Chapter I – Introduction
1.1. Background
Safety at the workplace, both in terms of concept and practice, is a great area of concern for companies (Janadi & Assaf, 1998). The concept of safety itself has evolved over the years, from the initial plain-sense approach to averting agents of injury to the current complex methodology for the defined management of harm at the workplace. Issues relating to compliance of safety standards and the widespread problem of underreporting injuries/incidents have forced an increasing number of companies to adopt safety management systems (Al-Jubrab et al, 2010). Nonetheless, implementation of the safety standards has continuously proven problematic for companies with the best safety control programs in place. As such, injurious incidences are commonplace at the workplace regardless of the full knowledge of their causes and the availability of approved controls.
Safety at the workplace is such a critical issue because of its humanitarian elements. No employee ever wishes to get injured while working (U.S. Department of Transportation, 2011). Poor enforcement of safety rules that govern the miss act or irresponsibility has rendered it easy for companies to violate safety rules. Most unsafe damage at the workplace does not only result into fatal permanent injuries to people but also significant assets value loss. Most companies afford highest priority to getting the work done than to safety (Simmons, 2005). While safety issues feature prominently in company meeting, it assumes a low priority to schedule and budget discussions.
The field of industrial safety entails a wide range of issues pertaining to the safety of electric power, high pressure gas, gas utility, explosives, various forms of heat supply, LPG, and mines (Al-Jubrab et al, 2010). There is need to improve the industrial safety regulation to be more effective and efficient in that it would promote self-imposed safety activities owing to the improvement in industries’ capabilities, licenses and requests for streamlining future regulation as well as international compliance to technical standards (ILO, 1995).
Safety needs to be a key part of the entire business activities of a company, which should be clearly reflected in the enterprise overall management instruments as well for individual affiliate sites. It is also paramount for safety issues to be addressed as part of the corporate Safety, Health and Environment policies in addition to the development of safety management systems as well as safety goals and objectives (Saudi Aramco, 2007). Management needs to ensure its entire workforce understands and complies with safety standards as outlined in the company safety plan and the international standards. This can be achieved through strict adherence to safety rules and an effective safety plan, organizations can solve, reduce, or eliminate altogether the unfortunate consequences resulting from safety violations (U.S. Department of Transportation, 2011).
This research examines the issue of safety at Saudi Aramco, a Saudi Arabia’s national oil company headquartered in Dhahran with subsidiaries in Europe, North America, and the Far East. The company is fully integrated, global petroleum enterprise besides being a world leader in production, exploration, refining, distribution, shipment and marketing. Saudi Aramco manages large crude oil reserves of 2.601 billion barrels and approximately 279 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves (Nolan, 2011).
1.2. Statement of the problem
The safety programs at Saudi Aramco, despite the independent safety management programs, do not operate efficiently (Kirsten & Karch, 2011). The company has a range of compliance issues to Safety Standards which are influenced by several factors. Similarly, there is insufficient reporting of incidents/injuries at Saudi Aramco.
1.3. Significance of the research
In view of the growing cases of health and safety standards violations in large organizations, it is important to understand the state of compliance to safety standards, the factors and reasons for underreporting of incidents at Saudi Aramco (a world leader in petroleum industry).
1.4. Objectives of the study
General objectives
It is often expected that every enterprise, Saudi Aramco being no exception, would adhere to safety standards at the workplace and ensure that all incidents are reported instantly and correctly. This is especially the case because the ultimate goal is to have zero incidents. This serves as the incentive to attain the best possible performance and continuous vigilance in the direction of greater safety. The general objective of this research project is to understand the state of compliance and non-compliance to reporting incidents at Saudi Aramco.
