Perception of Safety, Physical Working Conditions and Stress between Malaysia and United Kingdom

21st century businesses operate faster and with more complexity and uncertainty than ever before, and therefore industrial accidents and diseases become more prolific, bringing a serious and costly burden to all countries. For the majority of the world’s workforce, a working environment does not meet the minimum standards and guiding principle predetermined by the international bureaus. This has called for occupational safety and health to be implemented and enforced. Different laws and regulations have been introduced by most of the developed countries meant for the prevention of industrial accidents and occupational diseases and the statistics of occupational accidents is being kept updated. Differences of behavioral patterns in organizations are attributed to beliefs, norms and values amongst employees from different parts of the world. Therefore, the health and safety of employees becomes a vital aspect of the work of human resource management teams. This study compared the perception of employees towards health and safety in workplaces in Malaysia and the United Kingdom (UK). Malaysia is a developing country whereas the UK is a developed country. Investigating their perceptions would provide insights for different points of view on occupational health and safety from a developing country and a developed country.