

Table 4Main reasons that led to the implementation of OHSMS in accordance with OHSAS 18001

Groups Reasons that led to the implementation and certification

1 – Valuing human capital Eliminate or minimize risks to workers2 – Business reason Improvement of the organization image with the reductio3 – Social reason High rate of absenteeism due to occupational diseases

Serious accidents at workRate of industrial accidents high

According to Table 4, five variables were divided into -three groups. Group 1 – ‘‘Valuing human capital’’ which enablesthe maximum safety within an organization. The aim is to mini-mize or eliminate occupational accidents and diseases acquiredin the workplace. This is the most important reason that led tothe implementation of the OHSMS in SMEs, with 83.4% of the re-sponses as ‘‘very important’’. It may be noted that the 12 compa-nies with certified OHSMS are almost unanimous in the sameissue by stating that this issue is very important. Group 2 – ‘‘Busi-ness reason’’ which aim to strengthen the organization’s public im-age by reducing accidents to its workers and society. The majorityof responses were ‘‘important’’. The SMEs chosen as the most accu-rate claimed they wanted ‘‘Improvement of the organization’s im-age by reducing accidents’’ (91.7%). Group 3 – ‘‘Social Reason’’ had3 questions where the aim is to minimize social problems, such as,‘‘high rate of absenteeism due to occupational diseases’’, ‘‘seriousaccidents at work’’ and ‘‘rate of industrial accidents’’. All thesequestions are considered less important, since questions weregeared to ‘‘eliminate or minimize risks to workers.’’ To reducethe related variables, cluster analysis was the method used dueto the small sample size.

ain reason (%) Secondary reason (%) Less relevant (%)

.5 20.6 5.9

.5 11.8 5.8

.5 5.8 2.9

.7 32.4 5.8

.9 11.8 52.9

.9 17.6 26.7

.

of the OHSMS Most important(%)

Important(%)

Less important(%)

83.4 0 0n of accidents at work 8.3 91.7 8.3

8.3 0 33.30 8.3 33.30 0 25.1

34 G. Santos et al. / Safety Science 51 (2013) 29–36

3.4. The main benefits gained from the OHSMS certification

The potential benefits associated with OHSMS can be moreeffectively outlined/summarized through a detailed analysis oftheir impact on Portuguese SMEs. Some of the companies that par-ticipated in this study, certified their OHSMS very recently. Assuch, benefits were not yet apparent. However, all 12 OHSMS cer-tified SMEs participated in answering these questions.

Cluster analysis separates the results of the certification intofour groups according to their similarities. Thus, fourteen vari-ables were divided into four groups. Group 1 – system OHSMS, as-sesses the risks. It strengthens the image of the company for itsemployees and consumers, providing a safe and stable work envi-ronment. The subjects of the questions were: Improvement of thecompany’s image in the market and community; Number of employeesuggestions; and finally, Risks of occupational diseases. Group 2 –improving the safety culture in the company. It reduces risk andimproves the image and relationship between employees. The sub-jects of the questions were: Improvement of working conditions;Ensuring compliance with legislation; Fortifying the organization’s im-age; Notice to workers about the risks and dangers; Risks of accidentsthrough the prevention of occupational risks. Group 3 – linked theperformance of the OHSMS; how it controlled the number of acci-dents, absenteeism and the cost of accidents and occupational dis-eases, as well as increased employee motivation. The subject of thequestions were: The number of accidents at work; The reduction ofaccidents and occupational diseases costs; Absenteeism; Employeemotivation. Group 4 demonstrated the image of the organization,i.e. is aware of social responsibility. The subjects of the questionswere: Number of cases of occupational diseases; Advertisements innewspapers, TV and internet of the public data of the occupationalhealth and safety (OHS).

Analysis of the chart (Fig. 3) shows the greatest impact (above65% of responses) and main benefits companies have gained fromOHSMS certification: ‘‘Improvement of working conditions’’ clearlytook the majority with 91.6% of the responses. In this questionSMEs were almost unanimous, responding that the working condi-tions were really improved with the implementation and certifica-tion of the OHSMS; another important question with great impactwas ‘‘Ensuring compliance with legislation’’ with 83.3% of re-sponses. Legislation exists in order to be followed. Most PortugueseSMEs with certified OHSMS fulfil legal requirements. ‘‘Notice toworkers about the risks and dangers at work’’ had 75% of the SMEsresponding affirmatively. Hence, it can be concluded that there is‘‘better internal communication for workers about the risks andhazards’’ when an OHSMS is implemented.

Less than 65% but above 40% of responses are related to issuesthat had some impact on the companies; as such, they can be con-sidered secondary benefits. To improve and fortify the organiza-tion’s image was believed to improve working conditions.Compliance with legislation results in better internal communica-tion for workers which surely, decreases the number of work re-lated accidents (58.3%), reduces the cost of accidents andoccupational diseases (58.3) and decreases accident risk throughthe prevention of occupational risks (50%).

