Psychosocial safety climate: Conceptual distinctiveness and effect on job demands and worker psychological health

Psychosocial safety climate is an emerging construct that refers to shared perceptions regarding policies, practices, and procedures for the protection of worker psychological health and safety. The purpose of the research was to: (1) demonstrate that psychosocial safety climate is a construct distinct from related climate measures (i.e., physical safety climate, team psychological safety, and perceived organizational support); and (2) test the proposition that organizational psychosocial safety climate determines work conditions (i.e., job demands) and subsequently worker psychological health. We used samples from two different cultures; an Australian sample (N = 126 workers in 16 teams within a primary health care organization) and a Malaysian sample (N = 180 workers in 31 teams from different organizations and diverse industries). In both samples confirmatory factor analysis verified that psychosocial safety climate is a construct distinct from related climate measures. Using hierarchical linear modeling, psychosocial safety climate was superior to other team level climate measures in its negative relationship to both job demands and psychological health problems. Results supported a mediation process, psychosocial safety climate → job demands → psychological health problems, corroborating psychosocial safety climate as a preeminent stress risk factor, and an efficient target for intervention. We found both physical and psychosocial safety climates were stronger in the Australian, compared with the Malaysian work context. Levels of psychosocial safety climate were significantly lower than those of physical safety climate in both countries indicating a ‘universal’ lack of attention to workplace psychological health.     

Unintended consequences of management strategies for improving labor productivity in construction industry

Introduction: Labor productivity and safety are important topics in the construction industry. Even so, the literature provides little information for project managers trying to determine how management strategies designed to improve labor productivity impact safety. Method: This research addresses the gap by measuring the impact of two groups of management strategies that involve human resource related management strategies and construction related management strategies related to safety performance in construction projects. Data were collected from 111 general construction projects through the survey. Results: The results show that the relationship between the implemented management strategies and safety performance is nuanced with ‘Communication’ harming safety performance while implementation of ‘Labor Management,’ ‘Supervision and Leadership,’ ‘Planning’ and ‘Management of Construction’ strategies improve the level of safety performance. This study took a further step by measuring the impact of the interactions between the two groups of management strategies on safety performance. The results show that the interactions of construction and human related management strategies are not always in the favor of safety. Practical Applications: This paper adds to the literature on the relationship between productivity and safety in the construction industry. The research findings can assist project managers to improve labor productivity without harming the safety of laborers unintentionally.     

Integrating safety,health and environmental management systems: A conceptual framework for achieving lean enterprise outcomes

IntroductionExpectations from external stakeholders for eco-safe products and production processes and internal stakeholders for transparent, stable, and robust environment, safety, and health operations have driven high technology organizations to adopt multipart management systems. Organizations can protect workers and the environment and simultaneously contribute to lean management principles by implementing integrated management systems. This research adds to the existing discourse and theory pertaining to the integration of environment, safety, and health management systems. Methods: The research was exploratory and inductive in nature and used mixed methods. Specifically, qualitative methods included use of an iterated Delphi method to elicit information from a panel of experts and detailed case studies conducted at four high technology performance manufacturing firms, while quantitative analysis of variance of correlated data investigated the within-firm and between-firm variability in motivating factors for adopting integrated systems and methods used for implementing integrated systems. Results: The results offer an integrated-lean management system framework and the strategies available and used by a sample of high technology performance organizations to simultaneously protect workers, the environment, and support lean enterprise outcomes. Practical applications: Organizations can protect workers, the environment, and simultaneously contribute to lean management principles by implementing integrated management systems requiring joint management that allow for the shared design, evaluation, and continuous improvement of environmental, safety, and health practices that are compatible with the lean enterprise movement in today’s high-performance driven organizations.     

Predicting safety culture: the roles of employer, operations manager and safety professional

Introduction: This study explores predictive factors in safety culture. Method: In 2008, a sample 939 employees was drawn from 22 departments of a telecoms firm in five regions in central Taiwan. The sample completed a questionnaire containing four scales: the employer safety leadership scale, the operations manager safety leadership scale, the safety professional safety leadership scale, and the safety culture scale. The sample was then randomly split into two subsamples. One subsample was used for measures development, one for the empirical study. Results: A stepwise regression analysis found four factors with a significant impact on safety culture (R² = 0.337): safety informing by operations managers; safety caring by employers; and safety coordination and safety regulation by safety professionals. Safety informing by operations managers (ß = 0.213) was by far the most significant predictive factor. Impact on industry: The findings of this study provide a framework for promoting a positive safety culture at the group level.     

