Ensuring workplace safety and providing guidelines to the organization, safety standards play a crucial role. These standards enhance employee well-being and improve operational performance. But even though these standards exist the question lies with the inconsistent adoption and implementation success. And this raises a question about what factors drive these processes and how we can influence these factors to better support improving workplace safety.
Substantial research has been done on quality and compatibility standards adoption, but the research on safety standards remains limited, fragmented and unclear about the difference between adoption and implementation. This research addresses this gap by aiming to identify factors that influence these two distinct stages of adoption and implementation. While the current literature struggles to distinguish these stages, this research defines them clearly setting a guideline. Adoption is defined as internal decision by a company to encompass, whether to use or not use a safety standard, choosing between different available safety standards. Implementation is defined as the process of integrating the chosen safety standard into organizational operations. i.e. integration in the (safety) management systems such that the company complies with the chosen standard. Further, this research also evaluates the relative significance of these factors and explores how the most important factors can be influenced by different stakeholders. Thus, it provides organizations and policymakers with actionable insights to promote safer and more resilient workplaces.
A 3-step methodology was used for this research. First, to identify the factors influencing the adoption and implementation of safety standards, a systematic literature review and exploratory investigation were conducted. The factors were organized into two frameworks: one for adoption (13 factors grouped under four categories) and one for implementation (6 factors). The adoption factors divided into 4 categories, included External Influence (Regulatory Pressure, Value Chain Pressure, Broader Societal Pressure), Firm Characteristics (Management Commitment, Resources), Company Goals (Image, Operational Efficiency, Safe Working Environment, Cost Savings, Global expansion) and Standard Characteristics (Quality, Compatibility, Cost). For implementation, the factors relate to Commitment (from all the levels of the company), Communication & Training, Continuous Improvement Mechanisms, Resources, Compatibility with the Company, and Government Support.

The second step of the research used the Best Worst Method (BWM) to quantify the relative importance of each factor with the help of experts. The results show that the Management Commitment and Regulatory Pressure are the most significant factors in adoption, while Commitment and Communication & Training are key for implementation.
In the third step, a literature review was conducted, and the experts were interviewed to identify the stakeholders influencing the top 2 ranked factors from both adoption and implementation frameworks. This step also focused on providing insights on how these highly important factors can be influenced. The findings show that these factors are influenced by various stakeholders: governments provide external pressure, top leadership drives internal prioritization, and middle management shapes implementation through engagement and awareness. These findings align with institutional theory, emphasizing coercive, mimetic, and normative pressures in shaping organizational behavior.
The practical implications of this research are twofold. Policy makers can use the findings to develop more targeted regulatory policies, provide incentives, and offer support mechanisms tailored to organizational needs, particularly for SMEs. The key recommendations for policymakers include:
• Use financial incentives such as tax benefits or grants to encourage adoption.
• Offer subsidized training programs and access to safety equipment or consultancy services, helping overcome internal capability gaps in SMEs.
• Promote recognition programs (e.g., safety awards) that link compliance to public image and reputation.
• Support benchmarking and performance transparency by publishing industry-wide safety metrics.
Managers, on the other hand, can better structure their internal strategies by aligning safety goals with business objectives, improving training programs, and enabling open communication across levels. The recommendations for managers include:
• Frame safety as a strategic priority, not just a compliance requirement. Integrate safety-related KPIs into performance evaluation and business continuity planning.
• Develop a formal commitment strategy that links goals, resource allocation, and contingency planning. This ensures alignment and accountability.
• Empower middle management and safety officers to act as translators of safety vision into daily operations. Provide them with authority, tools, and training to lead implementation.
• Appoint individuals with strong safety values and past industry experience. These champions can help shape safety culture and mentor others.
• Foster involvement by enabling employee participation through safety committees, open communication channels, and continuous feedback loops.
• Benchmark safety performance against industry peers and learn from leaders.
• Ensure continuity by embedding safety into onboarding and leadership development programs, sustaining commitment even during organizational transitions.
In conclusion, this research offers a structured and actionable understanding of what drives safety standard adoption and implementation. By separating the two phases, identifying key influencing factors, and highlighting stakeholder roles, the study contributes to academic theory and provides practical value for creating safer organizational environments.

Construction accidents are known to occur often; in 2022, there were 129 accidents in the Netherlands for every 100,000 workers . Beyond the tendency to place the responsibility on employees, this study investigates the impact of client involvement in enhancing safety performance. The majority of safety research focusses on the building phase, indicating that client influence decreases as projects progress. The study highlights 43 crucial client responsibilities with a focus on pre-construction phases, specifically in the Planning, Inception, and Feasibility; Design, and Procurement and Tendering phases. Moreover, Semi-structured interviews reveal differing practices between infrastructure and oil & gas projects, providing the opportunity to learn from these differences and highlighting areas for improvement, such as establishing stricter safety objectives, early contractor involvement, and enhanced knowledge sharing. The findings suggest that optimizing client roles in pre-construction phases can significantly enhance safety performance in construction projects.

This thesis explores the implementation of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), specifically the Environmental Sustainability Reporting Standard (ESRS) E1, within the logistics sector. As a major contributor to global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the logistics sector faces both challenges and opportunities in aligning with the CSRD’s objectives to promote transparency and sustainability. Through a qualitative case-study approach, the research investigates how logistics companies navigate GHG reporting under CSRD ESRS E1 and identifies key factors influencing their alignment with sustainability goals. The findings highlight three forms of decoupling between policy and practice, including loose coupling between compliance and internal operations, and the gap between sustainability policies and operational realities. Additionally, the study reveals several internal and external factors contributing to these misalignments, such as resource limitations and the complexity of supply chains. The thesis concludes with actionable recommendations for businesses and policymakers to enhance the effectiveness of CSRD implementation and reduce policy-practice decoupling, contributing to meaningful progress in GHG emissions reduction.

