An empirical analysis of a goal setting questionnaire

This research presents an analysis of a goal setting questionnaire developed by Locke and Latham (1984). The Locke and Latham measure attempts to assess the core goal attributes of ‘specificity’ and ‘difficulty’, as well as other attributes of the goal setting process (such as perceptions about ‘performance feedback’, ‘supervisor support’, ‘conflict’ and ‘stress’). The psychometric properties of the measure were examined using respondents from employees of a large, west-coast electronics organization. A principal components analysis extracted 10 meaningful factors and identified a need for additional items. Results generally supported the meaningfulness of the goal setting factors and provide important directions for future research.     

Goal setting and competition as determinants of task performance

Although research has demonstrated that difficult, specific goals produce higher performance than easy or non-specific goals, little research has examined goal setting in relation to competition. In such circumstances, at least four potential outcomes are logically possible (i.e. complete or partial performance enhancement with competition versus complete or partial performance reduction). Thus, this investigation manipulated goal level and competition in a 3 × 2 factorial design. Participants (N = 109) solved routine arithmetic problems. Results demonstrated that competition had a significant dysfunctional effect on task performance within goal setting conditions.     

A fairer examination of rating scales when used for performance appraisal in a real organizational setting

Fifty-seven managers in an aircraft plant who had received rater training, appraised their subordinates (n = 376) using both a BARS format and a graphic scale. Less leniency and halo effect occurred with the BARS format. In addition, the use of BARS resulted in higher interrater reliability than ratings obtained with the graphic scale. Finally, the overall (global) evaluation derived with the BARS form was significantly less susceptible to leniency effect. A tentative conceptual framework to explain this finding was suggested.     

Empirical investigation of construction safety management activities and performance in Australia

The construction industry seems to suffer from a general inability to manage workplace health and safety to a level where an achieved improvement in safety performance by a way of pro-active measures can result in zero accidents. This paper investigates the effectiveness of safety management activities as currently adopted by Australian contracting organisations. A safety management survey has been conducted of contracting organisations operating in the State of Queensland, Australia. Based on a research model depicting statistical analysis techniques, a safety management index reflecting the intensity of level of safety management activities has been developed to provide a means whereby individual organisations can be assessed and graded on their safety management commitment and attitudes. The paper reports on a detailed empirical analysis carried out to examine the relationship between the intensity of safety management commitment and the overall safety performance, pro-activeness and record.     

The workload and performance relationship in the real world: a study of police officers in a field shooting exercise.

We examined the relationship between perceived workload and performance by evaluating the responses of police officers to 4 different draw-and-shoot tasks in a night field training exercise which was part of their regular training regimen. Sixty-two police officers volunteered to participate. Results demonstrated an associative trend among 3 tasks where shooting performance decreased and workload increased as the tasks became more complex. However, performance on 1 specific shooting task did not correlate with any of the other 3 tasks, and in this 1 exceptional case, insensitivities were observed in which workload increased but performance remained constant.     

Accident in a French dynamite factory: An example of an organisational investigation

The 27th of March 2003, an explosion caused the death of four employees in a Nitrochimie pyrotechnic plant, at Billy Berclau, in the north of France. Following the accident, the ministry of Ecology and Sustainable Development appointed INERIS to perform an investigation. According to the terms of reference, the investigation would cover technical (origins of the explosion, extent of damages) as well as organisational issues, as defined by SEVESO II safety management system requirements. This paper has a threefold purpose. It intends first to illustrate with an empirical case the current trend in safety auditing and accident investigation, targeting organisational factors, alongside human factors. There are not so many published cases of accidents analysed with an organisational perspective. Secondly, it shows that it is possible to investigate organisational dimensions (through articulation of safety engineering, safety management and human and social sciences) within reasonable time frames and a reasonable amount of resources. By focusing on key actors and asking appropriate questions related to key dimensions, investigating organisational accidents might not necessarily imply spending much more resources than other steps such as damage assessment, chronological construction or identification of technical scenarios, although there are also some prerequisite conditions needed to achieve this. Finally this paper should be seen as a technical communication beyond the pyrotechnic industry.     