Behavior and lifestyle characteristics of male Kuwaiti drivers

Introduction: The high traffic accident risk among young drivers is a well-known and well-documented fact in most countries. Lifestyle has proven to affect driving behavior as well as accident risk. This study covers the lifestyle component of the problems related to young male Kuwaiti drivers’ accident risk. Methods: The purpose of the study is to measure the relationship between lifestyle and accident risk. Lifestyle is measured through a questionnaire, where 302 male Kuwaiti drivers (mean age = 28 years; range 25-35 years) answer 39 questions related to behavioral and social factors, road conditions, police enforcement, and life satisfaction. They also report their involvement in accidents and traffic violations. Results: The questionnaire's validity and reliability (Cronbach's alpha = 0.7) were achieved. Principal component analysis reduced the 39 items on the questionnaire to 5 factors. Inadequate police enforcement is strongly correlated (r = 0.862) to accident risk and traffic violations and is thus considered the best predictor of traffic accidents in Kuwait. Impact on Industry: As driving-related incidents (on-the-job and off-the-job) are a significant source of fatalities and lost-work-days, the study points to the importance of considering cultural factors in the design of comprehensive safety programs for industry.     

Traffic culture as symbol exchange - A cross-country comparison of Russia and Norway

The core aim of the study was to gain insight into the cross-country differences in traffic risk perception and driving behaviour and also how culture and cultural differences may influence perceived risk and risk behaviour by comparing a sample of the Russian population with a sample of the Norwegian population. A new measurement instrument aimed at measuring culture as symbol exchange was applied. Self-completion questionnaire surveys were carried out among representative samples of the Norwegian (n = 247) and the Russian (n = 299) population aged 18 years and over. The results showed that culture defined as symbol exchange was weakly associated with risk perception. It is suggested that research carried out to date on the role of culture in risk research may have focused on criterion variables which are not very relevant. However, while traffic safety culture does not seem to be important for risk perception, this study shows that it seems to be relevant for drivers’ risk behaviour and thus it is still relevant and important to focus on traffic culture in risk research despite the fact that culture does not predict perceived risk. As symbol exchange, the newly developed measure of traffic safety culture is capable of predicting drivers’ risk behaviour in traffic and is therefore a valid predictor of traffic safety.     

实施OSHMS对企业职业安全健康管理状况影响分析

为了研究实施职业安全健康管理体系(OSHMS)对企业职业安全健康管理状况的影响,对百余家已实施与未实施OSHMS的企业进行了调研,在对调研结果分析研究的基础上,采用双对照分析的方法,对已通过OSHMS认证的企业在建立OSHMS前后的职业安全健康管理状况进行对照比较,以及已建立OSHMS与未建立OSHMS的企业的职业安全健康管理状况进行对照比较,研究结果表明,实施OSHMS有利于提高企业职业安全健康管理的整体水平,改善企业的职业安全健康管理状况,使职业安全健康管理更加科学化和规范化。     

Where to focus? Insights from safety personnel and external safety consultants on lessons learned about safety climate interventions – A qualitative approach

Introduction: Safety climate is important for promoting workplace safety and health. However, there is a dearth of empirical research on the effective ways of planning, designing, and implementing safety climate interventions, especially regarding what is going to be changed and improved. To address this gap, the present study sought to extract a comprehensive pool of compiled suggestions for safety climate intervention based on qualitative interviews with professionals in occupational safety and health management from potentially hazardous industries. Method: A series of systematic semi-structured interviews, guided by a comprehensive sociotechnical systems framework, were conducted with company safety personnel (n = 26) and external safety consultants (n = 15) of 21 companies from various industries. The taxonomy of five work system components of the sociotechnical systems approach served as overarching themes, representing different areas of improvement in an organization for occupational safety and health promotion, with an aim of enhancing safety climate. Results: Of the 36 codes identified, seven codes were based on the theme of external environment work system, four were based on the theme of internal environment work system, five were based on the theme of organizational and managerial structure work system, 14 codes were based on the theme of personnel subsystem, and six were based on the theme of technical subsystem. Conclusions: Safety climate intervention strategies might be most commonly based upon the principles of human resource management (i.e., codes based on the personnel subsystem theme and organizational and managerial structure work system theme). Meanwhile, numerous attributes of external/internal environment work system and technical subsystem can be jointly improved to bolster safety climate in a holistic way. Practical Applications: More systematic and organized management of safety climate would be available when various interrelated codes pertinent to a given context are carefully considered for a safety climate intervention.     