Less than 40% of responses (but above 15%) are related to issuesthat had little to no impact for the companies. Therefore, they canbe considered minor benefits, such as: Increase the number ofsuggestions from employees (33.3%). Many employees are re-quested to be involved in problem solving and oftentimes havegood ideas; unfortunately, there are no mechanisms, like a sugges-tion box for example, for them to be heard. Consequently, surelythere are improvements to the company’s image in the marketand community (33.3%), decrease absenteeism (25%) and also, de-crease in the number of cases of occupational diseases (16,6%)which need to be made. Under 15% of responses got no impact

on the following issues: decrease the risks of occupational diseases(8.3%), which needs more time for data collection and allowingsome SMEs to become OHSMS certified. Advertisements in news-papers, TV and Internet of public data regarding occupationalhealth and safety (OHS), in other words, dissemination of mediadata on occupational safety and health of the company (8.3%)and motivation of employees (8.3%) also had not impact.

In Table 5, there is a summary of the reasons for non – certifica-tion. The main reason in particular is related to the high costs ofthe OHSAS 18001OHSMS. An additionally important reason wasto ‘‘Eliminate or minimize risks to workers’’. Also presented arethe benefits which had a major impact, such as, ‘‘Improvement ofworking conditions’’ and ‘‘Ensuring compliance with legislation’’.No drawbacks were concluded.

Inferred from the questionnaire, 100% of the companies withQMS and OHSMS certifications have a system of medicine in placeat work. It appears that 82% of QMS and OHSMS SMEs make a sys-tematic assessment of the risks of accidents. Regarding activitiesaimed at improving working conditions and preventing occupa-tional diseases, 80% of companies with two certified managementsystems are implementing these activities through training andawareness raising. But for enterprises with only the QMS certifi-cate, just 40% of SMEs have activities aimed at improvingwork conditions and the prevention of diseases. Whereas, 100%of the companies with two certified management systems are cur-rently implementing the use of personal protective equipment.

4. Discussion

Among others, the main benefits that Portuguese SMEs havegained from the certification of OHSMS according OHSAS18001were: 1 – improvement of conditions in the workplace; 2 –ensuring compliance of safety and health legislation; 3 – betterinternal communication for workers about risks and hazardous;4 – solidifying the company’s image. In relation to improvementof conditions of health and safety in the workplaces, this researchis in line with the study done by Tsai and Chou (2009). Tsai statedcreating and maintaining a safe working environment assuresworkers improved health levels, protects them from accidents, ill-ness or discomfort in the workplace, and increases the efficiency ofwork processes as well as improves employee perceptions of theworking environment and leads to higher recruitment. Along thesame lines, Mossink (2002) claimed that satisfactory working con-ditions provide benefits of many kinds, and the beneficiaries areboth direct and indirect. The direct beneficiaries are the workersthemselves, since they are the most affected by accidents, althoughthe firm also benefits because it avoids losses and improves profit-ability. The indirect beneficiaries are the insurers, contractors, con-sumers, families and society in general. Nowadays, there is widerecognition in professional literature regarding views on safety cul-ture as an essential element in the organization’s efforts to preventaccidents in the workplace Fernández-Muñiz et al. (2007). More-over, technological progress and intense competitive pressuresbring rapid change in working conditions, work processes andorganization. Legislation is often insufficient in addressing thosechanges completely or keeping pace with new hazards and risks(Bottani et al., 2009). This study uncovered the need to complywith legislation even when it is often insufficient. Thus, monitoringand measuring activities are an important signal of managementcommitment to health and safety and an essential part of a positivehealth and safety culture (Lindsay, 1992).

According to Frick (2011) on the reduction of accidents, system-atic violations of legal requirements have repeatedly caused acci-dents at workplaces with certified management systems. Whenemployers introduce management systems, it can affect their

Table 5Summary of the reasons for non-certification and also for certification, as well, the benefits and difficulties that companies obtained with certification of the OHSMS.

OHSMS100% are certified by ISO 9001; 73.91% are non-certified by OHSAS 18001

Reasons for non-certification

Main reasons Investments are high Consider the certification as a form of marketing

Consider the certification a costSecondaryreasons

Benefits do not outweigh the costs necessary

Less relevantreasons

Risk of accidents at work are low Lack of investment support

100% are certified by ISO 9001; 26.09% are certified by OHSAS 18001Reasons for

certificationVery important Eliminate or minimize risks to workers

Important Improving the organization image with the reduction ofaccidents at work

Less important Rate of absenteeism due to occupational diseasesLow serious accidents at work Rate of industrial minor accidents high

Benefits Major impact Improvement of working conditions Better internal communication for workers about risksand hazardous.