The field performance of frontal air bags: a review of the literature

This article presents a broad review of the literature on frontal air bag field performance, starting with the initial government and industry projections of effectiveness and concluding with the most recent assessments of depowered systems. This review includes as many relevant metrics as practicable, interprets the findings, and provides references so the interested reader can further evaluate the limitations, confounders, and utility of each metric. The evaluations presented here range from the very specific (individual case studies) to the general (statistical analyses of large databases). The metrics used to evaluate air bag performance include fatality reduction or increase; serious, moderate, and minor injury reduction or increase; harm reduction or increase; and cost analyses, including insurance costs and the cost of life years saved for various air bag systems and design philosophies. The review begins with the benefits of air bags. Fatality and injury reductions attributable to the air bag are presented. Next, the negative consequences of air bag deployment are described. Injuries to adults and children and the current trends in air bag injury rates are discussed, as are the few documented instances of inadvertent deployments or non-deployment in severe crashes. In the third section, an attempt is made to quantify the influence of the many confounding factors that affect air bag performance. The negative and positive characteristics of air bags are then put into perspective within the context of societal costs and benefits. Finally, some special topics, including risk homeostasis and the performance of face bags, are discussed.     

关于一起过电压事故的调查分析

通过一起过电压事故的调查分析,找出了发生事故的主要原因,并提出了整改措施及应吸取的经验教训。     

Mentorship and career mobility: An empirical investigation

The literature on mentorship is briefly reviewed, revealing that many studies have documented the functions that mentors provide to proteges, including vocational and psychosocial support. This study investigates the link between these functions and the career mobility outcomes of proteges. Results from a random sample of 244 manufacturing managers supports previous research on the dimensions of mentoring. Further, vocational (coaching) and psycho-social (social support) were found to be related to managers' salary level and promotions. Implications of these results for future studies of mentoring are discussed.     

An experimental investigation of fluid flow and combustion characteristics of dual-fuel in a cylindrical combustion chamber

Combustion and fluid flow characteristics of coflowing LPG and kerosene have been investigated experimentally. A cylindrical water cooled combustion chamber was used to investigate the effect of changing the injection location and percentage of liquid fuel during gaseous fuel combustion. It was found that the injection of liquid fuel leads to an increase in the absolute value of maximum positive axial velocity and reduces the absolute value of the maximum negative axial velocity compared to the case of LPG alone. Also, a stable temperature distribution is noticed at axial distance of X/D approximately equal to 2.15 (where X is the axial distance measured from the inlet of diffuser, and D is chamber diameter). This is less than that of gaseous fuel combustion (approximately equal to 2.91). The change of injection location leads to a reduction in values of gas temperatures at X_inj/D=0.15 then it increased to reach maximum values at X_inj/D=0.35 which is approximately the same value for combustion of LPG fuel only. Any further increase in the injection location leads to a reduction in gas temperature, especially at the upstream sections of the combustion chamber. Also, it was found that values of temperature along the combustion chamber were decreased with increasing the percentage of the injected liquid fuel due to incomplete combustion of liquid fuel. Values of combustion chamber efficiency (η) for all percentage of liquid fuel at X_inj/D=0.35 are higher than those for combustion of LPG alone.     

An investigation of driver attitudes and behaviour in rural and urban areas in Norway

This study aimed to investigate differences in self-reported driver attitudes and behaviour in rural, peri-urban and urban areas in Norway. Age, gender and education were controlled for. An additional aim was to investigate the relations between demographics, personality variables, driver attitudes and behaviour in the complete sample and across the different geographical areas. To obtain these aims, a questionnaire was distributed by mail to a randomly selected sample from the Norwegian population registry (N = 6203). Of the distributed questionnaires the response rate was 30%. Differences in attitudes and self-reported behaviour were significant due to type of geographical area. However, the results showed that gender, age and education caused stronger differences than type of geographical area in attitudes to driving and driver behaviour. SEM-analysis failed to reject the notion that the strength of the structural relations was similar in the geographical areas. This could imply that demographic characteristics, and their compositions in rural, peri-urban and urban areas, are more important for differences in driver behaviour and attitudes than characteristics of the traffic environment.     

