Relationship Risk Research Articles

Resolution Nº 351/2020 of the National Council of Justice and the conventionalization of Law: the conceptual revisitation of moral harassment and the safe and healthy working environment right

Violence in the working environment is a phenomenon that challenges workers, employers and the Public Administration in combating and eliminating it. Among the multiple types of hostile acts is moral harassment, which, although it appears as a psychosocial risk in Brazilian labor relations, has not been autonomously disciplined by any federal law of private law, relegating the adequate implementation of the fundamental human right to a safe and healthy work environment. In this context, since 2019, the International Labor Organization (ILO) has included Convention No. 190 in its normative list, which deals with the elimination of violence and harassment in the world of work. In Brazil, the theme, within the scope of work relationships occurring in the Judiciary, is guided by Resolution No. 351/2020 (and its subsequent amendments) of the National Council of Justice, which established the Policy for the Prevention and Confrontation of Moral Harassment, of Sexual Harassment and Discrimination. This article aims to identify and trace evolutionarily the position of the National Council of Justice regarding the material aspect of the ILO's conventional law, notably regarding the concept of moral harassment, taking into account the minimum duty of conventionalization of the Law, even in the face of non-ratification of the commented international treaty. It concludes that, originally, the text of Resolution No. 351/2020 chose a criterion for identifying moral harassment adopted by classical doctrine and Brazilian majority jurisprudence. However, in 2023, imbued with the duty to conventionalize the law and inspired by the guiding nature of the material legal source of treaties on human rights not yet ratified, it aligned itself with the concept of moral harassment enshrined in Convention No. 190, positioning itself on the flank axiological approach to realizing the fundamental human right to a safe and healthy working environment in the sphere of public servants of the Judiciary.

A Herd-Foraging-Based Approach to Adaptive Coverage Path Planning in Dual Environments.

Coverage path planning (CPP) is essential for robotic tasks, such as environmental monitoring and terrain surveying, which require covering all surface areas of interest. As the pioneering approach to CPP, inspired by the concept of predation risk in predator-prey relations, the predator-prey CPP (PPCPP) has the benefit of adaptively covering arbitrary bent 2-D manifolds and can handle unexpected changes in an environment, such as the sudden introduction of dynamic obstacles. However, it can only work in bounded environment and cannot handle tasks in unbounded one, e.g., search and rescue tasks where the search boundary is unknown. Sometimes, robots are required to handle both bounded and unbounded environments, i.e., dual environments, such as capturing criminals in a city. Once encountering a building, the robot enters it to cover the bounded environment, then continues to cover the unbounded one when leaving the building. Therefore, the capability of swarm robots for the coverage tasks both in bounded and unbounded environments is important. In nature, herbivores live in groups to find more food and reduce the risk of predation. Especially the juvenile ones prefer to forage near the herd to protect themselves. Inspired by the foraging behavior of animals in a herd, this article proposes an online adaptive CPP approach that enables swarm robots to handle both bounded and unbounded environments without knowing the environmental information in advance, called dual-environmental herd-foraging-based CPP (DH-CPP). It's performance is evaluated in dual environments with stationary and dynamic obstacles of different shapes and quantity, and compared with three state-of-the-art approaches. Simulation results demonstrate that it is highly effective to handle dual environments.

A Relational Construction of Organizational Risk: Normalizing Versus Problematizing Through Risk Work on Concerns Versus Measures

This study examines a public hearing, in which a company normalizes a high-risk project while a group of residents and landowners problematize it through three types of relational risk work including the construction of concerns versus measures, consultations on concerns and measures, and company approach in addressing concerns with measures. They construct risk meanings in a relational context where they respond to the normalizing and problematizing attempts of one another. Accordingly, this study has two main contributions. First, it identifies three types of risk work used by public and business stakeholders to relationally construct and normalize/problematize risk and risk management and thus analyzes the tension between normalizing and problematizing as an issue of interdependence. Second, it brings forward the opposition between concerns and measures as an important topic for risk research and emphasizes the critical role of risk consultations with cooperative approaches in addressing this opposition.