Improving construction site safety through leader-based verbal safety communication

Background

The construction industry is one of the most injury-prone industries, in which production is usually prioritized over safety in daily on-site communication. Workers have an informal and oral culture of risk, in which safety is rarely openly expressed. This paper tests the effect of increasing leader-based on-site verbal safety communication on the level of safety and safety climate at construction sites. Method: A pre-post intervention-control design with five construction work gangs is carried out. Foremen in two intervention groups are coached and given bi-weekly feedback about their daily verbal safety communications with their workers. Foremen-worker verbal safety exchanges (experience sampling method, n = 1,693 interviews), construction site safety level (correct vs. incorrect, n = 22,077 single observations), and safety climate (seven dimensions, n = 105 questionnaires) are measured over a period of up to 42 weeks. Results: Baseline measurements in the two intervention and three control groups reveal that foremen speak with their workers several times a day. Workers perceive safety as part of their verbal communication with their foremen in only 6-16% of exchanges, and the levels of safety at the sites range from 70-87% (correct observations). Measurements from baseline to follow-up in the two intervention groups reveal that safety communication between foremen and workers increases significantly in one of the groups (factor 7.1 increase), and a significant yet smaller increase is found when the two intervention groups are combined (factor 4.6). Significant increases in the level of safety are seen in both intervention groups (7% and 12% increases, respectively), particularly in regards to 'access ways' and 'railings and coverings' (39% and 84% increases, respectively). Increases in safety climate are seen in only one of the intervention groups with respect to their 'attention to safety.' No significant trend changes are seen in the three control groups on any of the three measures. Conclusions: Coaching construction site foremen to include safety in their daily verbal exchanges with workers has a significantly positive and lasting effect on the level of safety, which is a proximal estimate for work-related accidents. It is recommended that future studies include coaching and feedback at all organizational levels and for all involved parties in the construction process. Building client regulations could assign the task of coaching to the client appointed safety coordinators or a manager/supervisor, and studies should measure longitudinal effects of coaching by following foremen and their work gangs from site to site.     

Legislating child restraint usage -Its effect on self-reported child restraint use rates in a central city

Objective

To assess the effect of the newly enacted child passenger safety law, Wisconsin Act 106, on self-report of proper restraint usage of children in Milwaukee's central city population.

Method

A prospective, non-randomized study design was used. The settings used were (a) a pediatric urban health center, and (b) two Women, Infants and Children offices in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Participants included 11,566 surveys collected over 18 months that spanned the pre-legislation and post-legislation time periods from February 2006 through August 2008.

Results

The study set out to assess appropriate child passenger restraint. The results showed that the changes in adjusted proper restraint usage rates for infants between the pre-law, grace period, and post-fine periods were 94%, 94%, and 94% respectively. For children 1-3 years old, the adjusted proper usage rates were 65%, 63%, and 59%, respectively. And for children 4-7 years old, the rates were 43%, 44% and 42%, respectively. There was a significant increase in premature booster seat use in children who should have been restrained in a rear- or forward-facing car seat (10% pre-law, 12% grace period, 20% post-fine; p < 0.0005). There was no statistically significant change over time in unrestrained children (2.1%, 1.7%, 1.7%, p = 0.7, respectively).

Conclusions

The passage of a strengthened child passenger safety law with fines did not significantly improve appropriate restraint use for 0-7 year olds, and appropriate use in 1-7 year olds remained suboptimal with a majority of urban children inappropriately restrained. Although the number of unrestrained children decreased, we identified an unintended consequence of the legislation - a significant increase in the rate of premature belt-positioning booster seat use among poor, urban children.

