Occupational health and safety management system effectiveness: reflections from theory and insights from practice

Since the end of the 1990s, management systems (MSs) have been progressively recognised as a fundamental element to address different categories of corporate risk, including occupational health and safety (OHS). However, despite the widespread use of MSs, the definition of their underlying characteristics and the evaluation of their effectiveness with respect to the expected outcomes still appear as two unresolved and neglected questions. This paper aims to contribute to answering these questions. First, a comparative analysis of the literature on management control systems (MCSs) and OHS-MSs was run, aiming to highlight how OHS-MSs share the same control-based philosophy and the same approach as MCSs. Then, an empirical investigation was conducted to gather the views of OHS key players from the Italian waste management sector. The comparative analysis of the literature, complemented by the empirical investigation, outlines the relationships between MCSs and OHS-MSs and highlights the consequent criticalities emerging in terms of risk prevention.