Transgender Patient Preferences When Discussing Gender in Health Care Settings

Transgender (trans) patients report frequent discriminatory and harmful experiences in health care settings; gender-affirming, competent health care improves trans individuals' health and well-being. To identify factors influencing trans patients' decision-making regarding sharing gender-related information with providers (clinicians, health care organizations, health care systems) and trans patient preferences for gender-related questions, as well as the subsequent impact on health care experiences. A qualitative, interpretivist phenomenological study was conducted via telephone or video (using Zoom) in English and Spanish from August 10 to September 11, 2020. Participants were recruited via trans-specific social media groups and email listservs. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed from October 2020 to January 2022 using thematic analysis by a majority trans research team. Semistructured interviews explored patient health care experiences and preferences. Participants included 27 trans and/or nonbinary adults (mean [SD] age, 30.9 [10.4] years; range, 21-69 years) from 13 US states. Four themes were identified: (1) impact of provider behaviors, (2) engaging in relational risk assessment, (3) receiving affirming vs medically competent care, and (4) "how are you going to fit [me] into your system?" The first theme reflected the impact of provider actions, including level of flexibility in care and interpersonal interactions, ability to explain medical relevance of gender-related questions, and preparedness to work with trans patients. Second, respondents weighed a variety of implicit or explicit safety cues when deciding whether and how to share information with providers. Third, participants spoke at length about affirming and medically competent care, noting that they have had to prioritize one over the other. Last, participants reported their needs often being at odds with health care system norms and standards of care. In this qualitative study of trans patient preferences when discussing gender-related information with providers, it was found that equitable, gender-affirming, and competent health care requires flexibility and responsiveness to patient preferences. It requires provider humility and engagement, as well as institutional policies that support competent and gender-affirming spaces. Future research could identify additional roles that providers, administrators, and systems can play in ensuring competent care for trans patients.

Tensions between real-world practices and the digitalization paradigm for data-driven services in eldercare: observations from an ethnographic study in Sweden

BackgroundThe implementation of a data-driven approach within the health care system happens in a rapid pace; including in the eldercare sector. Within Swedish eldercare, data-driven health approach is not yet widely implemented. In the specific context of long-term care for older adults, quality of care is as much determined by how social care is being performed as it is by what kind medical care that is provided. In particular, relational aspects have been proven to have a crucial influence on the experience of quality of care for the actors involved. Drawing on ethnographic material collected at a Swedish nursing home, this paper explores in what way the relational aspects of care could potentially become affected by the increased use of a data-driven health approach.MethodsAn ethnographic approach was adopted in order to investigate the daily care work at a long-term care facility as it unfolded. Fieldwork was conducted at a somatic ward in a Swedish long-term care facility over 4 months (86 h in total), utilizing the methods of participant observation, informal interviews and document analysis. The material was analyzed iteratively throughout the entire research process adopting thematic analysis.ResultsViewing our ethnographic material through an observational lense problematising the policy discourse around data-driven health approach, two propositions were developed. First, we propose that relational knowledge risk becoming less influential in shaping everyday care, when moving to a data-driven health approach. Second, we propose that quality of care risk becoming more directed on quality of medical care at the expense of quality of life.ConclusionWhile the implementation of data-driven health approach within long-term care for older adults is not yet widespread, the general development within health care points towards a situation in which this will become reality. Our study highlights the importance of taking the relational aspects of care into consideration, both during the planning and implementation phase of this process. By doing this, the introduction of a data-driven health approach could serve to heighten the quality of care in a way which supports both quality of medical care and quality of life.

