Original Research - Special Collection: Occupational Hearing Loss in Africa

Does occupational noise matter amongst manufacturing (small and medium enterprises) workers? Empirical evidence from Magaba, Mbare, Zimbabwe

Miston Mapuranga, Eugine T. Maziriri, Ralebitso K. Letshaba, Anos Chitamba
South African Journal of Communication Disorders | Vol 67, No 2 | a680 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.4102/sajcd.v67i2.680 | © 2020 Miston Mapuranga, Eugine T. Maziriri, Ralebitso R. Letshaba, Anos Chitamba | This work is licensed under CC Attribution 4.0
Submitted: 01 October 2019 | Published: 03 March 2020

About the author(s)

Miston Mapuranga, School of Managerial Leadership, The Da Vinci Institute for Technology Management, Johannesburg, South Africa
Eugine T. Maziriri, Department of Business Management, Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa
Ralebitso K. Letshaba, Department of Human Resource Management, Faculty of Management Sciences, Vaal University of Technology, Vanderbijlpark, South Africa
Anos Chitamba, Graduate School of Business and Leadership, College of Law and Management Studies, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa

Abstract

Background: The significance of how occupational noise can influence attitudes towards occupational noise exposure, susceptibility to hearing loss and job performance has generally been neglected in the past studies.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine the impact of occupational noise on attitudes towards occupational noise exposure, susceptibility to hearing loss and job performance of manufacturing small and medium enterprises (SMEs) workers in Zimbabwe.

Method: A survey was conducted involving 250 respondents, including manufacturing SME workers, and the hypotheses were analysed by applying structural equation modelling.

Results: Occupational noise had a positive and significant effect on attitudes towards occupational noise exposure and perceived susceptibility to hearing loss amongst manufacturing SME workers. In addition, attitudes towards exposure to occupational noise and the perceived susceptibility of hearing loss have had a positive and significant impact on manufacturing SME workers’ job performance.

Conclusion: The novelty of the research is its analysis of occupational noise as an indicator of attitudes towards occupational noise exposure and susceptibility to hearing loss as well as job performance. This study provides practitioners with beneficial implications. Collective knowledge on occupational noise could help manufacturing SME managers in recognising the perceptions of employees on occupational noise and how it ultimately affects job performance. Moreover, this study is intended to add new knowledge to the current body of African occupational noise literature – a context that has not received much research attention in developing countries.


Keywords

attitudes towards occupational noise exposure; job performance; occupational noise; perceived susceptibility to hearing loss; SME workers

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Crossref Citations

1. Neurobehavioral Alterations in Occupational Noise Exposure: A Systematic Review
Nicola Mucci, Veronica Traversini, Lucrezia Ginevra Lulli, Luigi Vimercati, Venerando Rapisarda, Raymond Paul Galea, Simone De Sio, Giulio Arcangeli
Sustainability  vol: 13  issue: 21  first page: 12224  year: 2021  
doi: 10.3390/su132112224