Improvement company image. Ensuring compliance with legislationImpact Less number of accidents Reduction in cost of accidents and occupational diseases

Less risk of accidents, through the prevention ofoccupational risks

Little impact Decrease absenteeism Decrease the number of cases of occupational diseasesIncrease the number of suggestions from employees Improvement of the company’s image in the market and

communityDecrease the risks of occupational diseases Motivation of employees

No impact Dissemination in the media of data on safety and health ofthe company

Drawbacks No drawbacks have been referredMain Difficulties High certification costs Difficulties to change Company’s culture

Difficulties to motivate personal Increase bureaucracyManagement difficulties in the early stages of certification

G. Santos et al. / Safety Science 51 (2013) 29–36 35

implementation and outcomes. Internal objectives, of productivityand/or work-related health, require upstream prevention and agenuine influence by workers and their safety representatives.According to Cheng et al. (2010), it can be concluded that thecauses of most occupational accidents in the construction industryare largely attributable to management negligence or inadequateworker safety awareness. So, we can say that when workers arewarned of the dangers and they are required to comply with laws,they are less negligent which results in fewer accidents and profes-sional illness. It has been concluded from this study that this isachieved with the certification of OHSMS. On other hand, accord-ing to Fernández-Muñiz et al. (2009), various authors attributeweak management commitment to the general belief, that preven-tive measures require expenditures that have nothing to do withthe firm’s production objectives. Consequently, this negligencehas negative repercussions for its profitability and competitive-ness. Accidents do have adverse affects on decreasing productivityand quality which results in deterioration of the firm’s public im-age or internal climate. It is for this reason that a good occupationalsafety management can have a positive effect not only on accidentrates, but also on competitiveness variables and financial perfor-mance. This thinking is consistent with this study, particularly,referring to difficulties in changing company culture, loweringthe number of accidents, reducing costs of accidents and occupa-tional diseases, as well as, the improvement of company image inthe market and community. Moreover, it appears that theimprovement of the company’s image and the increase of the num-ber of suggestions from employees are practices which bring aboutthe most effective changes. There is an ongoing discussion in theoccupational health and safety community about small enterprises– especially those with less than 50 employees. It is generally rec-ognized that these enterprises constitute a special problem withregard to prevention of occupational injuries (Hasle et al., 2009).According to Lee and Harrison (2000), any safety management sys-tem is a social system, wholly reliant upon the employees who

operate it. Its success depends on three things: its scope; employ-ees’ knowledge of it; and whether they are committed to making itwork. The concept of safety culture has evolved as a way of formu-lating and addressing this new focus. Organizations may also adopthealth and safety management systems in order to manage exter-nal pressures, and at the same time maintain the same internalstructures (Granerud and Rocha, 2011).

In Thailand, it seems that most exporter businesses complywith almost all local and some international law, because theyhave been forced by their customers (Kongtip et al., 2008). Seenfrom this perspective, OHSMS certification is just another elementin the swarm of novel demands being imposed on firms by externalstakeholders. In some cases, an OHSAS 18001 certification could beconditional for gaining contracts from leading firms or for recruit-ing employees who are in high demand in the general labor mar-ket. Some firms even take the next step and deliberately entercompetitions to be nominated as the ‘‘Best Workplace of the Year’’,or ‘‘Best Place for Apprenticeship’’, etc. the same as they competeto win a quality or design prize (Kristensen, 2011). All the compa-nies of this study were ISO 9001 certified. Vinodkumar and Bhasi(2011) stated ISO 9001 certified firms have higher levels in allsafety management practices except safety promotion policies. Itis an important finding that non-certified firms have higher levelsof safety promotion policies, even though insignificant when com-pared with ISO 9001 certified firms.

5. Conclusions

The current study aimed to analyze the main reasons for non-certification. Those companies with non-certified OHSMS men-tioned high implementation and maintenance costs. The main rea-son for certification is also analyzed and companies mentioned‘‘Valuing human capital - Eliminate or minimize risks to workers’’.Considering the benefits arising from certification, they considered

36 G. Santos et al. / Safety Science 51 (2013) 29–36

OHSMS certification an image issue, only concerned with market-ing purposes and having no practical effects on the company’s dai-ly activity itself. The main benefits identified from OHSMScertification were the ‘‘improvement of working conditions’’(91.6%), ‘‘ensuring compliance with legislation’’ (83.3%) and ‘‘betterinternal communication for worker about the risks and hazards’’(75%). This helps decrease the number of accidents and their asso-ciated costs (58.3%), which dominoes into improving the com-pany’s image in the surrounding area and among customers(33.3%), as well as increasing profitability. Decrease in absenteeism(25%), and in the number of cases of occupational diseases (16.6%),as well as, increase in the number of suggestions from employees(33.3%), are considered minor benefits. No drawbacks have beenconcluded.

The main difficulties uncovered in relation to OHSMS certifica-tion can be pinpointed to difficulties in changing company culture,high certification costs, the increase of bureaucracy and manage-ment difficulties in the early stages of the certification process.With respect to health and safety at work, there is still a lot todo in Portugal. Several Portuguese SMEs have already imple-mented the OHSMS and others will follow, mainly, because moneycannot pay for a human life or a severe disability which lasts therest of a worker’s life.

Acknowledgment

The authors thank all Portuguese SMEs that responded to thequestionnaire.

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