Health Management Systems

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Comparison of the occupational safety and health management systems in Great Britain and Japan Introduction The occupational safety and health management system (OSHMS) in Britain has the longest history in the world (Walters, 1996), which could be traced back over 150 years (Health and Safety Executive, 2009). With the continuing adjustment, this system has successfully served millions of workers for over 40 years. The foundation of the present system is the result of Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 (Walters, 1996; HSE, 2009). Especially the legislation system was established on the basis of HSW 1974 (Waring, 1996). As to Japan, after the Second World War, the bureaucracy rapidly rebuilt the economy by developing heavy industries,…show more content…
According to the guidelines of International Labour Organization (ILO, 2001), the system could be classified to two levels, the national level and the organizational level. The former includes national policy and guidelines, especially tailored guidelines. The later contains the organizational policy, demonstration of organizational communication and responsibility, system planning, evaluation and improvement. Similarly, a systematic approach of a safety management system described by Waring (1996) is drawn as three circles with policy, planning, implementing and measuring inside, audit and a periodic review in the middle and related context outside. This trend reflects a possibility of focusing on a systematic view and an integrated approach of an occupational safety and health management system. Moreover, with the risk assessment and preventive methods added as complements, the contents of OSHMS could be more…show more content…
However, the economic context should not become the cause of poor management of occupational safety and health. The system itself requires promotion and changes to fit the current situation of the occupational safety and health situation. The main difference of occupational safety and health management systems in Britain and Japan could be found in the history of legislation, the setting of institutes and the power of trade union. However, they share a common problem of promoting the occupational safety and health management system in the small and medium-sized enterprise (SMEs) under the outer context of the globally economic depression. The improved path to solve this problem should be considered in deeper level, as it might constitute the budget of output from the annual plan of the governments and increase the burden for the government. However, the target of occupational safety and health management system is to reduce the fatal accidents and improve productivity. Further, the stimulation for economic growing might increase the employment and adjust the structure of the types of employment. Thus, the situation might gradually get into a right

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