Developing a rubric for understanding the maturity of safety culture in large-scale apparel manufacturing organisations in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) in large-scale apparel manufacturing organisations has received increasing attention, yet most of the operational-level employees still lack sufficient safety awareness and knowledge on accident prevention, making them more vulnerable to workplace incidents. Since it could serve as an umbrella for safety-related issues, safety culture is one of the strategies for resolving them. This study aims to develop a rubric for understanding the safety culture maturity of the large-scale apparel manufacturing organisations in Sri Lanka. A comprehensive literature review was conducted to explore safety culture and its maturity. This study was based on Cooper’s reciprocal safety culture model and Hudson’s five-level safety culture maturity model. A qualitative approach was employed to achieve the research's aim, and the research strategy was chosen as an expert interview survey. Initially, two focus group interviews were conducted with industry experts in the field of OHS in the apparel industry. Four experts were participating in each meeting. The collected data were analysed using content analysis. The findings of the study present the developed rubric for understanding safety culture maturity.