Risk sources and the effectiveness of the control system in the franchisor's risk perception management

Franchisor's risk perceptions influence their decisions about the development and continuity of their relationships with franchisees. Although control systems are essential for risk perception management, the effectiveness of diverse types of control remains unclear. The present study incorporates specific sources of risk from the franchisor-franchisee relationship to explain control effectiveness in risk perception management. We propose that the interaction between risk sources and distinct types of control explains a franchisor's risk perception. Using data from 240 survey respondents from franchisors in Spain, this study employs structural equation modelling to analyse the effectiveness of behaviour, outcome, and social controls in the management of franchisor's relational and performance risk perceptions arising from specific risk sources. The results confirm the proposed interaction influence on the franchisor's risk perception and reveal that greater control does not always decrease risk perception, but depends on the degree of the risk sources faced by the franchisor as well as the kind of risk perceived.

ФІНАНСОВА БЕЗПЕКА ВІДНОСИН ІНОЗЕМНОГО ІНВЕСТОРА З УПРАВЛІНСЬКОЮ КОМПАНІЄЮ В ПАРАДИГМІ «АСИМЕТРІЇ ІНФОРМАЦІЇ» ТА «МОРАЛЬНОГО РИЗИКУ»

The article is devoted to scientific analysis and characterization of the foreign investor's (the subsidiary owned by such investor) relations with the management company. The high level of information asymmetry and moral risk in relations between foreign investors and management companies was emphasized. The main advantages and disadvantages of transferring the functions of the executive body to the management company were highlighted (more effective management – on the one hand and higher risks of breaching non-compete or non-disclosure rules, higher expenses – on the other hand). The current state of legislative regulation of the status of the management company was analyzed. It was suggested to enshrine recommendations in legal acts regarding: financial indicators (the size and the form of payment of the share capital, the volume of net assets, indicators of financial stability and sustainability), qualification, skills, experience, and education of employees, premises, technical and software indicators, non-compete and non-disclosure rules, which the management company should meet. Institutional analysis of the agreement on transferring the functions of the executive body to the management company was carried out, main distinctions of this kind of agreement from the agency agreement, the mandate contract, the service agreement, and the property management contract were explained. It was proposed to determine the agreement on transferring the functions of the executive body to the management company as the business-law contract, according to which the legal entity-management company undertakes to provide managerial services for the company, to perform the functions of the executive body, stipulated by the corporate legislation and the charter of the company, is empowered to dispose the property and to make transactions on behalf and in the interests of the company, and shall receive payments for such services from the company. Practical recommendations regarding improvement of legal regulation of relations with the management company were given in order to increase the investment attractiveness of Ukraine.

Contract Violations in the Construction Projects: How Contractual Obligations are Reached Affects Contractual and Reputational Enforcement

Contract violations are frequent due to the high uncertainty and complexity of construction projects. However, enforcement after a violation has received limited attention. This study distinguishes between three types of violations, i.e., letter violations, mutually agreed spirit violations, and unilaterally assumed spirit violations, based on the documentation and mutuality dimensions. By using the data collected from Chinese general contractors, this study concludes that compared with unilaterally assumed spirit violations, violations of high mutuality of obligations (the first two violations) will lead to more severe contractual and reputational enforcement while with high mutuality, whether the violated obligations are written in the contract or not (corresponding to the first two violations, respectively) does not significantly affect the severity of enforcement. The mediating effects of relational risk perception on the aforementioned effects are empirically supported. This study contributes to the enforcement literature by exploring the effects of the characteristics of violations, especially violations of undocumented elements of contracts, on enforcement and fills the gaps in the scarce literature on reputational enforcement and its antecedents. Project managers can benefit from this study by recognizing the application of reputational enforcement and making better alignment between different types of violations and enforcement.

