| dc.description.abstract | The study's principal objective was to identify the possible
factors that contribute to industrial accidents and injuries among
the manufacturing firms ln Kenya. Since most companies have scarce
resources
factors
compared to
was deemed
their wants, isolation of the prevalent
necessary. This helps facili tate the
prioritization of company efforts ln an attempt to reduce
occupational hazards. The other obj ecti ve was to compare the
identified factors with those that have been found to operate in
few other countries and which have been reported ln the literature.
The study was stimulated by the recognition of the fact that
industrial accidents are costly to the organization, individuals
and the society at large in terms of human life, money, material
losses and psychological damages.
To achieve the stated objectives, the study was conducted
among the manufacturing firms located ln Nairobi, with the
factory/workshop managers being the target respondents. The results
showed that six factors, each comprising of various components
mostly contribute to the prohlem. Among them are the lack of
training on the job being carried out coupled with the nature of
the work being done - that is, some jobs are more dangerous than
others. But further analysis by use of the mean scores identified
two factors which management should strive to overcome if safety
problems are to be minimized. This relates to the behaviour of the
employees in that some neglect to use the protective devices while
others make safety devices ineffective by tampering with them.
When the comparison was made, Kenya was found to have similar
problems with other countries notably Tanzania, zambia, Japan,
United States of America, France and Canada in regard to the poor
use or neglect of safety devices by the employees. Alcoholism and
drug abuse in the workplace in Kenya was found to be a less
prominent factor in its contribution to industrial accidents . | en |
