Working Life Across Cultures: “Work Life 2000: Quality in Work” and Occupational Health Education in Developing Countries

The article reflects on the changing world of work, and the challenges presented to both occupational health and occupational health education. We draw on the 63 preparatory workshops and the international conference in the “Work Life 2000: Quality in Work” program, an initiative of the Swedish Presidency of the European Union. The International Commission on Occupational Health is introduced, with particular concentration on a current practical project initiated by the Department of Health in South Africa, intended to lead to a set of projects, networking for occupational health education in developing countries. The practical initiatives cast light on a new set of issues that arise when occupational health and safety crosses cultural barriers, and previously separate comparative cases are linked.     

Occupational injury in America: An analysis of risk factors using data from the General Social Survey (GSS)

IntroductionAlthough much is known about the distribution of occupational injury in terms of various job and employment factors, considerably less is known about other possible risk factors, particularly those involving psychosocial and organizational factors. These factors have not been emphasized in most injury surveillance systems or large scale, population based surveys.MethodIn this study, data from the 2002 General Social Survey (GSS) and NIOSH Quality of Work Life (QWL) module were used to examine the risk of occupational injury in terms of socio-demographic factors, employment characteristics, and organizational factors.ResultsThe most informative results were obtained from Poisson regression analyses, which identified race, occupational category, and work-family interference as risk factors, and safety climate and organizational effectiveness as protective factors for occupational injury. These results provide guidance for targeting interventions and protective measures to curtail occupational injury in the United States.     

Do fixed-term workers have a higher injury rate?

One of the most remarkable changes in the labour markets of industrialised countries has been the increase of fixed-term employment. Naturally, the ways in which this development impacts on the quality of working life has awoken increasing scientific discussion. The aim of this paper is to examine these connections from the perspective of occupational injury. The majority of research literature in this field has shown that fixed-term workers have a risk of occupational injury that is several times higher than permanent workers.The analysis presented here is based on three large independent statistical data sets. In the Work and Health Study 10.9% of fixed-term and 10.0% of permanent workers experienced occupational injury during the previous 12 months. In The Victim Survey of Finland 5.4% of fixed-term and 6.5% of permanent workers were injured at work. In The Quality of Working Life Survey 3% of fixed-term and 5% of permanent workers were involved in occupational injury. These three data sets showed unanimously that fixed-term workers did not have a higher occupational injury rate than permanent workers. The most important explanatory factor was that in Finland fixed-term contracts are concentrated in public services such as education and health care with a predominance of female workers. Still, the connection remained after adjusting the basic background variables of age, socio-economic status and industry.     

Thriving at work—A diary study

The present diary study examines how employees thrive at work in response to resources (i.e., positive meaning, relational resources, and knowledge). Thriving is conceptualized as the joint experience of vitality and learning. A total of 121 employees working in the social services sector responded to three daily surveys (in the morning, at lunchtime, and at the end of the work day) for a period of five work days. Intra‐individual analyses (hierarchical linear modeling) revealed that on days when employees experience positive meaning at work in the morning, they feel more vital at the end of the work day and have a higher sense of learning. Work behaviors such as task focus and exploration mediated the relation between positive meaning and both components of thriving. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

基于生活质量指数的风险社会可接受性研究

风险的社会可接受性是风险管理的重要环节,文章从社会公众的角度出发,将风险可接受性看成一个社会事件,基于社会核心指标:人均国民生产总值GDP,人的寿命期望以及人们用来享受健康生活的时间,给出了生活质量指数的概念。利用该指数,结合净收益原则可以确定社会对于安全投入的支付意愿值,即,给出了一个定量的费用支出水平,超过该水平的安全投入就是不合理的。该方法可为评估风险减缓措施的有效性提供依据。     

安全工程师人才培养模式的改革与实践

在国务院学位委员会与教育部把安全科学与工程学科上升为一级学科,国家大力开展"卓越工程师"人才培养,国家安全生产监督管理总局对安全技术的人才培养提升到了一个更高的高度背景下,对安全工程师的人才培养模式和实践教学体系以及教学方式、教学内容进行了改革和实践应用。系统设计了"安全工程师角色扮演"的培养模式,构建了以"设计制作为主线"的实践教学体系,并在安全工程专业中进行了实践,在提高学生的工程意识和实践创新能力、实现人才培养目标方面,取得一定成效。     

