Economic Evaluation Model of Safety Management

摘要

Recent developments in the management of workplace safety have highlighted its role in corporate competitive strategy. The paper analyses the economic impact of safety, seeking to identify its interactions with corporate value creation and, thus, its potential competitive leverage. In order to address the problem systematically, costs have been classified in four categories: risk reduction costs, costs to limit consequences, tangible risk costs and latent risk costs. For each individual cost item, the curves have been modelled, so giving a total cost curve with a typical U shape. Using data for the three-year period 1995-97, the proposed model has been applied in a steel company in support of trend analyses showing that the number of injuries has halved and the total sustained costs have fallen. Analysis of the actions which have led to these operative results points to the importance of training, since once a safety standard based primarily on technical directives has been established, the most remunerative measures are those which have an impact on the structure and aim to disseminate a safety culture.