Settling into uncertainty and risk amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine

ABSTRACT This study explores the process of navigating instability arising from sudden, co-occurring crises in the 2020s. We focus on the combined impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine on growing material and relational uncertainty and risk among Polish citizens, accumulating in the loss of ontological security. To showcase the practical and narrative presence of risk at the micro-level, we operationalize the broad theorization of risk society using the categorization of material, relational and subjective dimensions within the ‘unsettling events’ model proposed by Kilkey and Ryan. We reconceptualize the third pillar, positioning subjectivity as a meta-category. Moreover, we extend the application of the framework of unsettling events, treating the Polish situation as a case study for examining societies facing compounding catastrophes.The analyzed qualitative longitudinal data comprised 70 in-depth interviews about the pandemic and conducted with Polish young adults (ages 18–35) and their parents in 2021; and asynchronous responses from 43 study participants collected shortly after the Russian attack on Ukraine in 2022. Considering intergenerational and temporal lens, we identify the dominant patterns of meaning that interviewees attributed to the pandemic and war, thereby revealing materialities of unsettlement, relational gains and losses, and the erosion of ontological security. .

Evaluation of Operational Knowledge Risks in SMEs – Using a Grey-Dematel Technique

The increasing recognition of the negative impact of knowledge risks on the operations of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) has led to a need for effective methods to evaluate and manage these risks. SMEs often adopt a reactive approach to risk management, which may not be sufficient to address the complex and evolving nature of knowledge risks. This study aims to use the grey-DEMATEL technique to evaluate operational knowledge risks in SMEs, with a focus on identifying the most critical risks and their potential causes and effects. The results revealed 11 operational knowledge risks, and found that outsourcing risks are the most critical among them. Communication risks and improper knowledge application were also found to be significant. Additionally, these risks were successfully categorised into effect risks (including relational risk, espionage, knowledge waste, and continuity risk) and causal risks (including knowledge waste, risks related to knowledge gaps, and the risk of using obsolete or unreliable knowledge). These categories provide a framework for understanding the potential causes and effects of operational knowledge risks and may be useful for designing risk management strategies. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the first studies to use the grey-DEMATEL technique to evaluate operational knowledge risks in SMEs.

Mother-Infant Dyadic Synchrony and Interaction Patterns After Infant Cardiac Surgery.

Parents and their infants with complex congenital heart disease (CHD) face relational challenges, including marked distress, early separations, and infant hospitalizations and medical procedures, yet the prevalence of parent-infant interaction difficulties remains unclear. Using a standardized observational paradigm, this study investigated mother-infant dyadic synchrony, interactional patterns, and associated predictors in mother-infant pairs affected by CHD, compared with typically-developing pairs. In this prospective, longitudinal cohort study, mothers and their infants requiring cardiac surgery before age 6-months (n=110 pairs) and an age- and sex-matched Australian community sample (n=85 pairs) participated in a filmed, free-play interaction at 6.9±1.0 months. Mother-infant dyadic synchrony, maternal and infant interactional patterns, and relational risk were assessed using the Child-Adult Relationship Experimental (CARE) Index. Maternal and infant predictors were assessed at 32 weeks gestation, 3- and 6-months postpartum. Most mother-infant interactions were classified as "high risk" or "inept" (cardiac: 94%, control: 81%; p=.007). Dyadic synchrony (p<.001), maternal sensitivity (p=.001), and infant cooperativeness (p=.001) were lower for cardiac than control pairs. Higher maternal traumatic stress at 6-months postpartum predicted lower dyadic synchrony for mother-infant pairs affected by CHD (B=-.04, p=.03). Dyadic synchrony was higher among older infants in the total (B=.40, p=.003) but not cardiac sample (B=.24, p=.06). Relational difficulties were almost universal among mother-infant pairs affected by CHD and were also high in the Australian community sample. Widespread education initiatives are recommended to increase awareness of heightened mother-infant relational risk in congenital heart care and well-child settings, alongside relationally-focused prevention and early intervention programs.

