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1 THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PRODUCTIVITY AND HEALTH, SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENT (HSE) INTEGRATED MANAGEMENT SYSTEM IN UNIVERSITIES AND EDUCATIONAL CENTERS; CASE STUDY; THE ISLAMIC AZAD UNIVERSITY, PARAND BRANCH Dr Fatemeh Razavian 1, Dr Mehrnoosh Jafari 2 *, Dr Behnoush Khoshmandzade 1 1 Department of Environmental Engineering, Parand Branch, Islamic Azad University Parand, Iran 2 Department of Social Sciences, Roudehen Branch, Islamic Azad University, Roudehen, Iran *Corresponding Author ABSTRACT The aim of conducting this research is to examine the relationship between manpower productivity and Health, Safety and environment (HSE) in Islamic Azad University, Parand branch. The research is an applied research regarding its objective and it is a descriptive- correlation one regarding the manner of execution. The under- study population included all employees and the faculty members of Parand branch of the Islamic Azad University which was a total of 340 individuals. The sample which was made up of 148 individuals was selected through stratified random sampling. Two researcher-made questionnaires have been used in order to evaluate the productivity of the employers and Health, Safety and environment (HSE), the questionnaires were proven reliable through the aid of Cronbach alpha test after their validity was approved of. The collected data were analyzed through Pearson and regression correlation statistical tests and a t test. The findings of the study indicated that the productivity of the manpower of Parand branch of the Islamic Azad University is not desirable. There is a positive and significant relationship between Health, Safety and environment (HSE) and productivity. Moreover there is a separately positive and significant relationship between each of the indexes of Health, Safety and environment (HSE) and productivity. Taking the obtained results from the research into account, the organizations managers and especially the managers of universities must pay special and double attention to environmental conditions, Health factors and the Safety conditions of universities so that they will be able to increase productivity and efficiency through it this will lead to the promotion of the quality of the services presented in the university. KEYWORDS: Employees, Environment, Health, Productivity, Safety, University. INTRODUCTION One of the major particulars of today s world market is the instability of demands, globalization, increased competition, and special productions and the key factor behind many of organizations constantly being successful at surviving within this active and competitive atmosphere, is productivity increase. While the term productivity has simply been defined as the ratio of output to input, the basis of productivity depends on other crucial factors such as technology, the atmosphere in which the organizations work in, and governmental politics and it is also equally dependent on other factors such as production processes, management and manpower(schuh et al. (2014). It is worth mentioning that productivity has always been a basic and essential subject in economy and management sciences. Productivity growth is traditionally related to technology and innovation development in microeconomics. However productivity concentrates on incentive systems and organizing work processes, and payment on the basis of performance in the organizational levels these are considered the instruments promoting productivity (Hakanen et al. (2014). Very simply put, labor productivity, can be defined as the number of working hours divided by the units of the work done. Even though labor productivity is actually a complex phenomenon which is largely dependent on different factors such as work conditions, the competency of the employees, raw materials being available, motivation, and supervision. Management affects labor productivity as well. Gunsan for instance has introduced inefficient management as one of the major reasons of low productivity. Manpower productivity is one of the key factors included in the organizations capability to achieve their goals (Enshassi et al. (2007). Constant changes such as increase in price of rare and energy resources, environmental changes and shifts, the aging of manpower, and resources shortage which increases by day make the issue of productivity more important each day. Productivity which is usually simply defined as the ratio of output to input is a fundamental concept in efficient and effective use of resources. Making profit and economic growth of productivity are one of the basic factors in organizations improvement(kapyla et al. (2007). Manpower resources are considered the main factor in sustainable development in modern management. Different approaches have been presented in order to achieve sustainable development in the modern and industrial world however despite the existence Volume- 4 Issue- 2 (2015) ISSN: (p); (e) 2015 DAMA International. All rights reserved. 551