地方安全生产条例与《安全生产法》比对分析

对全国31个省、自治区和直辖市的安全生产条例进行了收集整理,并与《安全生产法》进行了逐条对比分析。从安全理念、安全规划、监管模式、机构和人员、管理制度和方法、安全经费、处罚和其他8个方面,对地方安全生产条例中具有代表性的、新的提法或改进的做法进行了总结。在此基础上,从建立"以人为本"安全理念、将"综合治理"纳入安全生产方针;明确要求各级政府编制安全生产规划,并将其纳入国民经济和社会发展规划;清晰界定政府综合监管、行业监管和其他监管部门的职责分工;细化各类企业安全管理机构和人员配备要求;明确注册安全工程师法律地位,并在高危行业强制配备;明确劳务派遣人员的培训职责,完善从业人员培训制度;建立安全生产信息系统,构建安全生产诚信体系;明确工伤保险基金、安全生产风险抵押金、安全生产责任险等费用的缴纳及管理要求;加大对尚未导致事故发生的违法行为的处罚力度;将隐患排查治理纳入《安全生产法》10个方面提出了对《安全生产法》的修改建议。     

Assessing the maintenance unit of a nuclear power plant – identifying the cultural conceptions concerning the maintenance work and the maintenance organization

Various organizational accidents have indicated that the shared interpretations and experiences of the personnel concerning the work, the organization, and the associated risks are of crucial importance for the safety and effectiveness of the operations. These conceptions are an element of the organizational culture. The cultural conceptions should thus be studied and their contribution to the organizational safety and effectiveness should be assessed proactively. Nevertheless, organizational assessments often focus on either the general safety attitudes and/or values of the personnel, or formal organizational structures and the official practices. In this article a case study is reported that was carried out in a Nordic nuclear power plant maintenance unit. We will illustrate how the employees in the organization construct their work, their organization and the demands of the maintenance task. We focus on explicating and assessing the cultural conceptions prevalent in the maintenance organization. Our aim is to illustrate how the cultural conceptions and organizational practices, tools and the organizing of the work and the organizational climate influence each other, and how they relate to the demands of the maintenance work. The principal methods utilized in the case study were organizational culture questionnaire (CULTURE), semi-structured interviews, group working, and personnel development seminars.     

城中村改造中的村自主项目风险管理研究

以东五里村为例,对城中村改造中村自主项目风险管理进行研究,在项目风险识别的基础上,运用层次分析法对项目中可能出现的风险因素进行量化分析。研究表明:政策风险、融资风险、文化风险和拆迁风险是影响城中村改造中村自主项目的主要因素,其中拆迁风险和融资风险在四者中所占的比重较大,在制定风险管理政策时要给予重点关注。     

A time‐lagged investigation of the impact of coworker behavior on the effects of demographic dissimilarity

Although it is clear that coworker absenteeism, tardiness, and turnover can influence an employee's actions, scholars have yet to consider the impact of relational demography on the adoption of these behavioral norms. Inspired by social identity, situational strength, and attraction‐selection‐attrition theories, we proposed that individuals who differ from their coworkers in age, sex, or racioethnicity would feel threatened by their outnumbered status and subsequently motivated to be absent, tardy, or more likely to turnover. However, we expected coworker withdrawal behavior to moderate whether or not dissimilar personnel act on these desires. Results from hierarchical multilevel modeling analyses of data from 470 U.S. call center workers nested in 51 work groups revealed that racioethnic dissimilarity was positively related to time‐lagged changes in absenteeism and tardiness as well as heightened turnover likelihood. These effects emerged only among employees whose coworkers engaged in greater withdrawal behavior. Importantly, racioethnically dissimilar employees working in more permissive climates (i.e., those with high levels of coworker absenteeism, tardiness, or turnover) exhibited the greatest increases in absenteeism and tardiness over three months and had the highest supervisor‐rated turnover likelihood. Implications for diversity management are discussed. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