This study investigates organizations’ approaches to managing cybersecurity challenges that are associated with high levels of teleworking. Over the last two and a half years the pandemic forced organizations to implement teleworking models that resulted in a large share of the workforce working from home. The increasing use of teleworking resulted in organizations being worried about their ability to handle cyberthreats, while at the same time they sidestepped on their cybersecurity to implement a proper teleworking model. There is a large body of literature showing what the security risks and practices are related to these high levels of teleworking, while it is not clear what the related security challenges are and how organizations are approaching these. So, there is a gap in the literature regarding the understanding of the current cybersecurity challenges and approaches that are associated with these high levels of teleworking. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with both cybersecurity consultants and individuals that fulfill a role in an organization that makes them responsible for the cybersecurity management of the organization. Thematic analysis was used that led to the identification of four main security challenges and four approaches used to manage these challenges. The following four challenges were identified: ‘Security vs. privacy’ which shows how it is challenging for organizations to secure the private environments of their organizations without invading their privacy. Secondly, the ‘Control & awareness which addresses the balance between control and awareness. More restrictions can lead to less security if there is a lack of awareness and knowledge among employees. Thirdly, the ’Lack of resources’ challenge, not all organizations have the monetary resources to achieve the desired level of security. Finally, the ’Priorities’ challenge shows how according to the consultants, cybersecurity is still seen as a burden and is being neglected by organizations, regardless of the increase in cybersecurity attention and the increased risks related to high levels of teleworking.
The identified approaches start with ‘Technology & Processes’ as this is most often the first choice for organizations. Using device management systems with corporate devices or BYOD devices with an enclave to ensure security without invading privacy. Education of the workforce is deemed one of the most successful approaches, since the security of the organizations is now more dependent on the workforce, raising awareness through education is of great importance. An approach that at first glance seems more counter-intuitive is the establishment of a security culture that takes years to achieve. Cybersecurity is involved into the daily tasks of the complete workforce. Without forcing and too many controls, but nudging employees by discussion and giving them responsibilities. The last approach shows that despite the priority challenge that is only mentioned by consultants, organizations want to become more mature, and organizations are currently giving cybersecurity a higher priority.

Improving coal mine safety has become a top priority for policymakers and the Indian government in recent years. It is advantageous for the Indian government to assess the impact of current safety interventions on occupational safety in order to ensure their proper functionality. "Occupational safety" had gotten a lot of attention since the early 1990s, when accident rates in the coal industry were skyrocketing across the country. The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of current Indian coal mining interventions on occupational safety. The central research question is, "What impact do safety interventions have on occupational safety in Indian coal mines?"

Occupational safety is concerned with potentially hazardous situations. Occupational safety has received a lot of attention in the last decade, and the Indian government is constantly working to improve occupational safety and reduce the risk of injuries in coal mines. According to the research, the current interventions implemented in Indian coal mines have a positive impact on occupational safety. The provision of proper mine infrastructure, adequate facilities for mine supervisors, availability of equipment, and primary school education can all help to improve the interventions in practice.

Similarly, interventions that are not yet in use can have a positive impact on occupational safety if implemented incorrectly.

The research helps to ensure the safety of workers. The study also provides policymakers and the directorate general of mine safety with insights into how to improve occupational safety, such as considering education, access to adequate for mine supervisors, and mine visits before developing policies to realize the true problems a worker faces regarding occupational safety.

This thesis explores Indian construction industry safety measures and their benefit to cost ratios. In India, the construction sector is the second largest employer after agriculture. Around 50 million workers work in the construction sector to earn easy money at the end of the day. About 48,000 workers die in India due to occupational accidents every year, and around 38 construction accidents occur every day in India. This thesis analyses the social impacts of safety policies and their employers' financial implications. No such studies have been done previously for the Indian construction market. There have been studies regarding estimating the number of accidents in India, respective safety measures, etc. Implementation of safety policies can reduce the number of casualties up to 20%-30%. The performance of safety policies will benefit the workers, their families, friends, relatives, and society. It is common for Indian construction companies not to invest in construction health & safety measures because it is cheaper for them to pay the costs of compensation for accidents than modernizing their facilities to make them safer. It seems essential to understand the need to invest in safety measures from a societal perspective. Thus, this research is a study about the impacts of safety policies with cost-benefit analysis (CBA) and how the CBA results can be utilized in the decision making for the policymakers, employers, and other stakeholders in the industry. First, a literature review was conducted to better understand the Indian construction industry's problems and probable solutions. Literature was also undertaken to understand the concepts regarding the cost-benefit analysis. Additionally, interviews were conducted to get the required data to perform the cost-benefit analysis and partly answer the research questions. For the research, eight interviews were conducted with people who closely work in the Indian construction industry. Based on the interviews, five significant safety policies were identified to be implemented at the construction sites in India to reduce accidents. These five safety policies were considered as a package to perform a societal cost-benefit analysis. The societal cost-benefit analysis was performed to find the impacts of safety measures only from the societal perspective. Next to this, a business financial impact analysis for the safety measures was conducted to see their effects only from the employer's perspective. In general, the interviewees believed that the number of accidents occurs in Indian construction sites due to the lack of safety measures provided by the companies and the illiteracy of most workers and their unorganized way of working. They also suggested that these accidents can be reduced by implementing safety policies, as shown in the table below. Most of them estimated that taking these safety measures could reduce the number of accidents by almost one-fourth.