Operationalizing Safety: A Macroergonomic Assessment of the Safety Climate in Engineering Laboratories at Marinduque State University

Abstract

The concept of “Just Culture” and Safety Management Systems (SMS) in high-reliability industries represents the foundation upon which all other aspects of an operationally reliable organization are built. A Macroergonomic Assessment is conducted in the study, focusing on evaluating the Safety Climate at the College of Engineering of Marinduque State University. In understanding that safety is not merely the absence of accidents, but the presence of defensive measures, this study examines the linkage between the social environment (sociotechnical interface) of the organizational safety culture (policy enforcement, management commitment) and the physical environment (hazard mitigation, ergonomics) in which the engineering students and faculty operate. Using a descriptive-comparative methodology with a cross-sectional survey design, the study uses a survey instrument to examine the perceptions of engineering students and faculty regarding risk, adherence to safety regulations, and their confidence in the effectiveness of the safety policies currently in place in the laboratories. The purpose of the study is to infer the risk of latent conditions in the university's laboratory operations that may precede significant events such as normalization of deviance or resource-constrained shortcuts. The study used 193 respondents, which included 173 students and 20 faculty members from five engineering disciplines. The results showed that there were no significant differences between the two groups in their perceptions of the managerial and personnel aspects of safety climate; however, there was a significant difference in the technical aspect of safety climate, with faculty rating technical conditions as less desirable than students.