Specific objectives
The specific objectives for this research study are in three-fold as stated below:
1- Examine the issues of compliance to Safety Standards
2- Identify the possible factors affecting safety performance
3- Identify the possible reasons for underreporting incidents / injuries
1.5. Research questions
The research study shall have three research questions as follows:
1. What are the issues of compliance to Safety Standards at Saudi Aramco?
2. What are factors influencing safety performance at Saudi Aramco?
3. What are the reasons for underreporting incidents/injuries at Saudi Aramco?
1.6. Limitations of the study
The scope of this study is limited to Saudi Aramco. The general objective is to understand the state of compliance and non-compliance to reporting incidences at the company. The first delimiting step was the choice of the problem itself where Safety was chosen from a long list of potential topical areas such as state of compliance to safety among Middle East companies, safety issues among Saudi Arabian enterprises, and Health and Safety improvements in Saudi companies. Saudi Amarco is chosen because of its leading stature in the global petroleum industry and the increasing limelight on the company on the issue of safety standards in the recent days. This report shall seek to identify the likely reasons for underreporting injuries and incidences at Saudi Amarco.
Chapter II – Literature Review
According to Jannadi & Assaf (1998), Saudi Aramco is an Oil Company committed to ensuring safety at workplace, where it utilizes both qualitative and quantitative risk evaluation approaches to its operating facilities. Other authors have also hailed Saudi Aramco for its efforts to prevent accidents in order to minimize any loss of life or bodily injury to its worker as well as damage to its physical assets. In Saudi Arabia, the top management of organizations is tasked with ensuring safety at the workplace (Jannadi & Assaf, 1998).
In the case of injury or incident, Saudi Aramco demands that the contractor in charge provides a prompt report in line with Schedule ‘D’ to the Company Representative. This applies to all cases, including: fatal injuries; those injuries needing medical attention leading to loss of time; fires; damage to any of the company’s equipment of property; and damage or near misses to cranes & heavy equipment (Jubran et al, 2010). A preliminary report is required within 24 hours then followed by a thorough written report within three days. The company may also convene an investigation committee in line with the requirements of GI 6.001 and GI 6.003 (Saudi Aramco, 2007). Further, serious accidents require a detailed report of the circumstances, witnesses’ accounts together with descriptive photographs (Marcel & Mitchell, 2006).
Chapter III – Methodology
The methodology of t his research is in accordance with the objectives of this project. The preliminary part of the study is taken care by the literature review section, where some of the safety standards are discussed. There is mention of the safety programs and measures practiced at Saudi Aramco.
Data gathering for this study is done through questionnaires and interviews. From a sample of approximately 500 employees, questionnaires shall be administered to 50 people. The questionnaires shall be designed in such a manner to consider the safety performance indicators of Saudi Aramco. The indicators will be explicitly mentioned in the design process of the questionnaires. In addition, the question will clearly consider the safety standards of Aramco. This shall be followed by conducting interviews on sample of respondents whose response from questionnaires will be deemed most interesting. This shall be done with the aim of verifying their views on the issue of compliance and non-compliance to safety standards at Saudi Aramco.
3.1. Research design
(i) Selection of research strategies
The selected respondents as defined above shall be interview by our team of professional interviewers using a pre-constructed questionnaire. Both primary and secondary research methods shall be employed for this study. In addition, descriptive approach method will be used. The descriptive type of study will utilize observations. The descriptive approach of research is most suitable for this study because it will help to collect information about the current existing state of affairs at Saudi Aramco as relates to compliance and noncompliance to safety standards. Primary research will be conducted using questionnaires on randomly selected Saudi Aramco employees. Questionnaires shall be used to provide qualitative understanding of the data gathered. Secondary data will be sourced from relevant recent literatures.
(ii) Selection of research setting
The selection of study respondents will be carried out in the facilities of Saudi Aramco Company. The setting shall be stationed away from the administration offices as possible to encourage freedom of expression among the respondents. First, a small pilot survey involving 15 participant will be conducted to test the comprehension and language appropriateness of the questionnaire.
