Knowledge, Administrative Skill and Working Performance of Safety Offifcers in Natural Rubber Processing Industry, South of Thailand

Abstract

This cross-sectional survey study aimed to analyze the knowledge, administrative skill and working performance among safety offficers in natural rubber processing industry, south of Thailand. Twelve natural rubber processing factories were purposively selected. Study populations were 69, 11 and 173 safety offficers in management, professional and supervising level, respectively. The data collection was done by using questionnaires. The data analysis included frequency distribution, percentage, mean, standard deviation and Chi-square statistic.

The results of the study : 1) administration knowledge for occupational health and safety of total safety offficers were at the moderate level
(53.3%) and average score of 73.3%. Most of the safety offficers in management level were at the high level (53.7%), whereas the safety offficers in professional and supervising levels were at the moderate (54.5 and 57.2%, respectively); 2) occupational health and safety administrative skill of total safety offifcers were at the moderate level (73.1%) and average score of 90.9 from 120. Most  of the safety offficers in management, professional and supervising levels were at the moderate (75.4, 72.7 and 72.3%, respectively). Planning, organizing, directing and controlling were at the moderate level (66.8, 61.7, 68.0 and 63.6%, respectively); 3) working performance of safety offficers following ministerial regulation on the prescribing of standard for administration and management of occupational safety, health and environment B.E. 2549 (A.D. 2006) found that proportion of safety offficers in total were at the moderate level (58.9%) and average score of 77.1%; and 4) factors affecting working performance of safety offficers included knowledge and administrative skill in occupational health and safety (p < 0.01)

In conclusion, knowledge and administrative skills are needed for working performance of safety offficers, the government and entrepreneur sectors should support and develop them in administrative knowledge and skill for a highly effficiency and effectiveness a performance.