Impact on Industry

The design of child restraint systems maximizes protection of the child. Increasing reports of misuse is a call to those who manufacture these child passenger restraints to improve advertising and marketing to the correct age group, ease of installation, and mechanisms to prevent incorrect safety strap and harness placement. To ensure accurate and consistent use on every trip, car seat manufacturers must ensure that best practice recommendations for use as well as age, weight, and height be clearly specified on each child restraint. The authors support the United States Department of Transportation's new consumer program that will assist caregivers in identifying the child seat that will fit in their vehicle. In addition, due to the increase in premature graduation of children into belt-positioning booster seats noted as a result of legislation, promoting and marketing booster seat use for children less than 40 pounds should not be accepted. Child passenger safety technicians must continue to promote best practice recommendations for child passenger restraint use and encourage other community leaders to do the same.     

企业一体化管理体系实施模式探讨

笔者依据ISO90 0 1、ISO14 0 0 1及OHSAS180 0 1标准 ,为企业进行质量、环境及职业安全健康管理体系整合并实现一体化管理提出了实施模式     

安全系统管理学的建构研究

从安全科学、系统科学和管理学角度,提出安全系统管理学的定义。阐述安全系统管理学的学科内容:安全系统管理学发展的理论基础是安全科学、系统科学和管理学的理论和方法;研究的对象是安全系统;研究的基本任务是运用现代管理科学的理论和原理,揭示系统管理活动的规律,建立系统的安全管理模式;研究的主要内容有安全系统的范畴和特性、安全系统管理的规律、实施过程以及方法、手段等。提出安全系统管理学研究的方法论基础,并研讨安全系统管理学与其他相关学科之间的关系。多视角探索安全系统管理学的理论和规律,研究思路和研究方向,分析表明:安全系统管理学作为安全管理学的一个分支学科,其研究内容广泛,研究的学科理论基础牢固,研究安全系统管理学将进一步充实和丰富安全科学的基本理论。但由于安全系统具有非线性、模糊性等复杂特性,对安全系统管理学的研究方法提出更高的要求。     

广东省企业安全生产主体责任现状分析

在构建企业安全生产主体责任绩效评估体系基础上,结合层次分析和模糊综合处理方法,对广东省企业安全生产主体责任落实情况进行全面调查分析。结果显示,组织机构与人员配置是安全生产主体责任落实中最重要的环节;一般地,外资企业好于中资企业,大型企业好于中小型企业,生产复杂度与主体责任绩效成反比;职业危害、安全生产监督、奖惩制度实施等是企业在落实安全生产主体责任之中较为薄弱的环节。最后提出相应建议：（1）在全省推行安全生产标准化的基础上,建立健全企业安全生产主体责任体系;（2）建立广东省职业危害与控制中心,健全职业安全健康管理体系;（3）进一步健全经济社会转型期的企业安全生产监督管理体系。     

Safety climate at agricultural cooperatives

Introduction: This study identifies determinants of safety climate at agricultural cooperatives. Methods: An extensive survey was designed to build upon past research done in collaboration with DuPont (Risch et al., 2014). In 2014 and 2015, the survey was administered to 1930 employees at 14 different agricultural cooperatives with 154 locations. Injury incidence data were also collected from each location to better understand the overall health and safety environment in this sector. An ordered probit model is used to identify variables that are associated with better safety climates. Results: Safety system components such as discipline programs, inspection programs, modified duty programs, off-the-job safety training programs, and recognition programs are positively related to individual safety climate for both managerial employees and nonmanagerial employees. Variables representing an employee’s agricultural background, distance between their workplace and childhood home, and formal education are not associated with managerial safety climate. However, agricultural background and childhood home distance are associated with nonmanagerial safety climate. Conclusions: Improving occupational health and safety is a priority for many agricultural cooperatives. Lower safety climate emerges as nonmanagerial employees have more experience with production agriculture and work nearer to their home community. Practical applications: Employees of agricultural cooperatives face a host of health and safety challenges that are likely to persist into the future. The safety system components associated with safety climate indicate that continuous feedback is important for improving occupational health and safety. Occupational health and safety programming should also acknowledge that many employees have experiences that influence their attitudes and behaviors.     