3.2. Population and Sampling
A total 50 respondents from a population of 500 will be chosen for this study. It is hoped that the sample will provide sufficient information for the evaluation. The respondents will have to be current employees of Saudi Aramco, with at least two years working experience at the company. The study shall seek to be gender sensitive in that a balance between men and women shall be sought as much as possible. The sample shall also be drawn from all departments of the company. The research team will try as much as possible to diminish or avert altogether all potential sources of bias and error. Safety compliance and noncompliance bias, and over-reporting and underreporting bias will be of great significance to the validity of the research results. The research will be conducted within two weeks and it is expected that the interview session per respondent will not exceed 1 hour. This shall cater for additional two open-ended questions allowed for every interviewer.
3.2. Sources of data
As mentioned earlier, this research shall utilize both primary and secondary sources of data.
i) Questionnaires
The nature of questionnaires for this study shall as described above (in methodology)
ii) Interviews
The research team shall conduct a series of in-depth interviews with selected employees of Saudi Aramco. These will take approximately one hour. The interviews will provide opportunity for depth discussions in relation to key research issues. Furthermore, the process shall also serve to develop a series of personal narratives of worker experiences in terms of safety at the company. All the interviews shall be transcribed and developed into an exact narrative form. The research proposal shall allow for a small manageable sample of 50 respondents.
iii) Documented data
The third source of data for this research will be data retrieved from recent studies on the subject matter. This shall include previous studies by other researchers, books, articles and narratives.
3.4. Instrumentation
The instruments for data collection for this research will include questionnaire and interview schedules. First, there will be preparation, pre-coding and then pretesting of questionnaires. The questionnaire for this study will be structured to minimize any interviewer or respondent bias. The research team will then plan for interviews and call-backs of the respondents (employees of Saudi Aramco). This shall be followed by training of the interviews by the research team.
3.5. Validity and reliability
To ensure validity and reliability of the results collected, the research team shall play the listener’s role and allow the respondent to offer the bulk of the research input. The team shall strive to correctly interpret the responses of the interviewees. There shall be accurate recording, both in form of detailed notes and electronic, of the accounts gathered from the respondents. The records will be developed during the data gathering session as opposed to after (Al-Jubrab et al, 2010). The research team shall also others to critique the study manuscript following the developmental process. As such, professional and research subjects shall be part of the process to ensure accuracy and completeness of the information reported.
Further, primary data will be incorporated in the final report to allow the reader to make out the basis upon which conclusions and recommendations were reached. All data shall be included in the final report, including that to which clear interpretation by the research team was proved difficult. The reader shall be allowed to draw their own interpretations and conclusions. Finally, the final report will double-checked to reed it of any grammatical errors and inconsistencies that would otherwise compromise the validity of the report (Al-Kudmani, 2008).
3.6. Analysis and Interpretation
Data processing and analysis will be aided by the use of computer. This study will base its results through both qualitative research approaches because it allows for a flexible and interpretive approach. As such, the choice and design of methods will be constantly modified on the basis of the ongoing analysis (Ross & Sloan, 2007). This research will also use qualitative research approach because it will seek to find and build theories to understand the relationship of one variable to another through qualitative elements. Qualitative elements that lack standard measures e.g. opinions, beliefs, attitudes, and behavior within the company will be analyzed.
3.7. Data collection procedure
Permission to conduct the research will be obtained from management of Saudi Aracom. All the participants shall be first briefed about our research design, objectives of the study, the sampling method, data collection methods and the data collection procedure in its entirety. Verbal concessions will be taken from individual participants regarding their involvement in the research study (Mesch, 2010). Several meetings will be held with the research team to settle their doubt, to ascertain the completeness of data and to find solutions to any issues that arose during the research.
Chapter IV – Conclusion
This research proposal has the objective of understanding compliance and non-compliance of reporting incidents in Saudi Aramco, a Saudi Arabian oil company. First the study examines the issues of compliance to safety standards in the company. Factors affecting safety performance at Aramco are then identified. Finally, the study explores the possible reasons for underreporting incidents/injuries at the oil company. Questionnaires and interviews are used to gather information from a small representation of Saudi Aramco’s employees. The research is conducted within two weeks and analysis and interpretation done by the research team with the help of computer.
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