Analysis of certified occupational health and safety management systems in Portugal

Abstract

The systematic assurance of the occupational health, safety and wellbeing of the employees may be accomplished through the implementation (and certification) of standardized occupational health and safety management systems in accordance with the requirements listed in the BS OHSAS 18001 standard. In Portugal the certification of occupational health and safety management systems is usually carried out against the requirements of the BS OHSAS 18001 and the NP 4397 standard which is a national adaptation of the former. The purpose of this paper is to "snapshot" the diffusion of the certified occupational health and safety management systems in Portugal dissecting the following features: regional geographic location, integration phenomenon, evolution throughout the years, more involved activity sectors, more often found integrated management systems typologies and the most relevant and active certification bodies. To address this research goal a thorough, in-depth and comprehensive analysis of the data available in a Portuguese periodical publication (Barómetro da Certificação) was carried out. Results show that a great deal of the certified occupational health and safety management systems (96.3%) is integrated (in the sense that encompasses a multiple certification scheme). However the occupational health and safety management system is not typically the primordial subsystem of an integrated management system. In our view these results provide insights to the companies' top management. On one hand, it seems that a patterned and "logical" path is pursued by the companies that seek organizational excellence-management systems integration. On the other hand, it seems that previously implemented subsystems, such as the quality management system, facilitate a "smoother" integration process encompassing the occupational health and safety management system.

Integrated management systems diffusion models in South European countries

“…Thus, it is possible to conclude that the Gompertz curve describes accurately the dynamics of QES growth in the case of Portugal. According to Domingues et al (2017), the number of certificates of the individual MS standards analyzed has grown on the last decade, reaching the saturation level. In addition, based on the existing literature, the interest in the integration of MSs has also increased (see e.g.…”

“…In addition, based on the existing literature, the interest in the integration of MSs has also increased (see e.g. Domingues et al, 2017; Ribeiro et al , 2017), thus the diffusion of these practices are increasing.…”

“…Regarding the countries selection, Spain and Italy have ranked in the top four worldwide positions regarding the certification of both ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 during several years (see ISO, 2017). Portugal certifications in these MS standards have grown continuously in recent years increasing the number of certified organizations (see Domingues et al, 2017; ISO, 2017).…”

Adoption of Circular Economy concepts and practices by Portuguese Citizens and Companies

“…To succeed in this challenging environment, organizations should monitor the organizational context, identify risks and opportunities, and manage change effectively (Fonseca and Domingues, 2017). Moreover, throughout the last decade an increasing amount of companies adopted environmental management systems (and other management subsystems), such as the ISO 14001 International Standard aiming at improving their environmental performance, preventing pollution, and assuring the compliance with the regulatory requirements and applicable legislation (Domingues et al, 2017;Fonseca, 2015). Ultimately, CE is a new paradigm that aims to conciliate economic and environmental performance.…”

Networking for sustainable supplier development; evidence from a Finnish industrial cluster

“…Problems related to health, safety, environment or quality (HSEQ) issues may cause significant disruptions at the worksite, and the legal responsibility for risk management at a multi-employer worksite lies with the buyer. In practice and in scientific literature this combination of the four elements of H, S, E and Q is discussed under the concept of Integrated Management Systems (IMS) (Salomone 2007;Domingues et al 2017;Cabecinhas et al 2020) which in turn can be juxtaposed to corporate social performance and widened to sustainable stakeholder development and management (Gianni et al 2017).…”