2 of manpower resources there have not been processes which could create desirable results therefore they have led the systems to decay and failure. Modern organizations which compete in global scale must separately attend to the issues of Health, Safety and environment (HSE) and the welfare of their employees in addition to increasing their customers satisfaction (mohammadfam et al. (2012). The Health, Safety and environment (HSE) management has been introduced as an essential instrument for controlling and promoting developmental plans in industry in the recent years. These systems provide a proper beginning for establishing and using management standards for Health, Safety and environment (HSE) through constant evaluation of these three issues. Attending to these fundamental subjects leads to the constant improvement of systems and these issues must be applied to organizational strategies in order to ensure this organizational improvement. The components of this system include the Health, Safety and environment (HSE). Each of these issues covers a number of subindexes. Safety includes mechanical, thermal, electrical, chemical dangers and dangers related to transportation and local and neighborhood conditions and Safety includes physical and personal Safety of the environment including the natural resources, garbage disposal, ventilation, temperature, and the local conditions (Mahdavinejad et al. (2012). MATERIALS AND METHODS This research is an applied research regarding its purpose and is a descriptive correlation research regarding its execution manner. The research population included the employees and the faculty members of Parand branch of the Islamic Azad University including the humanities, biological sciences, technological and engineering, and information technology faculties. The total of the employees and the faculty members of Parand branch were 340 which in fact was the populations of the research. The sample size was determined to be 148 through the use of Krejcie and Morgan formula. This 148- individual sample was selected through stratified sampling, 21 individuals from the biological sciences faculty, 44 individuals from the technology and engineering faculty, 54 people from the humanities and 30 individuals from the information technology faculty. The sampling was also done through random sampling in each of the faculties. Reviewing the related literature and questionnaire were used in order to collect data in such manner that the principles and the review of the related literature helped identifying the indexes and factors that influence productivity and then the researcher- made questionnaire was prepared and after determining the validity and the reliability of the questionnaire the data were collected. Also the above- mentioned stages were used to determine the indexes and factors which affected the Health, Safety and environment (HSE) and after identifying the indexes and factors influencing Health, Safety and environment (HSE) conditions, the researcher- made questionnaire which consisted of 41 questions was prepared and executed after determining the validity and the reliability of the mentioned questionnaire. The content validity of the questionnaires was determined based on the judgment of the experts and the review of the related literature in order to evaluate the validity of the questionnaires. After applying the opinions of these experts in the intended questionnaires the questionnaires were first piloted then executed in order to determine the face validity of the questionnaire. Cronbach alpha coefficient was eventually used in order to determine the reliability of the questionnaire after determining the face and content validity of the questionnaire. Cronbach alpha coefficient was obtained to be 0.87 for the productivity questionnaire and 0.85 for the HSE questionnaire in this study. The questions related to the field study were scored based on the five- point Likert scale. In such manner that the score 5 was given to very much option and 1 was dedicated to very little option in the productivity questionnaire. The score 5 was given to the very suitable option in the HSE questionnaire and the score 1 was given to very inappropriate option. The documents and literature related to the subject matter were examined for the purposes of gathering data and the essential information was collected from the related articles, books and other documents through taking notes. The researcher- made questionnaires were then prepared through the aid of data collected by taking notes the questionnaires were finally distributed in person through the field studies then the questionnaires were collected after seven days. The data gathered from the collected questionnaires were extracted and placed in the main tables. And then all the research data were analyzed in two parts through the use of spss19 statistical software. The first part included the demographic information of the sample through the use of descriptive statistical indexes (frequency, frequency percentage) and the second part included the information which led to determining the correlation between productivity and HSE and its comprising indexes. Volume- 4 Issue- 2 (2015) ISSN: (p); (e) 2015 DAMA International. All rights reserved. 552

