A Qualitative Study on Organizational Factors Affecting Occupational Accidents

Background: Technical, human, operational and organizational factors have been influencing the sequence of occu-pational accidents. Among them, organizational factors play a major role in causing occupational accidents. The aim of this research was to understand the Iranian safety experts’ experiences and perception of organizational factors. Methods: This qualitative study was conducted in 2015 by using the content analysis technique. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 17 safety experts working in Iranian universities and industries and analyzed with a conventional qualitative content analysis method using the MAXQDA software. Results: Eleven organizational factors’ sub-themes were identified: management commitment, management participa-tion, employee involvement, communication, blame culture, education and training, job satisfaction, interpersonal rela-tionship, supervision, continuous improvement, and reward system. The participants considered these factors as effec-tive on occupational accidents. Conclusion: The mentioned 11 organizational factors are probably involved in occupational accidents in Iran. Natu-rally, improving organizational factors can increase the safety performance and reduce occupational accidents.