How important is vehicle safety in the new vehicle purchase/lease process for fleet vehicles?

OBJECTIVE: Despite the potential benefits that fleet vehicle purchase decisions could have on road safety, the role that vehicle safety plays in fleet managers' purchase decisions is poorly understood. METHODS: In this study, fleet managers from Sweden and Spain completed a questionnaire regarding the importance of vehicle safety in the new vehicle purchase/lease process and the importance that is placed on safety options/features relative to other convenience and comfort features. RESULTS: The findings of the current study suggest that vehicle safety is generally not the primary consideration in the vehicle purchase process and is consistently outranked by factors such as price and dependability/reliability. For example, when asked to indicate the vehicle factors that are included in their company's criteria for purchasing/leasing a new vehicle, fleet managers from both Sweden and Spain were more likely to list the vehicle's price, reliability, running costs, size, and fuel consumption than the vehicle's safety (defined as the vehicle's EuroNCAP rating/other safety reports). In addition, the findings of this study suggest that the importance of vehicle safety did not differ across the two countries. For example, there was no significant difference in the proportion of fleet managers who indicated that EuroNCAP ratings were part of their official policy across the two countries. CONCLUSION: The findings highlighted the need to educate fleet managers about vehicle safety in the new vehicle purchase/lease process. In addition, vehicle safety information, such as EuroNCAP results or other crash test results need to be promoted more widely and effectively so that they play a more prominent role in their new vehicle choices.     

“Are you still driving?” Metasynthesis of patient preferences for communication with health care providers

Aim: The aim of this study was to synthesize published qualitative studies to identify older adults' preferences for communication about driving with health care providers.

Background: Health care providers play a key role in addressing driving safety and driving retirement with older adults, but conversations about driving can be difficult. Guides exist for family members and providers, but to date less is known about the types of communication and messages older drivers want from their health care providers.

Design: A qualitative metasynthesis of studies published on or before October 10, 2014, in databases (PubMed, CINAHL, PsycINFO, and Web of Science) and grey literature was performed.

Review Methods: Twenty-two published studies representing 518 older adult drivers met the following inclusion criteria: the study (1) was about driving; (2) involved older drivers; (3) was qualitative (rather than quantitative or mixed methods); and (4) contained information on older drivers' perspectives about communication with health care providers.

Results: We identified 5 major themes regarding older adults' communication preferences: (1) driving discussions are emotionally charged; (2) context matters; (3) providers are trusted and viewed as authority figures; (4) communication should occur over a period of time rather than suddenly; and (5) older adults desire agency in the decision to stop driving.

Conclusion: Various stakeholders involved in older driver safety should consider older drivers' perspectives regarding discussions about driving. Health care providers can respect and empower older drivers—and support their family members—through tactful communication about driving safety and mobility transitions during the life course.     

Explaining task performance and creativity from perceived organizational support theory: Which mechanisms are more important?

Perceived organizational support (POS) theory specifies three mechanisms—felt obligation, group identification, and outcome expectancy—to explain the effects of organizational support on employee work outcomes. These mechanisms have usually been examined in isolation so that it is not possible to assess their relative explanatory power. The present study aims to remedy this problem by examining the three mechanisms simultaneously using structural equation modeling. On the basis of a sample of 206 bank employees in China, we focus on two types of employee performance—task performance and creativity—as dependent variables. Drawing on self‐determination theory and characteristics of the research context, we propose that task performance is more strongly predicted by felt obligation than by the other two mechanisms, whereas identification and expectancy more strongly predict creativity than felt obligation. We conclude by discussing our contribution to POS and creativity research, and highlight some important implications of our findings. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Are cellular phone blocking applications effective for novice teen drivers?