Experiences of poverty-related family risk and internalizing problems in childhood: The mediating role of hope

This longitudinal study examined whether poverty-related family risk groups with varying family resource, parental, and relational risks differed in their children's internalizing problems, and whether children's hope mediated this relationship. A sample of 798 children from poor families (N = 798, Mage = 11.76, SD = 2.56) was obtained from six township public schools in China. Four groups were identified: education and involvement risk group, high risk group, parenting risk group, and family resource risk group. All groups differed in terms of internalizing problems. Compared to the education and involvement risk group, children in the high risk and parenting risk groups demonstrated higher internalizing problems, which was explained by their lower level of hope. These findings highlight that children from poor families are affected by different risk combinations, and hope may be a possible mechanism linking specific risk combinations with children's internalizing problems. These findings have implications for targeted intervention strategies.

The Loneliness of the Odd One Out: How Deviations From Social Norms Can Help Explain Loneliness Across Cultures.

Loneliness is an important health risk, which is why it is important to understand what can cause persistent or severe loneliness. Previous research has identified numerous personal or relational risk factors for loneliness. Cultural predictors, however, have been considered less. The new framework of norm deviations and loneliness (NoDeL) proposes that social norms, which are defining features of culture, can help explain loneliness within and across cultural contexts. Specifically, people who deviate from social norms are suggested to be at an increased risk for feeling lonely because they are more likely to experience alienation, inauthenticity, lower self-worth, social rejection, relationship dissatisfaction, and/or unfulfilled relational needs. Given that social norms vary by social, geographical, and temporal context, they can furthermore be considered cultural moderators between individual-level risk factors and loneliness: Personal or relational characteristics, such as shyness or being single, may increase the risk for loneliness particularly if they do not fit social norms in a specific environment. Integrating previous quantitative and qualitative findings, I hence offer a framework (NoDeL) to predict loneliness and cultural differences in risk factors for it. Thus, the NoDeL framework may help prepare culture-sensitive interventions against loneliness.

Study on the regional risk classification method for the prevention and control of emerging infectious diseases based on directed graph theory.

Emerging infectious diseases are a class of diseases that are spreading rapidly and are highly contagious. It seriously affects social stability and poses a significant threat to human health, requiring urgent measures to deal with them. Its outbreak will very easily lead to the large-scale spread of the virus, causing social problems such as work stoppages and traffic control, thereby causing social panic and psychological unrest, affecting human activities and social stability, and even endangering lives. It is essential to prevent and control the spread of infectious diseases effectively. We aim to propose an effective method to classify the risk level of a new epidemic region by using graph theory and risk classification methods to provide a theoretical reference for the comprehensive evaluation and determination of epidemic prevention and control, as well as risk level classification. Using the graph theory method, we first define the network structure of social groups and construct the risk transmission network of the new epidemic region. Then, combined with the risk classification method, the classification of high, medium, and low risk levels of the new epidemic region is discussed from two cases with common and looped graph nodes, respectively. Finally, the reasonableness of the classification method is verified by simulation data. The directed weighted scale-free network can better describe the transmission law of an epidemic. Moreover, the proposed method of classifying the risk level of a region by using the correlation function between two regions and the risk value of the regional nodes can effectively evaluate the risk level of different regions in the new epidemic region. The experiments show that the number of medium and high risk nodes shows no increasing trend. The number of high-risk regions is relatively small compared to medium-risk regions, and the number of low-risk regions is the largest. It is necessary to distinguish scientifically between the risk level of the epidemic area and the neighboring regions so that the constructed social network model of the epidemic region's spread risk can better describe the spread of the epidemic risk in the social network relations.

