Assessment of Safety Culture and Maturity in Mining Environments: Case of Njuli Quarry

Due to an ever increasing concern for safety at most mines in Malawi, this paper aimed at assessing the safety culture and maturity in mining environments by applying the Safety Culture Maturity Model (SCMM). The SCMM is a practical and reliable diagnostic tool to use in the context of Malawian mining environments because it emphasizes the importance of employee involvement in assessing and improving safety culture. Njuli quarry is used as a case study due to its adoption of modern mining technologies and long existence in the mining industry. The methods used to assess the level of maturity of safety culture comprised questionnaires, interviews and behavioral observations. To test the reliability of the questionnaire, the respondents were interviewed using the same questions and comparing the results. There was good reliability of the measures used since the correlation coefficients between questionnaire and interview ranged from r = 0.9 to 1. The results demonstrate that Njuli quarry has more characteristics of the Managing Level 2 or Developing Stage with percentages ranging 55% - 60% followed by the Emerging Level 1 ranging 33% - 36%. The Involving Level 3 ranged 4% - 10% showing improvement in some items of the dimensions of the safety framework. The company had the lowest percentages of 0% - 2% in Cooperating Level 4, and 0% - 1% in Continually Improving Level 5. This was expected because most mining companies in Malawi focus on maximizing production regardless of the safety implications, and also employees do not take safety issues seriously despite minor accidents and near misses. Therefore, the company should carry out safety trainings, set up a safety department, provide PPE to employees, and introduce rewards for best safety performance. Present study has added new knowledge on levels of maturity of safety culture in Malawi’s mining environments which will influence the Department of Mines in policy development, site safety inspections and safety audits.


Introduction
Despite Malawi experiencing an increase in the number of open pit quarries, there is a research gap on the state of safety culture maturity in mining environments. Therefore, the question that arises is how safe are these mining environments. Present study seeks to address the research question by assessing the level of safety culture and maturity in Malawi's mining environments with Terrastone Njuli quarry used as a case study. The mining site is chosen due to its adoption of modern mining technologies and long existence in the mining industry. Research by Chiocha et al. (2011) found that optimum health and safety leadership, management commitment to and management involvement in health and safety, increasing awareness, and appropriate enforcement of legislation can lead to a decline in the number of construction-related fatalities and injuries in Malawi. In recent years, there has been an increasing recognition of the importance of organisational, cultural and behavioural aspects of safety management in high reliability industries (Lardner, 2002). Management has realized that the general likelihood of an accident occurring in their plant depends not only on the actions of individual employees, but also on the "safety culture" of their organisation, defined by the Confederation of British Industry as "the way we do things around here" (Lardner, 2002). Research by Lardner (2002) also suggests that the Safety Culture Maturity Model (see Figure 1) aims at assisting organizations in establishing their current level of safety culture maturity and identifying the actions required to improve their safety culture. Figure 1: Safety culture maturity model (Fleming, 2001) Figure 2 is based on Figure 1 and it shows how an improvement in safety culture lowers the rate of incidents occurring at a company. The key elements that constitute a good foundation for safety in an organization comprise strategic plans and action plans that integrate safety into all aspects of an organization's activities, presence and quality of the organization's risk control systems & safety management information system, the extent to which an organisation' safety management systems are reviewed and the extent to which every employee receives high quality integrated job and safety training (IAEA 2002a, Goncalves et al., 2010. Njuli quarry is involved in high risk mining operations such as drilling, blasting, loading, hauling and processing of rock aggregates hence there is a need to assess the state of safety culture at the mining site. It is hoped that the output of this research will provide insights on how to assess and improve safety culture maturity in Malawi's mining environments.

Study Area
Njuli Quarry is an aggregate mine located at Latitude -15.706495° and Longitude 35.118275° (see Figure 3). The quarry supplies construction materials to the surrounding areas. There are drilling, blasting, hauling and processing activities at the mine site which might affect mine workers as well as residents of Chakachaza, Chikuse, Luwanga and Namakhuwa villages.