急上高原人员疏散速度修正的台阶试验研究*

为解决高原铁路隧道人员安全疏散问题,基于台阶试验对急上高原人员运动能力进行研究,并基于现场测试、理论分析、资料调研等对不同海拔高度处急上高原人员疏散速度基础参数进行研究。结果表明:得出平原世居者在急上高原时的运动能力下降规律,并通过对比不同拟合类型,得出急上高原者在不同海拔下人员疏散速度折减系数公式;基于海拔和坡度对人员运动的影响,得出高海拔铁路隧道人员疏散速度基础参数。研究结果可为高海拔铁路隧道人员疏散理论分析、仿真模拟及性能化设计提供基础数据支持。     

What can be learned from incidents in chemistry labs

Students of chemistry should achieve certain safety competencies. Among other things they should be able to learn from undesirable events that happen during their work. In order to facilitate this we decided to analyze, together with our students, the specific causes of a few undesirable events which have happened in our school laboratories. We applied an approach based on root cause analysis and on the classification of four levels of safety assurance. Our examples showed the effectiveness of this approach, leading us at once not only to the identification of errors committed by students, but to those of teachers as well. This enabled us to compile a set of recommendations for the possible prevention of such incidents. Above all, our analysis strongly reinforced the conviction that this approach – learning from actual incidents – is more than just a cause analysis technique. It is a pattern of behavior, a cultural pattern. A technique may be analyzed and taught, but the most effective way to pass on a behavioral pattern is to set an example. The best way to show students how to learn from their own errors is for teachers to demonstrate how they have learned from their own experiences. Work in chemistry labs provides ample opportunities for this.     

航空用气胀式救生衣的穿戴时间测试

为探究航空用气胀式救生衣穿戴性能,首先,搭建航空座椅试验平台,选择113个大学生和42个成年村民作为对比性测试对象,采用国内各大航空公司均配备的标准救生衣作为穿戴对象开展试验;然后,分析试验结果满足国家标准《航空用气胀式救生衣》(GB/T 36508—2018)中穿戴要求的情况,并采用T检验分析不同性别、年龄、演示水平下穿戴时间的差别是否显著。结果表明:测试的航空用气胀式救生衣穿戴时间无法满足国家标准的要求,且性别、年龄对救生衣穿戴时间无显著性影响,但不同演示水平下穿戴时间的差别十分显著;国家标准中穿戴时间要求、测试对象选择、演示水平等方面与文中研究结论有较大差异,建议更多研究人员通过更详细、更深入的试验,来深入探讨GB/T 36508—2018中这3方面的内容。     

To stay or to go: voluntary survivor turnover following an organizational downsizing

This paper examines the relationship between survivor reactions to a downsizing and retention subsequent to a downsizing. We hypothesize that survivors who experience the downsizing as distributively, procedurally, and interactionally just and who see top management as trustworthy will feel more attached to the organization because each reduces the threat inherent in downsizing. In addition, we hypothesize that survivors who feel empowered will also feel more attached to the organization because they feel better able to cope with the downsizing. We further hypothesize that those survivors who feel more attached to the organization following the downsizing will be more likely to remain with the organization in the coming year. The theoretical model is tested on a sample of aerospace employees who survived an organizational downsizing. The trustworthiness of management, distributive justice, procedural justice, and three dimensions of empowerment are found to facilitate more organizational attachment. Higher levels of attachment are found, in turn, to facilitate less voluntary turnover in the year following the downsizing. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Two discrete choice experiments on laboratory safety decisions and practices

