by Dzifa Ahadzi, Health & Safety Group Africa (HESAG Africa)
The African continent is witnessing a surge in industrialization in recent times. This has led to a fast-growing workforce across the continent. Industrialization comes with its own problems particularly when it comes to workplace safety. Today, workers and employers are constantly confronted with a barrage of safety challenges that need to be solved. Resilience engineering has been introduced in recent years as a new innovative way of dealing with safety management at the workplace. In Africa, very little is known about resilience engineering. Information on this emerging safety management strategy is almost non-existent, coupled with very limited studies conducted on it in the African region. As a new safety management concept, it is expected that with time it would become developed, accepted and explored as a potent safety management strategy in this part of the world.
The concept of resilience engineering (RE) is about how small and large industrial systems function in a safe manner. RE is also about the people who manage the systems and their ability to implement positive safety measures and encourage employees to put up positive safety attitude. For an organization to be resilient, management and workers must be capable of responding expeditiously to sudden changes while enduring minimal stress. RE involves creating a robust system that can bend but not break and stand the test of time. Investing in RE presents Africa with a great opportunity to tap into the benefits of the concept in improving safety at workplaces across the African continent while increasing productivity. For African organizations to become globally competitive, investing in robust methods and systems like this is key.
One of the biggest problems the concept of RE has faced over the years is that it has no clearly defined theoretical framework. Also lacking is a clearly defined method for measuring RE. These make the concept look more abstract than a reality. It also makes it difficult to explain the concept to the understanding of the ordinary man. Different authors have measured RE differently depending on their perspective and understanding. As an emerging concept, there is the need for the RE community to come up with a clear definition of what constitutes RE and a globally accepted method of measuring RE. This would make it easy for practitioners to explain what the concept is all about to the understanding of the ordinary person. In Africa where RE is barely known, it has become difficult to promote it as a safety management strategy because it is not easy explaining it through a practical demonstration. Currently, RE exists more of a concept than a reality. How RE can be measured needs to be resolved once and for all. Insufficient empirical studies into the area, mostly due to lack of funding remains a major drawback of implementing the RE strategy in Africa. More empirical studies on RE are needed in Africa to promote the concept, make it known and accepted.
The goal of many organizations is to avoid the breakdown of their systems when turbulence occurs. RE remains an important consideration in dealing with this phenomenon especially organizations that engage in high risk operations. With the application of RE, safer working environments are assured, leading to improvement in worker morale and productivity. Promoting RE as a safety management technique in Africa has the potential of reducing occupational accidents, injuries, uncertainty and workload pressure on workers. The potential of operationalizing RE successfully in Africa is huge and needs to be deliberately promoted by the RE community.
Dzifa Ahadzi is the Founding President, Health & Safety Group Africa (HESAG Africa)
Email: dzifa@hesagafrica.org
(+233 502633545)