An Assessment of the Occupational Health and Safety Environment among Organizations on the Light of OHSAS 18001: The Case of Saudi Arabia
Nasser Akeil Kadasah

Abstract
This study aims at assessing the occupational health and safety workplace in a wide range of organizations in Saudi Arabia. The study investigates four factors according to OHSAS 18001: 2007 requirements analyzing data from 348 organizations. Those factors are; hazard identification, top management support, communication and participation of occupational health and safety system and emergency preparedness and response. This research reveals that the practice of occupational health and safety in the country is not promising in general with a poor accomplishment of the first factor (hazard identification) and an average level of the other three factors. When comparing between types of firms in their accomplishment, they are ranked as follows; manufacturing firms, hospitals and clinics, service firms, educational institutions and government agencies, respectively. The study also shows that organizations hold OHSAS 18001 certificates perform better than those that do not have the standard and shows that organizations with occupational health and safety departments perform better than those with no departments.

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