Influence of Project Governance Mechanisms on the Sustainable Development of Public-Private Partnership Projects: An Empirical Study from China

In China, achieving sustainable development goals for PPP projects is an urgent issue. Project governance mechanisms are important to PPP project sustainability, but there are many risk factors in traditional project governance mechanisms. This research focuses on embedding risk governance mechanisms into the traditional project governance system with contract governance mechanisms and relationship governance mechanisms. The main purpose is to reveal the integration of PPP project governance mechanisms and its impact on governance performance and project sustainability, and to propose governance optimization strategies. First, by enriching the understanding of the governance mechanism, governance performance and project sustainability, and improving the measurement scale. Then, by constructing a structural equation model, collecting data through questionnaires, and exploring the effect of the project governance mechanism on project sustainability. (1) The results of direct effect testing show that contractual governance mechanisms, relational governance mechanisms and risk governance mechanisms are positively associated with governance performance, and governance performance is positively associated with project sustainability; (2) the results of mediating effect testing show that interaction of the three governance mechanisms has a positive effect on governance performance. The research results provide a new approach and perspectives for improving project governance mechanisms and achieving sustainable development in the practice of PPP projects.

From ACEs to early relational health: Implications for clinical practice.

Children grow and develop in an environment of relationships. Safe, stable, nurturing relationships help build resilience and buffer the negative impact of adverse experiences. Promoting relational health in clinical practice shifts the focus from adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) to positive childhood experiences (PCEs). This approach evaluates a family's strengths and assets, and can be incorporated into both well-child and subspecialty care. While the optimal window for such interventions is in the prenatal period or as early as possible within the first 3 years of life, it is never too late to start. This statement describes how clinicians can bring a relational health approach to any medical encounter by understanding: what toxic stress is and how it can affect the developing brain, family relationships, and child development; how positive relationships, experiences, and behaviours can help buffer such effects and build resilience; observable signs of relational health and risk in parent-child interactions; the attributes of trustful, therapeutic relationships with families; and how to optimize these benefits through conversation and clinical practice.

Understanding acceptability of digital health technologies among francophone-speaking communities across the world: a meta-ethnographic study

IntroductionIncreasingly, people are turning toward digital health technologies to support their care management, communication with health professionals, and performing activities of daily living. Digital health technologies may be well implemented in clinical practices in several jurisdictions, but the influence of sociocultural factors may sometimes be neglected. To increase use and sustainability of these innovative solutions in health care, we need to understand acceptability among diverse groups of the population such as linguistically diverse populations. Francophone-speaking populations in Canada, for example, are known to endure challenges with income, health and difficulties associated with living in rural areas which impede on their likelihood to use digital health technologies. As part of the University of Ottawa International Francophonie Research Chair on Digital Health Technologies, this study aimed to understand the conditions that make digital health technologies acceptable among francophone-speaking communities.MethodsUsing a meta-ethnography methodology, this study synthesizes international qualitative research on social acceptability of digital health technology among francophone-speaking communities. We focused on four types of digital health technologies: telemedicine, mobile technologies, wearable technologies, and robotic technologies. Using Noblit and Hare's 7 phase approach to conducting a meta-ethnography, we were able to get a comprehensive synthesis and understanding of the research landscape on the issue. Studies published between 2010 and 2020 were included and synthesized using NVivo, excel and a mind mapping technique.ResultsOur coding revealed that factors of social acceptability for digital health technologies could be grouped into the following categories: care organization, self-care support, communication with care team, relational and technical risks, organizational factors, social and ethical values. Our paper discusses the themes evoked in each category and their relevance for the included digital health technologies.DiscussionIn discussing the results, we present commonalities and differences in the social acceptability factors of the different digital health technologies. In addition, we demonstrate the importance of considering sociocultural diversity in the study of social acceptability for digital health technologies.ImplicationsThe results of this study have implications for practitioners who are the instigators of digital health technology implementation with healthcare service users. By understanding factors of social acceptability among francophone-speaking communities, practitioners will be better suited to propose and support the implementation of technologies in ways that are suitable for these individuals. For policymakers, this knowledge could be used for developing policy actions based on consideration for diversity.

The Norwegian version of the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire (COPSOQ III): Initial validation study using a national sample of registered nurses.