3 RESULTS The data underwent statistical analysis after the questionnaires were collected. In such manner that Kolmogorov- Smirnov test was used to examine the normality of the data of the research. The results indicated that the data related to this research are normal (table number 1). Table 1 the results of Kolmogorov-Smirnov test on the data Kolmogorov-Smirnov test Number of questionnaires 148 Mean Standard deviation Z Kolmogorov-Smirnov Level of significance Regression and correlation analytical tests were used for the purposes of examining the research hypotheses and the results of the tests indicated that: There is a positive correlation and a significant relationship between Health conditions and productivity of the employees. The correlation coefficient between them is There is a positive correlation and significant relationship between the security conditions and employees productivity. The correlation coefficient of these two is equal to There is a positive correlation and significant relationship between the environmental conditions and employees productivity. The correlation coefficient of these two is equal to There is a positive correlation and significant relationship between Health, Safety and environment (HSE) conditions and employees productivity (table 2). Table 2 the results of correlation test on productivity and Health, Safety and environment (HSE) conditions in Parand Islamic Azad University Health, Safety and environment (HSE) Health Safety Environmental conditions Productivit y of the employees Pearson correlation coefficient Level of significanc e Number of questionna ires Regression analysis was also used in order to examine the degree the HSE variable predicts employees productivity. The results of regression analysis indicated that the HSE variable predicts the productivity changes by 13 percent (table number 3) Table 3 the results of regression analysis between the HSE index and productivity Model Correlation coefficient R2 Adjusted R2 Standard deviation Moreover in line with answering the other research questions based on the degree of productivity of the employees of Parand branch of the Islamic Azad University and the Health, Safety and environment (HSE) conditions of Parand University, the results of the research indicated that the conditions of the productivity of the employees is not desirable. In other words there is (a negative mean difference) a significant difference (at a less than 5 percent level of significance) considering the one- sample t test and considering the fact that the level of error is less than 5 percent Volume- 4 Issue- 2 (2015) ISSN: (p); (e) 2015 DAMA International. All rights reserved. 553

4 between the employees productivity mean and the reference mean therefore the productivity of the employees of Parand branch of the Islamic Azad University is undesirable. Moreover the Health, Safety and environment (HSE) conditions of Parand University are desirable (table 4 and 5). Table 4 the descriptive specification related to each of the variables Variable Number of questionnaires Mean Standard deviation Deviation from the mean Environment Health Safety Employees productivity Table 5 one- sample t test for comparing the mean of the variables and the reference mean Variables t Degrees of freedom Sig. (2- tailed) Deviation from the 95% confidence interval of the difference mean Upper Lower Environment Health Safety Employees productivity DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION As the results of this study have indicated productivity levels are not desirable in Parand branch of the Islamic Azad University. Therefore solutions must be put forth in order to promote productivity through the aid of finding the reasons behind low levels of productivity of the work force. Since the results of this research determined that there is a positive correlation and a significant relationship between productivity Health, Safety and environment conditions, one of the essential approaches for promoting productivity may be attending to the safety conditions of Parand branch of the Islamic Azad University also the environmental conditions and the Health factors of this university complex which will significantly affect productivity. Also paying attention to other factors influencing productivity promotion which have been pointed out in the researchers conducted by Sharifzade and Mohammadimoghadam(Sharifzade et al. (2009)). Such as proper encouraging wages, proper selection and hiring of employees, forming suitable working teams, and promoting group activities, increasing the job safety of the employees, being more flexible in handing jobs over, connections and teaching skills are among the approaches which have been proposed for the purposes of promoting productivity. Also according to Halkos and Bousinakis (2010). Opinion reducing stress and increasing satisfaction and according to the opinion of Batisi and Iona (2009). suitable