The Effect of Work Safety on Organizational Social Sustainability Improvement in the Healthcare Sector: The Case of a Public Sector Hospital in Pakistan

Zia Ullah, Mohammed Ali Bait Ali Sulaiman, Syed Babar Ali, Naveed Ahmad, Miklas Scholz and Heesup Han
Additional contact information
Zia Ullah: Leads Business School, Lahore Leads University, Lahore 54000, Pakistan
Mohammed Ali Bait Ali Sulaiman: Department of Marketing and Entrepreneurship, Dhofar University, Salalah 211, Oman
Syed Babar Ali: Department of Accounting & Finance, Faculty of Management Sciences Salim Habib University NC-24, Deh Dih, Korangi Creek, Karachi 74900, Pakistan
Naveed Ahmad: Faculty of Management Studies, University of Central Punjab, Lahore 54000, Pakistan
Miklas Scholz: Department of Building and Environmental Technology, Division of Water Resources Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Lund University, P.O. Box 118, 221 00 Lund, Sweden
Heesup Han: College of Hospitality and Tourism Management, Sejong University, 98 Gunja-Dong, Gwanjin-Gu, Seoul 143-747, Korea

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 12, 1-18

Abstract: Social sustainability is the much emphasized organizational phenomenon in Western literature; however, in emerging economies, its importance has only been realized in the recent past. Social sustainability is the amiability of the relationship between employees and the organizations on a relatively permanent basis. Social sustainability is the key determinant of organizational sustainability and organizational effectiveness. As healthcare organizations are labor-intensive, the role of social sustainability in hospitals is more crucial. The purpose of the present study is to understand the role of work safety in improving social sustainability in public sector hospitals. To this effect, we collected data from 431 healthcare professionals of a large public sector tertiary and teaching hospital in the city of Lahore Pakistan and analyzed the data using structural equation modeling (SEM). The results uncovered certain important facts, which were not expected per se. Job design, coworkers’ behavior towards work safety, and supervisors’ role in ensuring work safety are the key factors that influence social sustainability. However, surprisingly, in the eyes of employees, management practices and safety programs/policies do not contribute to the work safety of the hospital under study. Keeping in view the findings, we suggest that management must participate in work safety affairs directly and formulate indigenous policies and programs according to local needs. Job analysis is needed to redesign job structures to meet workplace safety requirements. Formal and informal training will be beneficial to make workers and supervisors more aware, more sensitive, and more responsible regarding work safety.

Keywords: social sustainability; public hospitals; work safety; safety training; safety policies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (39)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/12/6672/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/12/6672/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:12:p:6672-:d:579058

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().