Employers are legally obligated to ensure the safety and health of employees, including the organizational and psychosocial working environment. The Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire (COPSOQ III) covers multiple dimensions of the work environment. COPSOQ III has three parts: a) work environment b) conflicts and offensive behaviours and c) health and welfare. We translated all three parts into Norwegian and evaluated the statistical properties of the 28 work environment dimensions in part a), using a sample of registered nurses. The original English version was translated into Norwegian and back translated into English; the two versions were compared, and adjustments made. In total, 86 of 99 items from the translated version were included in a survey to which 8804 registered nurses responded. Item response theory models designed for ordinal manifest variables were used to evaluate construct validity and identify potential redundant items. A standard confirmatory factor analysis was performed to verify the latent dimensionality established in the original version, and a more exploratory factor analysis without restrictions is included to determine dependency between items and to identify separable dimensions. The measure of sampling adequacy shows that the data are well suited for factor analyses. The latent dimensionality in the original version is confirmed in the Norwegian translated version and the scale reliability is high for all dimensions except 'Demands for Hiding Emotions'. In this homogenous sample, eight of the 28 dimensions are found not to be separate dimensions as items covering these dimensions loaded onto the same factor. Moreover, little information is provided at the low and high ends of exposure for some dimensions in this sample. Of the 86 items included, 14 are found to be potential candidates for removal to obtain a shorter Norwegian version. The established Norwegian translation of COPSOQ III can be used in further research about working environment factors and health and wellbeing in Norway. The extended use of the instrument internationally enables comparative studies, which can increase the knowledge and understanding of similarities and differences between labour markets in different countries. This first validation study shows that the Norwegian version has strong statistical properties like the original, and can be used to assess work environment factors, including relational and emotional risk factors and resources available at the workplace.

Preparing to work with artificial intelligence: assessing WHS when using AI in the workplace

PurposeArtificial Intelligence (AI) systems play an increasing role in organisation management, process and product development. This study identifies risks and hazards that AI systems may pose to the work health and safety (WHS) of those engaging with or exposed to them. A conceptual framework of organisational measures for minimising those risks is proposed.Design/methodology/approachAdopting an exploratory, inductive qualitative approach, the researchers interviewed 30 experts in data science, technology and WHS; 12 representatives of nine organisations using or preparing to use AI; and ran online workshops, including with 12 WHS inspectors. The research mapped AI ethics principles endorsed by the Australian government onto the AI Canvas, a tool for tracking AI implementation from ideation via development to operation. Fieldwork and analysis developed a matrix of WHS and organisational–managerial risks and risk minimisation strategies relating to AI use at each implementation stage.FindingsThe study identified psychosocial, work stress and workplace relational risks that organisations and employees face during AI implementation in a workplace. Privacy, business continuity and gaming risks were also noted. All may persist and reoccur during the lifetime of an AI system. Alertness to such risks may be enhanced by adopting a systematic risk assessment approach.Originality/valueA collaborative project involving sociologists, economists and computer scientists, the study relates abstract AI ethics principles to concrete WHS risks and hazards. The study translates principles typically applied at the societal level to workplaces and proposes a process for assessing AI system risks.

Mitigation Strategies in Colloquial Conversations: A Contrastive Approach in European, Cuban, Mexican, Argentinian and Chilean Spanish

Abstract This paper compares the pragmatic mitigation strategies used by speakers of five geographic varieties of Spanish: European, Cuban, Mexican, Argentinian and Chilean Spanish. Mitigation can be understood as a pragmatic strategy arising from face-protection needs that seeks to reduce possible adverse effects on the satisfactory progress of communication. The data are drawn from the Ameresco corpus of colloquial conversations, and the analysis includes four kinds of parameters: linguistic, pragmatic, and socio-situational. The study explores the functions and frequency of use of mitigation, speakers’ and hearers’ exposure to social and relational risks, the degree of their commitment in interaction, and the most productive resources observed in each variety. The results show convergences and divergences in the use of mitigation in these geographical areas, providing a picture of dialectal and sociolectal patterns here. The study concludes that mitigation varies according to the priorities of face needs in each speech community.