Motives for occupational risk management in large UK companies

This paper attempts to explain why large UK corporations undertake measures to reduce the risks to which their employees are exposed, namely those of occupational injury and/or redundancy. Empirical results are based on a postal questionnaire survey of 127 corporate risk and finance managers selected from a population of the 350 largest UK companies. This survey shows that the primary motives associated with occupational risk management are those of regulatory compliance and avoidance of legal liabilities. In addition, the importance attached to these incentives appears to be influenced by a number of firm-specific characteristics and is positively related to capital intensity. This result has implications for government safety policy, since effectiveness of government regulations could be increased if safety inspectors were able to identify firms that place a high priority on the management of occupational risk. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd