Improvement Of Workplace Safety Research Articles

Does managers’ walking around benefit workplace safety? A safety climate intervention field study

The present research uses a pre-post quasi-experiment to investigate the effect of a manager-based intervention on organization-level safety climate promotion by managers’ safety management actions, which is operationalized as safety management by walking around (SMBWA). Considering that the highly observable and consistent management actions in SMBWA are effective signals to demonstrate managers’ commitment to safety and can provide favorable information concerning safety climate, we hypothesized that the SMBWA would improve the organization-level safety climate. In addition, we argued that the intervention could bring other benefits to employees, that is, a positive organization-level safety climate boosted by SMBWA, as a form of organizational resource, could reinforce safety motivation and alleviate burnout, which, in turn, could benefit safety behavior at the individual level. A total of 19 working sites with 224 employees from a Chinese petrochemical organization participated in our study (n = 119 in 10 experimental groups; n = 105 in 9 control groups). The results of the linear mixed models indicated that the organization-level safety climate, individual-level safety motivation, burnout, and safety behavior significantly changed in the experimental group but not in the control group. Furthermore, the multilevel path modeling results showed that the relationship between SMBWA and safety behavior was mediated by organization-level safety climate (first-stage mediator), and safety motivation and burnout (second-stage mediators). The theoretical and practical contributions to safety climate intervention research and workplace safety improvement are discussed.

Safety and Health at the Workplace in the Context of COVID-19: The Case of a Dental Clinic

Abstract Governments of different countries and healthcare organisations working in various areas face enormous challenges when trying to combat the COVID-19 pandemic and protect employees, their families and communities. Workplaces can be high-risk environments in terms of the virus outbreak and transmission. This paper aims to disclose the ways for workplace safety improvement in dentistry in the context of COVID-19. The authors present the theoretical model of workplace safety improvement with regard to COVID-19 infection prevention and control measures. The expectations, fears and tasks of dental employees at their workplace in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic were investigated based on the systematic literature review and the qualitative empirical study conducted in Lithuania. The study disclosed that unmet employee expectations could lead to different kinds of fear; the most common sources of anxiety are linked to a higher risk of getting infected, a lack or misuse of protection measures and inadequately performed work. Occupational risks are closely related to the components of a workplace system. Therefore, it is important to apply a holistic approach to improve workplace safety, enhance work performance and minimise the negative effects on an employee, an organisation, a patient and a society.

Six Sigma for workplace safety improvement: improving hazards and unsafe conditions in a metallic packaging manufacturing company

Six Sigma has been applied as a business process improvement strategy in many companies worldwide with great results. On the other hand, workplace safety constitutes a key issue for company managers due to their responsibility. The aim of this article is to demonstrate how using Six Sigma can reduce accidents. A case study is conducted on a large European metallic packaging manufacturing company. As a result, the company presented a reduction of lost time accidents from 97 to 30 that saved a lot of time and cost. The σ value achieved was 4.24. This project shows the effectiveness of Six Sigma as an improvement tool in the human resources area, despite most of the previous Six Sigma research being focused on manufacturing aspects. The case studied can be useful either for large companies or small and medium-sized companies interested in improving safety.

How artistic directors motivate the consistency of artists’ performance

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore what motivation strategies live-entertainment artistic directors (ADs) use to increase consistency in their employees’ performances.Design/methodology/approachThe purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore the research question: what motivation strategies do live-entertainment ADs use to improve consistency in employee performance? Semistructured face-to-face interviews with artistic and senior ADs of a large international live-entertainment company’s US division participated in the study. In addition to the interviews, a further analysis of archival records of artists’ evaluations, and written company documents regarding performance evaluation to understand the ADs’ strategies were completed. Finally, self-reported interview data compared to AD evaluations of artists from randomly selected prior years verified the ADs practices.FindingsThe finding indicated ADs use multiple techniques geared at improving employee well-being and technical competence, thereby creating an environment conducive to the employees self-determining their consistent behavior in performance.Practical implicationsThese findings may offer managers across multiple industries a variety of strategies and techniques to use to improve consistency for their workers.Originality/valueThis study is the one of few that studies manager influence on the motivation of those employees whose job is to entertain others regardless of the employee’s emotional state. From these findings, ADs may determine how to implement workplace safety improvements, expanding employee well-being, which in turn can improve performance consistency.

Accident Rate as a Measure of Safety Assessment in Polish Civil Engineering

Civil engineering is characterised by high volatility with respect to working conditions, which are the source of many threats to worker life and health and contribute to high accident rates. The purpose of this paper is to analyse and evaluate the phenomenon of accidents in Polish civil engineering and define the direction of changes that should occur in the safety area. The studies included in this research covered the years 2004–2018. The following indicators were used to assess the accident rates: (1) The total number of persons injured in workplace accidents and this total divided into fatal, severe, and minor accidents; (2) indicators of frequency of accidents in total and this total divided into minor, severe, and fatal accidents; (3) and an indicator of the severity of accidents. From the analysis of statistical data for the years 200–2018, the changes in accident rate parameters demonstrate the continuous improvement of workplace safety in the Polish civil engineering sector. From the analysed data from the 15 years, a clear decrease in the value of the applied indicators is apparent, including both the number of people involved in accidents and the frequency and severity of accidents.

Implementation of 5S in Scientific Equipment Company

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how an age-old Japanese manufacturing concept 5S can be helpful is bringing business excellence in the scientific equipment industry. The primary point of interest in this paper is to highlight the 5S approach and also the implementation part of it. The implementation steps help to identify the potential for improvement and the existing gaps as compared to a benchmark. The study was made in each section of the selected company by conducting Gemba i.e. physical exploration in order to identify the gaps. Once the gaps and the concerned areas were identified, the implementation phase begins and the result for the same was discussed using the two case studies implemented in the industry. Subsequently, the paper discusses how the implementation of 5S leads to the reduction of wastages such as searching time, improvement of workplace safety, health, and cleanliness. Since the entire activity i.e. identification of gaps and implementation are Gemba-based, the steps are easy and deterministic in nature and the improvement is clearly visible/ measurable. It was recognized, both from the case studies and from the industry knowledge that 5S activities not only improve workplace safety, health, and cleanliness but also lead to higher quality and productivity and hence market competitiveness. The success, however, depends on the chain of command and are top-driven at least at the beginning phase.

Proactivity towards workplace safety improvement: an investigation of its motivational drivers and organizational outcomes

ABSTRACTInitiating a safety oriented change—or safety initiative—is conceptually distinct from other forms of safety participation and safety citizenship behaviour, yet little attention has been given to its performance outcomes or its motivational antecedents. An initial study with a sample composed of middle managers (N = 86) showed that safety initiative predicted objective improvement actions 6 months later, whereas, showing differential validity, safety compliance predicted the implementation of monitoring actions. Two subsequent studies focused on motivational antecedents. First, using a sample of team leaders (N = 295), we tested a higher-order structure of proactive motivation that incorporates three domains: “can do”, “reason to” and future orientation. Second, in a longitudinal study of chemical work operators (N = 188), after checking for the influence of potential confounders (past behaviours; accidents experience; perceived risk), we showed that safety initiative was predicted only by proactive motivation. Instead, safety compliance was found to be associated with affective commitment and scrupulousness, whereas safety helping was found to be associated with affective commitment. Self-reported behaviours were validated against rater assessments. This study supports the importance of distinguishing safety initiative from other safety behaviours, indicating how to create an organizational context supporting a proactive management of workplace safety.

Physiolytics at the workplace: Affordances and constraints of wearables use from an employee's perspective

AbstractWearables paired with data analytics and machine learning algorithms that measure physiological (and other) parameters are slowly finding their way into our workplace. Several studies have reported positive effects from using such “physiolytics” devices and purported the notion that it may lead to significant workplace safety improvements or to increased awareness among employees concerning unhealthy work practices and other job‐related health and well‐being issues. At the same time, physiolytics may cause an overdependency on technology and create new constraints on privacy, individuality, and personal freedom. While it is easy to understand why organizations are implementing physiolytics, it remains unclear what employees think about using wearables at their workplace. Using an affordance theory lens, we, therefore, explore the mental models of employees who are faced with the introduction of physiolytics as part of corporate wellness or security programs. We identify five distinct user types each of which characterizes a specific viewpoint on physiolytics at the workplace: the freedom loving, the individualist, the cynical, the tech independent, and the balancer. Our findings allow for better understanding the wider implications and possible user responses to the introduction of wearable technologies in occupational settings and address the need for opening up the “user black box” in IS use research.

Imaging Experiment of Brain Cognitive Activity Based on EEG and Its Philosophical Influence

Mental workload estimation has been under extensive investigation over the years, because the capability of monitoring the cognitive workload enables the prevention of cognitive overloading and improvement of workplace safety. Electroencephalogram (EEG) signals has been found to be an objective and non-intrusive measure of mental workload. However, the evaluation of cognitive workload based on single-trial EEG data, which is an essential step towards real-time workload monitoring and brain-computer interface, has been a major challenge. The philosophical basis is the similarity of technical images, the probability of dependence on image shape is similar; the ethical basis is that the experimenter's voluntary former is the external foundation; the latter two constitute the intrinsic foundation. It distinguishes the objects and concepts in the whole philosophical tradition In particular, it poses a challenge to the proposition of phenomenology that there is a fundamental distinction between the matter's intention and the concept's intention, so it has to face the problem of the philosophy of science of phenomenology.

Leadership improvement and its impact on workplace safety in construction projects: A conceptual model and action research

Leadership is proven as a key factor impacting safety while researchers and practitioners are fostering proactive approaches to preventing workplace injuries. Practitioners' lack of leadership is one of the major causes for the continuous high-level accident frequency within the construction projects. An important yet still unsettled academic issue is how leadership impacts safety performance of construction projects, and how safety leadership can be improved. In order to probe into the mechanism by which leadership improves project safety, this study develops a safety leadership model for construction projects (SLMCP) in both theoretical and pragmatic perspectives. Theoretically, this model incorporates specific characteristics of construction projects and applies a multiple levels-of-management perspective to depict leadership's cascading influences across project stakeholders. Safety culture and safety management are the two major paths by which leadership impacts safety performance. Pragmatically, the action research (AR) method is used to validate the theoretical model empirically and develop feasible measures to implement safety leadership in practice. A five-round longitudinal evaluation confirmed in a case study the validity of SLMCP and the effectiveness of safety leadership improvement measures. This paper contributes to the body of knowledge by clearly depicting safety leadership's cascading top-down influencing mechanism in construction projects and providing concrete and validated measures for leadership improvement. The AR based intervention also establishes a general procedure for leadership promotion in practice. Conclusions of the paper serve as novel ideas and methods for workplace safety improvement in construction projects.

Knowledge Diffusion to Workplace Safety and Health Improvement

The purpose of this study is to develop a conceptual model of Workplace safety and Health Knowledge diffusion. As workplace safety is becoming a global issue in the competitiveness of the business environment, knowledge diffusion model to workplace safety is found a mandatory tool to create awareness of the society and conceptual model is developed. Literature review was conducted in collecting data. Different journal articles were reviewed regarding occupational safety and health and knowledge diffusion. The interview and personal experiences are also included in the methodology. Finding shows that in today’s manufacturing industries, globalization and industrialization have resulted in increasing societal economic development. With this globalization effect, workplace hazards are getting increased from time to time and imposed many challenges on society. Some of them are workplace safety hazards, high costs, loss of productivity and organizational competitiveness advantage. These challenges emanated from the absence of awareness creation. The literatures finding ratifies that the global occupational safety knowledge diffusion is found to be at its infant stage. The research implementation is conceptual model development process which is an ideal for developing economies unless the awareness to the workplace safety will be conducted in line with the model. In practice, the finding solves retiring industry-university linkage, weak top management commitments and weak awareness scenario of the employees of any organization. In order to censor these workplace safety improvement hampering situations, it discloses a clue for knowledge diffusion and forward the way how to diffuse workplace safety and health knowledge. Finally, the originality/Value shows that even though existing researches contribution to workplace safety is undeniable, many of the researches overlooked the knowledge diffusion process through phase analysis model development. Therefore, this study reveals to fill the gap found in the researches.

Epidemiology of musculoskeletal injury in the California film and motion picture industry.

Musculoskeletal injury exerts a significant burden on US industry. The purpose of this study was to investigate the frequency and characteristics of musculoskeletal injuries in the California (CA) film and motion picture (FMP) industry which may result in unforeseen morbidity and mortality. We reviewed the workers' compensation (WC) claims database of the Workers' Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau of California (WCIRB) and employment statistics through the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). We analyzed the frequency, type, body part affected, and cause of musculoskeletal injuries. From 2003 to 2009, there were 3505 WC claims of which 94.4% were musculoskeletal. In the CA FMP industry, the most common injuries were strains (38.4%), sprains (12.2%), and fractures (11.7%). The most common sites of isolated injury were the knee (18.9%), lower back (15.0%), and ankle (8.6%). Isolated musculoskeletal spine injuries represented 19.3% of all injuries. The most common causes of injury were work-directed activity (36.0%) and falls (25.5%). We present the first report on the unique profile of musculoskeletal injury claims in the FMP industry. This data provides direction for improvement of workplace safety.

1F11 Designing a simulation model of a railway section using CAD layers(Operation management)

The analysis of systems' modelling methods, means of models' description and research of software technologies as well, all of those combined led to development of railroad automatic and control simulation models. The complexity of these simulation models is due to the inherently high-tech and multi-level system control technology of the railway stations. The models allow for research of equipment functionality and facility testing. Based on thorough evaluation of implemented algorithms, the simulation model is able to provide practical recommendations pertaining to the improvement of workplace safety. The main concept of simulation model and its artificial world design is creation of multi-layered inter-linked data structure of complex system. This structure consists of such modeling data types as landscaping (textures, altitude maps-either fictional or actual ones, obtained from Geographic Information System), railroad sectors and stations (railway lines and splines, incline maps, signals etc.), railway traffic (facilities and traffic maps), and systems of centralized traffic and dispatch controls. The AutoCAD system was chosen as the main design tool for the development of a railway segment simulation model. CAD is very user-friendly and easy to interact with as it supports OLE (object linking and embedding) and COM (Component Object Model) and contains a rich libraries of component files and prototypes. The training simulator software module uses AutoCAD graph data and creates a database for the imitation model. Other modules adapt the data to the specific systems being modeled. The automation of data structuring, along with a multi-level approach to models' composition, has allowed for more flexibility in the modelling process and eliminated routine procedures associated with data configuration. It has simplified and quickened the process of preparation and tuning the models of those particular railway sections and their tech systems, which really require to be studied and researched.

Occupational accidents in the Danish merchant fleet and the nationality of seafarers.

BackgroundThe aim of the study was to examine occupational accidents reported from non-passenger merchant ships registered in the Danish International Ship Register in 2010-2012, with a focus on analysing nationality differences in the risk of getting injured in an accident.MethodsData about notified occupational accidents were collected from notifications sent to the Danish Maritime Authority and from records of contact with Danish Radio Medical. Events were matched by personal identification and accident data to create a unified database. Stratified cumulative time spent on board by seafarers was used to calculate accident rates. Incidence rates of different nationalities were compared by Poisson regression.ResultsWestern European seafarers had an overall accident rate of 17.5 per 100000 person-days, which proved to be significantly higher than that of Eastern European, South East Asian and Indian seaman (adjusted incidence rate ratio 0.53, 0.51 and 0.74, respectively), although differences decreased over the investigated period. Smaller but in most cases still significant discrepancies were observed for serious injuries. The back injury rate of Western European employees was found especially high, while eye injuries seem to be more frequent among South East Asian workers.ConclusionsThe study identified substantial differences between nationalities in the rate of various accidents reported from merchant ships sailing under the Danish flag. The differences may be attributed to various factors such as safety behaviour. Investigation of special injury types and characterisation of effective elements of safety culture can contribute to the improvement of workplace safety in the maritime sector.