ProblemDistracted driving is a significant concern for novice teen drivers. Although cellular phone bans are applied in many jurisdictions to restrict cellular phone use, teen drivers often report making calls and texts while driving.MethodThe Minnesota Teen Driver Study incorporated cellular phone blocking functions via a software application for 182 novice teen drivers in two treatment conditions. The first condition included 92 teens who ran a driver support application on a smartphone that also blocked phone usage. The second condition included 90 teens who ran the same application with phone blocking but which also reported back to parents about monitored risky behaviors (e.g., speeding). A third control group consisting of 92 novice teen drivers had the application and phone-based software installed on the phones to record cellular phone (but not block it) use while driving.ResultsThe two treatment groups made significantly fewer calls and texts per mile driven compared to the control group. The control group data also demonstrated a higher propensity to text while driving rather than making calls.DiscussionSoftware that blocks cellular phone use (except 911) while driving can be effective at mitigating calling and texting for novice teen drivers. However, subjective data indicates that some teens were motivated to find ways around the software, as well as to use another teen's phone while driving when they were unable to use theirs.Practical applicationsCellular phone bans for calling and texting are the first step to changing behaviors associated with texting and driving, particularly among novice teen drivers. Blocking software has the additional potential to reduce impulsive calling and texting while driving among novice teen drivers who might logically know the risks, but for whom it is difficult to ignore calling or texting while driving.     

Risk assessment in support to land-use planning in Europe: Towards more consistent decisions?

Recognising the importance of establishing appropriate separation distances between hazardous installations and vulnerable residential areas for mitigating the effects of industrial accidents, the European legislation for the control of major accident hazards - the so-called Seveso II Directive - calls for procedures ensuring that technical advice is taken systematically into account for land-use planning (LUP) purposes. Due to historical, administrative, cultural and other reasons, these European Union’s Member States which have consolidated procedures for addressing this issue, have employed different approaches, methods and criteria, with a potential for great divergence in the resulting land-use planning decisions. In order to address this situation and to increase consistency and ‘defendability’ of land-use planning decisions in the EU, a European Working Group has been established and is operating under the coordination of the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC). This Group, consisting of experts from the EU Member States, the industry and the academia, is trying to understand the different approaches and their implications to LUP decision-making, to develop guidelines in support to these decisions and to examine data sources and tools for consistent application of risk assessment in support to LUP. This paper presents the activities of the Group, reviews the situation with respect to LUP in Europe and discusses whether a direction towards more consistent LUP decisions is being followed in Europe.     

Design for occupational safety and health of workers in construction in developing countries: a study of architects in Nigeria

Purpose. Design for safety (DfS) of workers is amongst the prominent ways of tackling poor occupational safety and health performance in construction. However, in developing countries there is extremely limited research on DfS. This study thus makes an important contribution to the subject of DfS in developing countries by specifically examining the awareness and practice of DfS amongst architects within the construction sector of Nigeria. Materials and methods. A survey of architects, yielding 161 valid responses, was conducted. Results. While there is high awareness of the concept of DfS, the actual practice is low. Additionally, although there is high interest in DfS training, the engagement in DfS training is low. Significantly, awareness of DfS, training and education related to DfS, and membership of a design professional body have very limited bearing on the practice of DfS by architects. Conclusions. The findings are thus symptomatic of the prevalence of influential DfS implementation barriers within the construction sector. Industry stakeholders should seek to raise the profile of DfS practice within the sector. Furthermore, similar empirical studies in the construction sector of other developing countries would be useful in shedding light on the status of DfS in these countries.     

Are followers satisfied with conscientious leaders? The moderating influence of leader role authenticity

Leadership scholars have yet to identify a clear and consistent relationship between leader conscientiousness and followers' satisfaction with a leader. Drawing from socioanalytic theory and related personality research, we argue that the underlying motives of leader conscientiousness can manifest in systematically different behaviors aimed at team task accomplishment, ranging from rigid and order‐driven to relatively more adaptable approaches. Importantly, we posit that the relationship between a leader's conscientiousness and adaptability is conditioned by role authenticity (i.e., the extent to which a leader believes a role permits expressions of her or his “true self”). Hence, we articulate a conditional indirect effects model whereby leader conscientiousness and leader role authenticity jointly predict leader adaptability and, in turn, increasing levels of leader adaptability are positively associated with followers' shared satisfaction with their leader. Data from a sample of fire and rescue crews provide partial support for the model. Post hoc analyses suggest that the conditioning influence of leader role authenticity on leader conscientiousness is more informative when subfacets of conscientiousness are considered.     

