Evidence-based evaluation of safety management in port labor outsourcing

Abstract

Port enterprises resort to external resources, e.g., outsourcing of labor services during loading and unloading operations. The low safety management ability of labor service enterprises causes frequent hazards and unsafe incidents. This study sets out to identify safety system deficiencies that are likely to occur when port enterprises outsource operations, as well as the causes of system hazards and impact on safety management. A quantitative research design was implemented in this study, where the data were collected through evidence-based practice techniques with the participation of safety management experts selected by purposive sampling. The study reveals six themes that may potentially affect safety. Compared with the extensive supervision and management method, the evidence-based evaluation of the safety management mode brings about a striking optimization effect which results in classification accuracy and targeted control. This finding triggered a management requirement for establishing sustainable, direct, legal measures in association with outsourcing safety improvement.

KEYWORDS:

• evidence-based safety management
• outsourcing of labor services
• port production

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Fundamental Research Funds for the central universities of China [Grant Number 3122021111]; Safety Capacity Building Fund Project of CAAC [Grant Number KJZ49420210076].