Stigma, an important source of dissatisfaction of health workers in HIV response in Vietnam: a qualitative study

BackgroundLike in many other low- and middle-income countries, the recent development of an HIV epidemic in Vietnam has led to a growing need for prevention, treatment, care, and support services for people living with HIV (PLHIV). This puts greater demands on the national HIV services, primarily on health workers, which increases the importance of their job satisfaction and working conditions. This study describes health worker perceptions and explores the factors that influence job satisfaction and dissatisfaction of health personnel working on the HIV response in Vietnam. Spector’s job satisfaction model was used as the theoretical framework for the study design and analysis.MethodsThe study employed a qualitative design with 7 focus group discussions and 15 semi-structured interviews with health workers, purposively selected from national and provincial organizations responsible for HIV services in 5 cities and provinces in Vietnam. Data were analyzed using a hybrid approach of theory-driven and data-driven coding and theme development using qualitative analysis software.ResultsHIV services are perceived by Vietnamese health workers as having both positive and negative aspects. Factors related to job satisfaction included training opportunities, social recognition, and meaningful tasks. Factors related to job dissatisfaction included unsatisfactory compensation, lack of positive feedback and support from supervisors, work-related stress from a heavy workload, fear of infection, and HIV-related stigma because of association with PLHIV. An adjusted Spector’s model of job satisfaction for HIV service health workers was developed from these results.ConclusionThis study confirmed the relationship between stigmatization of PLHIV and stigma experienced by staff because of association with PLHIV from families, colleagues, and society. The experiencing stigma results in additional work-related stress, low self-esteem, poor views of their profession, and lower income. The study shows the importance of actions to improve staff job satisfaction such as pay raises, supportive supervision, stress management, stigma reduction and workplace safety. Immediate actions could be the provision of more information; education and communication in mass media to improve the public image of HIV services, as well as improvement of workplace safety, therefore making health workers feel that their work is valued and safe.

Steps for the Behavioural Based Safety: A Case Study Approach

A more closely monitoring on employees' behaviours proof to resolve safety problems. This paper presents the Behavioural Based Safety (BBS) approach, for workplace safety improvement. This approach focuses on changing unsafe into safe behaviour. The objective of this research is to determine the implementation steps involved for BBS approach towards safety improvement. Case Study approach into three Oil and Gas practicing BBS had been chosen. Semi-structured interview, questionnaires survey and on field observation were conducted to retrieve information. The findings revealed that the implementation steps are not limited to the four basic steps as found in literature. Unsafe work processes, unsafe condition and unsafe work procedure were identified as the additional elements noted during the observations steps.

The Italian Information System on Occupational Exposure to Carcinogens (SIREP): Structure, Contents and Future Perspectives

The Italian information system for recording occupational exposures to carcinogens (SIREP) was set up in 1996 as a result of the implementation of European directives concerning the improvement of workplace safety and health. The aim of this study is to describe the characteristics of this information system designed and developed for monitoring exposure risk at workplace. The main results about exposed workers in Italy are also presented. Moreover, we discuss the choices adopted when setting up the structure and the issues encountered in recording data and introduce future developments of the system. The design of the information system made use of the structured analysis technique, and it is based on a relational database. Particular attention has been addressed to the system security to prevent non-authorized accesses and to guarantee data integrity. The core information of the database is in accordance with recommendations of the European work group on the measurements of the exposures in the workplace. Results are reported by economic sector, carcinogenic agent, job task and exposure level. The professional exposures of approximately 36,547 employees from 2778 firms were reported to the SIREP database in the period 1996-2005. The three prevalent exposures-hardwood dust, benzene and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons-account for >25% of the exposed workers. The main economic activity involved is wood industry and furniture manufacture, while the most frequently observed job is chemical-processing plant operator of petrochemical plants. At the end of 2005, >100,000 different exposure histories were recorded and the number of exposed workers accounts for approximately 0.2% of the Italian workforce. The SIREP database has been set up in order to assess, control and reduce the carcinogen risk in the workplace. It may be useful as part of a surveillance and monitoring system to determine the need for intervention strategies and to assess their effectiveness.