IntroductionThe path toward enhancing laboratory safety requires a thorough understanding of the factors that influence the safety-related decision making of laboratory personnel. Method: We developed and administered a web-based survey to assess safety-related decision making of laboratory personnel of a government research organization. The survey included two brief discrete choice experiments (DCEs) that allowed for quantitative analysis of specific factors that potentially influence safety-related decisions and practices associated with two different hypothetical laboratory safety scenarios. One scenario related to reporting a laboratory spill, and the other scenario involved changing protective gloves between laboratory rooms. The survey also included several brief self-report measures of attitude, perception, and behavior related to safety practices. Results: Risk perception was the most influential factor in safety-related decision making in both scenarios. Potential negative consequences and effort associated with reporting an incident and the likelihood an incident was detected by others also affected reporting likelihood. Wearing gloves was also affected somewhat by perceived exposure risk, but not by other social or work-related factors included in the scenarios. Conclusions: The study demonstrated the promise of DCEs in quantifying the relative impact of several factors on safety-related choices of laboratory workers in two hypothetical but realistic scenarios. Participants were faced with hypothetical choice scenarios with realistic features instead of traditional scaling techniques that ask about attitudes and perceptions. The methods are suitable for addressing many occupational safety concerns in which workers face tradeoffs in their safety-related decisions and behavior. Practical Application: Safety-related decisions regarding laboratory practices such as incident reporting and use of PPE were influenced primarily by workers’ perceptions of risk of exposure and severity of risks to health and safety. This finding suggests the importance of providing laboratory workers with adequate and effective education and training on the hazards and risks associated with their work. DCEs are a promising research method for better understanding the relative influences of various personal, social, and organizational factors that shape laboratory safety decisions and practices. The information gained from DCEs may lead to more targeted training materials and interventions.     

建筑物火灾时人员疏散时间模型研究

在建筑物火灾中,人员安全疏散与人员的生命安全直接相关.人员能否安全疏散主要取决于疏散到安全区所用时间的长短,人员疏散时间在考虑建筑物结构和人员距离安全区的远近等环境因素的同时,还必须综合考虑处于火灾等紧急情况下人员的自然状况和人员心理及行为特征.本文在组织人员应急疏散演习测量个体疏散时间的基础上,结合影响人员疏散行为和疏散时间的相关因素,采用世界先进统计软件SPSS12 for Windows进行多元线性回归分析,建立人员疏散时间回归模型.该研究技术科学、先进,结果可信.研究结果将充实我国人员疏散心理和行为反应数据库,为建筑防火性能化设计,尤其是设计人员密集建筑提供基础数据和初步的分析.     

技术进步对煤矿安全生产的影响分析

安全生产是我国煤炭行业健康发展的重要前提。通过研究我国煤矿安全生产现状,分析其影响因素,提出技术进步在保障安全生产中的重要性。运用多元回归分析方法建立基于技术进步的从业人员素质、机械化程度与百万吨死亡率之间关系的回归分析模型,研究结果表明它们之间的关系为高度相关,且模型具有很好的拟合度。根据分析结论提出相应的政策建议,为基于安全生产的技术进步与煤矿产能之间的协调发展提供理论依据。     

室内人员疏散时间快速预测模型研究*

为准确快速估算室内人员疏散时间,基于传统Togawa模型,提出1种基于出口处人员流动速率的室内人员疏散时间快速预测模型,并利用Pathfinder软件模拟某房间人员疏散过程,对比快速预测模型与传统Togawa经验公式计算结果。结果表明:快速预测模型计算量少,可获得更多更精确人员疏散信息。研究结果可为室内人员疏散提供理论支撑。     

Drinking to cope and self-medication: Characteristics of jobs in relation to workers' drinking behavior

This research extends recent studies of the relationship between characteristics of jobs and patterns of workers' alcohol consumption. Working within a ‘generalization perspective ’whereby job conditions are seen as having important effects on the mental health and behaviors of workers in non-work settings, the current research derives and tests a model of four job-related factors as they influence three aspects of alcohol use; the simple frequency—quantity of drinking, escapist-oriented reasons for drinking, and a combination of heavier drinking with escapist-oriented definitions which is labeled ‘self-medication’. Analyses of data drawn from the 1973 Quality of Employment Survey (QES) indicate that the relationship between jobs and drinking behavior is more complex than previously conceptualized. Specifically, we find evidence that for working men characteristics of jobs affect levels of alcohol consumption and the incidence of self-medicating drinking. These findings support and refine job-based explanations of drinking behavior. The implications of these findings for subsequent research and model-specification are discussed.