Evaluation of the Impact of Organizational and Human Factors on Employee’s Behavior in a Petroleum Refinery

Abstract

According to the WHO, 2.9 billion workers worldwide are exposed to different hazards at workplace. Researchers have focused a lot of emphasizes on work-related illnesses, fatalities, and injuries, which has raised awareness of event causation in the workplace. It is speculated that workers' at-risk behaviors, which can be decreased through behavior modification, are what lead to the bulk of workrelated accidents. A study was conducted to analyze the organizational and human factors that contributed to unsafe behaviors at petroleum refinery, which are located on the eastern cost of Saudi Arabia. The refinery has a capacity of processing 450,000 barrels per stream day (BPSD) and has 2000 employees that include contractors. The purpose of this case study was to analyze organizational and human factors that contributed to unsafe behavior in the refinery. The study also highlights the different contributing factors effecting the behavior of employees. It was observed that organization and management factors contribute 43% towards unsafe behaviors, while job factors and individual/personal factors contribute 34% and 23%, respectively. Further analysis of organizational and management factors showed that poor communication, training, and poor management of health safety together contributed 51%. Under individual/personal factors, 67% of the contributors were low skill and competence and tired staff.