changes in technological, structural and management issues are amongst other approaches which can be used for promoting productivity in Parand branch of the Islamic Azad University. Moreover the other results of the research determined that there is a positive correlation and a significant relationship between the environmental, Health, Safety and environment (HSE) and employees productivity. In other words the more the environmental, Health, Safety and environment (HSE) conditions are attended to in organizations and especially in universities the more work affects the manpower and productivity will increase as well. In other words according to the results of the present study as attention to Health conditions such as sufficient air flow, sufficient office equipment, proper trash collecting, and attention to Safety conditions such as proper wiring, building security, extinguishing fire, secure locations, and also attention to environmental conditions such as fresh air, sound pollution, window and glass insulation, controlling the entrances regarding energy waste, proper wastewater system in the building, providing fresh air in accordance with production degree, productivity and effectiveness increases within an organization productivity will eventually increase within that organization. With regard to these issues the results of the study is consistent with the researches carried out by Kapyla (2007), Sujitwanit and Kess (2009), Saxena(2014), Allameh et al (2011), Yu Wang (2012) and Mahdavinejad (2012). Volume- 4 Issue- 2 (2015) ISSN: (p); (e) 2015 DAMA International. All rights reserved. 554

5 Also considering the fact that the results of the study have indicated that the Health conditions of Parand branch of Islamic Azad University is not desirable the following suggestions are presented to promote the current conditions: More attention must be paid to the Health conditions of Parand branch of the Islamic Azad University such as: the condition of the buildings regarding their light, proper temperature in different seasons like warming systems in cold seasons and cooling systems in warm seasons through suitable equipment, sufficient air flow in the rooms and classrooms, sufficient office supplies must be examined and the shortages must be eliminated. The trash collection system must be corrected and the Health conditions of the bathrooms and self-services, and the university cafeteria must be examined and proper checklists must be prepared and the cleanliness and Health conditions must be constantly examined in accordance with the checklist. Periodic inspections must be conducted regarding the employees who work in the university s self service, cafeteria and restaurant. Also controlling the entrance and exit of insects and other animals to the university campus, regularly cleaning the university and the classes and equipping the university with elevators to ease access to different parts of the university for regular and handicapped individuals are amongst other approaches. REFERENCES Allameh S. M., Momeni Z., Shekarchizadeh Esfahani Z. dna Karimzadeh bardeh M. (2011). An assessment of the effect of information communication technology on human resource productivity of Mubarak steel complex in Isfahan (IRAN). Proc. Comput. Sci. 3: Batisti G. and Iona A. (2009). The UK productivity gap in the Service Sector: do Management Practices Matter? Int. J. Prod. Perform. Manage. 8: Bousinakis D. and Halkos G. (2010). The Effect of Stress and Satisfaction on Productivity. Int. J. Prod. Perform. Manage. 5: Enshassi A., Mohamed Sh., Mayer P. and Abed C. (2007). Int. J. prod. Perform. Manage., 56: Kapyla J., Jaaskelainen A. and Lonnqvist A. (2010). Identifying future challenge for productivity research: evidence from Finland. Challenge Prod. Res. 59 (7): Hakanen J. and Koivumaki J. (2014). Engage or exhausted- how does it affect dentists clinical productivity. Burnout Res. 1: Mahdavinejad M.J., Hoessini A. and Alavibelmana M. (2012). Enhancement HSE factors in pedestrian underpass regarding to chemical hazards, mashad, Iran. Social Behave. Sci. 51: Mohammadfam I., Mahmoudi S. and Kianfar A. (2012). Development of the health, safety and environment excellence instrument: a HSE-MS performance measurement tool. Procardia Eng. 45: Saxena A. (2014). Workforce Diversity: A Key to improve productivity. Procardia Econ. Financ. 11: Schuh G., Potente, T., Varandani R., Hausberg C. and Franken B. (2014). Collaboration moves productivity to the next level. Procedia Cirp. 17: 3-8. Sharifzade F. and Mohhamadimoghadam Y. (2009). Relationship between employee empowerment and human capital productivity in employees of military forces of lorestan province. Military Forces Stud. 4: Sujitwanit S. and Kess P. (2009). Profile-based circumstances for productivity measurement. Ind. Manage. Data Syst. 109: Yu W., Minbang T., Dongbo W., Qiang Z., Shihui Sh., shuhuang, L. (2012). Study on the HSE management at construction site of oil and gas processing area. Procardia Eng. 45: Volume- 4 Issue- 2 (2015) ISSN: (p); (e) 2015 DAMA International. All rights reserved. 555