Procedure
The Safety Culture Maturity Model (SCMM) used in this research is based on Fleming (2001) because the model emphasizes the importance of employee involvement in assessing and improving safety culture. In order to establish the level of maturity of Njuli quarry's safety culture, a framework of five dimensions (Fleming, 2001;IAEA 2002a;& Goncalves et al., 2010) was applied: i.
Information: involves the way the organisation allows its employees to inform about any near misses and accidents as well as the confidence the employees have in the organisation. ii.
Organisational Learning: describes how the organisation deals with the information, how the organisation analyses the accidents and near misses at the workplace, and if the organization keeps the employees informed about these events. iii.
Involvement: explains the way the organisation leads the employees to a growing participation in safety issues, in accident analysis and in reviewing procedures and rules. It also includes if the employees participate in safety committees and safety meetings. iv.
Communication The five dimensional frameworks had items which were used as statements to develop a safety maturity questionnaire for Njuli Quarry. Tables 1-5 show the framework and how each one of the five dimensions is treated in each one of the five stages of maturity of safety culture. Each item represented one level: 1 -Emerging, 2 -Managing, 3 -Involving, 4 -Cooperating and 5 -Continually Improving. The questionnaire had 22 questions: 14 questions with five items and 8 questions with four items, hence totalling 102 items. For each question, the respondents were required to select the item that best represented the position of the company.     Continually Improving Level 5 1. Planning for safety at work is not done by the organisation 2. The organisation does not audit in safety at work 3. The organisation does not invest in safety at work 4. The organisation does not provide any safety at work training 5. The organisation does not have a team to give support in safety at work 6. The organisation considers safety at work only an expense 7. The procedures in safety at work are seen as limiting as far as activities are concerned 8. The organisation does not adopt a rewarding system to stimulate safety at work 9. The organisation hires outsourced companies for a lower price and shows no concern with safety 1. Planning for safety at work is focused only on what went wrong in the past 2. The organisation audits in safety at work only after serious accidents and work-related illnesses occur 3. The organisation invests in safety at work only after serious accidents and work-related illnesses occur 4. The organisation provides resources so that specific training program in safety at work can take place only after serious accidents occur 5. The organisation has a small team to give support in safety at work 6. The organisation considers safety at work important only when serious accidents or workrelated illnesses occur 7. The procedures in safety at work are written only in face of serious accidents that occur 8. The organisation adopts a rewarding system to stimulate safety at work only in specific situations, that is, after serious accidents and workrelated illnesses occur 9. The organisation worries about safety at work in relation to outsourced 1. Planning for safety at work is focused only on the identification and analysis of existing risks in the workplace 2. The organisation has an auditing program in safety at work only in areas where risk of accident and workrelated illness exist 3. The organisation invests only to avoid risks of accident and work-related illnesses on the job 4. The organisation has standard safety at work training only for the employees who work in places where risks of accident and work-related illnesses exist 5. The organisation has a team that is big enough to give support in safety at work 6. The organisation considers safety at work important, but it emphasises production 7. The procedures in safety at work focus only the sectors where risks of accident and work-related illnesses exist 8. The organisation adopts a rewarding system for good 1. Planning for safety at work is well structured with problem prevention and work procedures improvement, but It is not integrated with the other areas of the organisation 2. The organisation has an auditing program in all the its sectors for safety at work 3. The organisation invests systematically in safety at work in all its sectors 4. The organisation has a continuous training process in safety at work for all its employees 5. The organisation has a team that is big enough to give support in safety at work 6. The organisation seeks to prioritise safety at work, but it is not a reality yet 7. The procedures in safety at work are done the best way possible, but they are not periodically reviewed 8. The organisation adopts a rewarding system for all its sectors due to the employees' performance in safety at work 9. The organisation 1. Planning for safety at work is well structured with problem prevention and work procedures improvement and It is integrated with the other areas of the organisation 2. The organisation has an auditing program in all its sectors for both safety at work and environment 3. The organisation continuously evaluates the need for new investment in both safety at work and the environment 4. The organisation has a continuous training process in safety at work for all its employees 5. The organisation does not have a team to give support in safety at work specifically because the responsibility for it is shared by all the organisation members 6. The organisation, in fact, prioritises safety at work and production equally 7. The procedures in safety at work are done the best way possible and are constantly reviewed for better effectiveness 8. The organisation considers its employees only when serious accidents or work-related illnesses occur performance in safety at work only for those sectors where risks of accident and work-related illnesses exist 9. The organisation has a prequalification process in safety at work before contracting outsourced companies. Nevertheless, there is no followup afterwards has a prequalification process in safety at work before contracting outsourced companies. Nevertheless, there is no followup afterwards employees are highly motivated by both safety at work and the environment; therefore, it does not see the need for a rewarding system 9. The organisation considers the outsourced companies as part of its safety and environmental management system

Respondents
The sample of respondents was randomly selected from the production, maintenance and management teams. A total of 10, 10 and 4 respondents from the production, maintenance and management teams were selected respectively. Respondents from the management team comprised of the Managing Director, Quarry Manager, Safety Manager and Safety Officer. The respondents were advised to maintain anonymity when filling out the questionnaire.

