Environment, safety and health (ESH) research has a strong tradition of
conducting research in manufacturing to improve workplace ESH conditions and has
tied its management strategy and technical practices to many significant priorities:
illness and injury prevention, environmental sustainability, corporate social
responsibility, compliance with regulatory and insurance requirements, and dealing
with NGO (non-governmental organization) pressures. ESH research rarely examines
ESH management strategy in the broader context of business/operations. This
oversight makes it difficult to make accurate recommendations for practice and
regulation because ESH researchers and business/operations researchers tend to
function as if the other does not exist with the very great possibility that key
relationships remain undiscovered. In this study, case study methods were used with
five manufacturing facilities in the Pacific Northwest to evaluate the usefulness of the
Development Levels Rating System (DLRS). Data were collected using interviews,
site tours, and publicly available records. Within case and cross-case analysis were
used to analyze the data. Consistent patterns were found in how the facilities
structured, organized, and financed the ESH function. Moreover, important insights
were found regarding the facilities' levels of ESH management strategy and their
levels of risk. The results support the DLRS model as being useful in assessing ESH
management strategy in relation to a facility's level of risk. Moreover, several new
pathways were uncovered including: the significance of multi-stakeholder approaches
in EHS and operations research; the importance of joint management strategies; and
the faulty nature of compliance-based ESH management strategies. Future research
should be considered to test the DLRS tool using focus groups and quantitative
methods. This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB). / Graduation date: 2012
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ORGSU/oai:ir.library.oregonstate.edu:1957/26615 |
| Date | 09 December 2011 |
| Creators | Maxwell, Elisabeth D. |
| Contributors | Veltri, Anthony T. |
| Source Sets | Oregon State University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
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