A multiple attribute decision model to compare the firms' occupational health and safety management perspectives

Both the ferocious competition and judicial regulations of national or international authorities enforce organizations to implement a bundle of management systems (e.g. safety, quality, environmental, etc). Occupational Health and Safety Management System is a very important one because it provides guidance about the safety conditions for workplaces and health of the employees working within these areas. Measurement of a firm's OHSMS performance is vital because the firm's perspective about it is directly related with the workers' health. Besides, the comparison of the firms within an industry in terms of occupational health and safety can be informative for the authorities and the worker unions. In this study, we aim to build a multiple attribute decision making (MADM) model for determining and comparing the firms' OHSMS performances. The model utilizes the firms' OHSAS 18001:2007 implementation performances and compares them with respect to the standard's conditions. The ranking indicates each firm's OHSMS consciousness level against its competitors. We determine the importance of criteria (requirements of OHSAS) by Simos' procedure and VIKOR method ranks the firms in terms of the quality consultants' assessments. In this manner, this study introduces MADM as a possible firm comparison approach in terms of their OHSMS perspectives.