EMS与OSHMS的整合研究

近年来 ,在环境管理体系和职业安全健康管理体系的建立、认证和持续改进的实践中 ,企业、咨询与认证机构都发现 ,两体系独立建立、完善和持续改进 ,不断提升中 ,仍存在一些问题 ,人们提出 ,实现两大管理体系的整合 ,不仅有利于企业对环境管理和职业安全健康管理的资源共享 ,而且也是顺应国际认证发展的潮流。为此 ,笔者论述了两大管理体系整合的原因 ;讨论了整合的基本原则和难点 ;分析了两大管理体系整合的基本思路 ;研究了ESH整合型管理体系的实现过程。     

Current situation of certification system and future improvements of the occupational health and safety management system for loss prevention in Korea – Focused on KOSHA 18001

The world has increasingly been establishing guidelines for industrial safety and health to promote occupational safety and health. The Korean government is also providing the establishment, execution, coordination and control of the industrial safety and health policy and safety assessment and improvement for harmful and dangerous machines, instruments, and equipment, protective devices, personal protective equipment, etc. Specifically, this centered on the ILO enacted ILO-OSH 2001 guidelines, for safety and health management system in 2001. However, varied modifications were adopted because the ordinances and guidelines are diverse by nations. In addition, Korea has introduced and disseminated the safety and health management system to workplaces since 1999. However, businesses have shown reservations to introducing the safety and health management system on economic grounds. There are a lot of losses in the business because they lack experts group in the workplace and operate the quality, environment, and Safety & health management systems separately. Accordingly, in this study, KOSHA have investigated the problems and the future improvements of the safety and health management system.     

改进环境和职业健康安全管理整合体系适应GB/T24001-2004标准

建立与实施环境和职业健康安全管理整合体系有利于企业降低管理成本、提高管理效益。环境管理体系标准的改版加强了其与其他管理体系之间的协调性和兼容性,有利于进一步推动整合体系的建立与实施。在深入研究GB/T24001-2004版标准在结构框架、术语、要素名称及内容等方面变化情况的基础上,在环境和职业健康安全方针、目标、指标和方案的策划、资源,特别是基础设施的保障、合规性评价的完善、纠正措施和预防措施的实施以及一体化内部审核的开展等方面提出了建议对策,以供企业借鉴。改进环境和职业健康安全管理整合体系,以适应体系标准的发展变化,不断提高企业的现代安全健康管理水平是企业可持续发展的重要因素。     

Possibilistic regression analysis of influential factors for occupational health and safety management systems

The code of occupational health and safety (OHS) is an influential regulation to improve the on-the-job safety of employees. A number of factors influence the planning and implementation of OHS management systems (OHSMS). The evaluation of OHSMS practice is the most important component when forming a health and safety environmental policy for employees. The objective of this research is to develop an intelligent data analysis (IDA) in which possibilistic regression being endowed with a convex hull approach is used to support the analysis of essential factors that influence OHSMS. Given such subjective terms, the obtained samples can be conveniently regarded as fuzzy input/output data represented by membership functions. The study offers this vehicle of intelligent data analysis as an alternative to evaluate the influential factors in a successful implementation of OHS policies and in this way decrease an overall computational effort. The obtained results show that several related OHSMS influential factors need to be carefully considered to facilitate a successful implementation of the OHSMS procedure.     

CSHM: Web-based safety and health monitoring system for construction management

INTRODUCTION: This paper describes a web-based system for monitoring and assessing construction safety and health performance, entitled the Construction Safety and Health Monitoring (CSHM) system. METHOD: The design and development of CSHM is an integration of internet and database systems, with the intent to create a total automated safety and health management tool. A list of safety and health performance parameters was devised for the management of safety and health in construction. A conceptual framework of the four key components of CSHM is presented: (a) Web-based Interface (templates); (b) Knowledge Base; (c) Output Data; and (d) Benchmark Group. RESULTS: The combined effect of these components results in a system that enables speedy performance assessment of safety and health activities on construction sites. With the CSHM's built-in functions, important management decisions can theoretically be made and corrective actions can be taken before potential hazards turn into fatal or injurious occupational accidents. IMPACT ON INDUSTRY: As such, the CSHM system will accelerate the monitoring and assessing of performance safety and health management tasks.     

浅析建立、实施职业安全卫生管理体系的重要性

介绍职业安全卫生管理体系的由来及发展趋势，论述国内部分企业已经具备了建立、实施职业安全卫生管理体系的条件，分析建立、实施职业安全卫生管理体系对企业安全管理工作的促进作用。