Are older workers more active copers? Longitudinal effects of age‐contingent coping on strain at work

This study addresses coping processes as explanation of age‐related differences in strain experience. Based on the life‐span theory of control, we posit that older workers employ more active problem‐focused and more active emotion‐focused coping strategies than younger workers, which should mediate age effects on strain at work. The correlation between age and passive avoidance coping, in contrast, is expected to be qualified by external resources such as job control. Hypotheses were tested in a two‐wave panel study (8 months lag) with 634 workers (age range 16–65 years). Job demands were considered as control variables. As predicted, older as compared with younger workers reported more active problem‐focused coping, which mediated age differences on strain in the longitudinal analysis. No mediation was found for active emotion‐focused coping. Moreover, age‐contingent effects of passive avoidance coping were moderated by job control. When job control was low, younger as compared with older workers reported more avoidance coping, which in turn decreased strain in the longitudinal analysis. Finally, reverse longitudinal effects of age‐contingent strain on active problem‐focused and active emotion‐focused coping provide initial evidence for age‐contingent resource spirals. Together, the results reveal specific strengths of older workers for stress management at work. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Do organizations spend wisely on employees? Effects of training and development investments on learning and innovation in organizations

The present study examines the effects of training and development on organizational innovation. We specifically suggest that the training and development investments of an organization affect its innovative performance by promoting various learning practices. We empirically tested our hypothesis by using time‐lagged, multi‐source data collected from 260 Korean companies that represent diverse industries. Our analysis showed that corporate expenditure for internal training predicts interpersonal and organizational learning practices, which, in turn, increase innovative performance. The data also revealed that the positive relationship between interpersonal and organizational learning practices and innovative performance is stronger within organizations that have stronger innovative climates. By contrast, investment in employee development through financial support for education outside an organization poses a significant negative effect on its innovative performance and no significant effect on learning practices. The present study provides a plausible explanation for a mechanism through which the investment of an organization in employees enhances its innovative performance. Copyright © 2013 The Authors. Journal of Organizational Behavior published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Are FPCIs a source of increased risk for children? Results of a multicenter, experimental study comparing children's behaviour with FPCIs and toys

INTRODUCTION: Food Products Containing Inedibles (FPCIs) are believed to represent a source of higher choking risk in children. The aim of this study was to set up a controlled study, conducted on children aged 3-6 in a laboratory setting, in order to understand their behavior when interacting with FPCIs (with reference to mouthing activities, double nature recognition, and toy assembling ability). METHOD: The experimental phase was divided into two sessions: a FPCI session and a Toy session, to which 247 children were randomly assigned. During these sessions children were observed in order to catch their mouthing activity according to the two types of objects available to them (FPCIs and Toys). RESULTS: This study shows that: (a) children's behavior with respect to toys contained in FPCIs and toys presented alone is not significantly different; (b) children's ability to distinguish between the edible and non-edible part of the FPCI was very high; and (c) mouthing episodes of the inedible parts were negligible and comparable between FPCIs and toys presented alone. This strongly suggests that, with respect to choking risk, FPCIs are not per se distinguishable from toys containing small parts. IMPACT ON INDUSTRY: Restrictions on the sale of FPCIs with small toys exist in the U.S. market. In Europe, FPCIs are allowed to be on sale, under the condition that, in case, they will follow the general regulatory requirements of small toys packaged and sold alone. In this case, they must provide age warnings and labels. Our findings do not justify the different attention that toys in FPCIs are at times afforded by regulators when compared to "stand alone" toys.     

Amalgam in Dentistry A Health Hazard for Dental Personnel?

In a cross sectional study done in 1993 among dental personnel in Norrbotten, self-reported prevalence of muscular pain, headache, tremor, insomnia, irritation, impaired memory and depression, as well as information regarding different mercury exposures were collected Mercury exposures were determined as “number of amalgam fillings in teeth,” “years in practice,” “insufficient ventilation at work,” “total number of amalgam removed, produced and polished per day,” and “working in dental clinics.” As controls, physicians and nurses from the same geographical area were selected. The correlation between symptoms and different mercury exposures was calculated using logistic regression. The results suggested a higher prevalence of muscular fatigue and tremor for female dental personnel compared to controls Controls reported a lower prevalence of symptoms with increasing number of amalgam fillings in teeth. There was no correlation between the number of amalgam fillings handled per day and symptoms for dental personnel. Male dental personnel associated muscular fatigue headache, impaired memory, and depression with increased handling of amalgam in the clinic’ whereas the female dental personnel associated the same symptoms with the number of amalgam fillings in teeth. The strongest correlation was found between symptoms and insufficient ventilation at dental clinics for dental personnel.     