Interviews
In order to correlate the respondents' answered questionnaires, all 24 respondents were interviewed by the researcher a week later after questionnaire submission and the interview lasted 30 minutes. Due to the nonparametric nature of the data, the verification of the questionnaire and interview scores were done by Kendall' tau, ꞇ (Field 2005). During the time of this research, three students from The Polytechnic were on industrial attachment at the mining company thereby making it convenient for the researcher to observe the behaviour of management and employees towards safety. In addition, the researcher was given one month unlimited access to the site so as to observe employee' behavior, and carry out situational audits on safety culture. This on-site experience assisted in getting reliable responses from the interviewees.

Results and Discussion
All 24 respondents answered their questionnaire and returned it a week later. Interviews done on the respondents showed a correlation of between 0.9 and 1 indicating a good reliability of responses to questionnaire. Collected data was analyzed using Microsoft Excel statistical package. Table 7 shows the percentage of responses from 22 questions for each one of the five dimensions from all the 24 respondents. The use of the questionnaire, on-site behavioral observation, and interviews provided a satisfactory correlation on the maturity of safety culture at Njuli Quarry. The researcher was taken through all sections at the quarry mine and this provided a better perspective on the company's adherence to the five dimensions and frameworks of safety. Njuli quarry's maturity of safety culture varies across the five different maturity levels. The different levels of maturity found in this Njuli Quarry sample are consistent with the safety culture maturity concept in that safety culture does not develop at the same pace in all dimensions (IAEA, 2002a;Goncalves et al., 2010;Fleming, 2001). From the results, it is clear that Njuli quarry has more characteristics of the Managing Level 2 or Developing Stage with percentages ranging 55% -60% followed by the Emerging Level 1 ranging 33% -36%. The Involving Level 3 ranged 4% -10% showing improvement in some items of the dimensions of the safety framework. The company had the lowest percentages of 0% -2% in Cooperating Level 4, and 0% -1% in Continually Improving Level 5. The results were anticipated by the researcher due to the fact that there is little to no literature available on safety culture in Malawi's mining environments, and through observation, most mining companies mainly focus on maximizing production regardless of the safety culture. Njuli quarry has no designated safety department thereby making it difficult for employees to report on near misses and noncompliance. The employees blame the company for not providing them with enough personal protective equipment and safety training thereby fostering complacency. However, the company indulges in safety talks and equipment inspection at 6:45am every morning before any work starts thereby showing the companies' commitment to improving safety culture. In addition, before blasting is carried out the company notifies the surrounding community of a date when blasting will be done. Blasting is normally carried out at 12pm noon and warning sirens are done 15 minutes prior to ignition of blast.

Conclusion and Recommendation
Fleming's (2001) safety culture maturity model was successfully applied to Njuli quarry mining environment and it has proven to be a reliable diagnostic tool for assessing safety culture maturity. The Emerging and Managing Levels of safety culture represent a true reflection of the maturity of safety culture in Malawi's mining environments because mining is still at the developing phase in Malawi and mining companies are mostly focused on maximizing production regardless of the safety culture. Present study findings will assist the Department of Mines when carrying out safety inspections in mining environments. In addition, mining companies will apply this new knowledge when carrying out safety audits on their operations thereby complying with the Malawi government's safety regulations. According to the Mining Safety Regulations (1982), all mining companies are encouraged to adhere to safety rules but most of these companies take shortcuts and reduce safety budgets so as to maximize production. Therefore, to continually improve safety culture in Malawi's mining environments, it is recommended to: Provide PPE to all employees at all working times Encourage housekeeping Carry out safety trainings, audits, and provide scenarios of near misses Set up an on-site safety department and develop a risk management system Introduce rewards for best safety performance to increase motivation amongst employees.