An empirical investigation of safety climate in container terminal operators

INTRODUCTION: This study empirically evaluates the crucial dimensions of safety climate from a container terminal operator's perspective, specifically in the Port of Kaohsiung. METHOD: Seven safety climate dimensions are identified based on factor analysis: (a) supervisor safety, (b) job safety, (c) coworkers' safety, (d) safety management, (e) safety training, (f) safety rules and special safety training, and (g) job pressure. Cluster analysis is subsequently performed to form worker groups. Respondents are categorized into four groups on the basis of their factor scores in safety climate dimensions: (a) safety management oriented terminal operators, (b) safety training and management oriented terminal operators, (c) job safety and supervisor safety oriented terminal operators, and (d) coworkers' safety oriented terminal operators. RESULTS: Results indicate that safety training and management oriented terminal operators have the best safety performance, followed by safety management oriented terminal operators, job safety and supervisor safety oriented terminal operators, and coworkers' safety oriented terminal operators. Theoretical and practical implications of the research findings are discussed.     

Numerical investigation into dynamic responses of RC columns subjected for fire and blast

Structures may be exposed to fire and blast due to accidents (i.e. explosion of flammable gas in industrial structures) or terrorist attacks during the service life. Performances of RC structures subjected to extreme conditions of fire and blast, thus, have drawn much attention from academia. In this paper, the coupling effect of high temperature and high strain rate in concrete was firstly studied based on the experimental data to improve the damage plasticity concrete model in ABAQUS. Secondly, the transient heat transfer effects in different fire scenarios and following fire resistances of RC columns with constant axial forces were numerically investigated on the basis of the improved concrete model, which are validated by the corresponding test data, and the residual axial loading capacity of RC columns was quantitatively calculated. By incorporating the different merits of implicit algorithm applied to heat transfer analyses and explicit algorithm usually used in blast analyses, a numerical approach to analyze the responses of RC columns subjected to the coupling loadings of fire and blast was finally developed. Mid-span displacements and damage of the RC columns subjected to fire and explosions were quantitatively calculated and discussed. The proposed approach was demonstrated to be effective in predicting the responses of RC structures subjected to coupling loadings of fire and blast.     

On the relationship between objective increases in pay and employees' subjective reactions

This study explored whether two principles describe the relationship between the size of a pay increase (a bonus expressed as a percentage of current salary) and the attractiveness of that increase. Based on a sample of sales personnel (N = 639) and consistent with the constant proportion principle of the psychophysical law, pay increase attractiveness was unrelated to current salary level after controlling for the size of the percentage increase. In addition, at any given salary level, the relationship between the size of the increase and its attractiveness was curvilinear. The attractiveness of larger and larger bonus percentages continues to increase, but at a decreasing rate supporting the principle of diminishing returns.     

紧急疏散下的引导员设置与仿真模拟

为研究公共场所内引导员的设置对紧急疏散及逃生效率的影响,进行了3种工况的紧急疏散仿真模拟研究。基于分区疏散理念进行疏散区域的划分和引导员位置的设置,运用Building Exodus软件对3种工况下的人员紧急疏散情况进行仿真模拟,3种工况为无引导员、基于最短路径原则而设置引导员、综合考虑出口通行能力和最短路径原则而设置引导员。计算3种工况下的待疏散人员逃生效率及逃生时间,并进行对比分析。结果表明:综合考虑出口通行能力和最短路径原则设置引导员的工况,其出口利用率及逃生效率均最高,逃生效率的最佳工效统计(OPS)为0.087;基于最短路径原则设置引导员的工况位居其次,由于没有合理利用出口,导致所使用的逃生时间和无引导员工况的逃生时间相近,最佳工效统计(OPS)为0.417;无引导员工况的最佳工效统计(OPS)为0.443。仿真模拟研究结果表明,在公共场所紧急疏散时,按综合考虑出口通行能力和最短路径原则设置引导员,可提高人员疏散效率和出口利用率,同时减少人员疏散时间。