Are age-based licensing restrictions a meaningful way to enhance rural older driver safety? The need for exposure considerations in policy development

The stated and revealed travel behavior of a sample of 60 rural drivers aged 54-92 years provided a basis to explore the potential effectiveness of two common driver's license restrictions aimed at older drivers: time of day and road class. The potential utility and impact of these restrictions have not been explored with revealed data for jurisdictions with a large population of rural older drivers where automobile dependence is high. Data were drawn from a multiday Global Positioning System-based travel diary survey of rural older drivers in New Brunswick, Canada. Revealed travel data showed that over 50 percent of the rural drivers in the sample did not drive after dark, and 40 percent drove less than 1 percent of their total surveyed kilometers on major highways, higher rates than from participant-stated responses. The proportion of participants taking night trips and traveling on major highways decreased with age. The majority of trips taken after dark by all participants had a rural destination. The average daily kilometers driven on major highways by men and women aged 75 years and older was nearly identical (1.79 km/day). These exposure considerations suggest that restricting night travel and major highway travel for the oldest rural drivers (75 years and older) may have limited utility given that the majority of participants did not drive in these situations, and for those who did, most of their trips were in rural areas where enforcement could be expected to be limited. A better approach may be to encourage increased self-regulation through training, age-friendly upgrades to transportation infrastructure to help rural older drivers stay driving safely as long as possible, and the development of appropriate rural alternatives to help a driver transition to nondriver.     

Experimental study on DDT for hydrogen–methane–air mixtures in tube with obstacles

An experimental study of flame propagation, acceleration and transition to detonation in stoichiometric hydrogen–methane–air mixtures in 6 m long tube filled with obstacles located at different configurations was performed. The initial conditions of the hydrogen–methane–air mixtures were 1 atm and 293 K. Four different cases of obstacle blockage ratio (BR) 0.7, 0.6, 0.5 and 0.4 and three cases of obstacle spacing were used. The wave propagation was monitored by piezoelectric pressure transducers PCB. Pressure transducers were located at different positions along the channel to collect data concerning DDT and detonation development. Tested mixtures were ignited by a weak electric spark at one end of the tube. Detonation cell sizes were measured using smoked foil technique and analyzed with Matlab image processing toolbox. As a result of the experiments the deflagration and detonation regimes and velocities of flame propagation in the obstructed tube were determined.     

Testing of dust clouds for the electrostatic-spark ignition hazard in industry. Need for a modified approach?

Current standard test methods for electric-spark minimum ignition energies (MIEs) of dust clouds in air require that a series inductance of at least 1–2 mH be included in the electric-spark discharge circuit. The reason is to prolong the spark discharge duration and thus minimize the spark energy required for ignition. However, when assessing the minimum electrostatic energy ½CU² for dust cloud ignition by accidental electrostatic-spark discharges, current testing standards require that the series inductance of at least 1–2 mH be removed from the spark discharge circuit. No other changes of apparatus and test procedure are required. The present paper questions whether this simple approach is always adequate. The reason is that in practice in industry accidental electrostatic-spark discharge circuits may contain large ohmic resistances due to corrosion, poor electrical grounding connections, poorly electrically conducting construction materials etc. The result is increased spark discharge durations and reduced mechanical disturbance of the dust cloud by the blast wave emitted by the spark. Therefore, testing for minimum ½CU² for ignition by accidental electrostatic spark discharges may not only require removal of the series inductance of 1–2 mH from the standard MIE spark discharge circuit. Additional tests may be needed with one or more quite large series resistances R_s inserted into the spark discharge circuit. The present paper proposes a modified standard test procedure for measurement of the minimum electrostatic-spark ignition energy of dust clouds that accounts for these effects.     

Are “job hoppers” trapped in hedonic treadmills? Effects of career orientations on newcomers' attitude trajectories

Joining a new organization to change jobs is an influential event in an employee's career. Thus, inter-organizational job changes have sparked growing scholarly interest, especially in the temporal dynamics involved in detaching from organizations and adapting to new ones. While it is widely accepted that employees adapt differently to job changes, the influence of employees' career orientations on changes in job attitudes has not yet been considered. This is surprising given that a key difference between self-centered and organization-centered career orientations is a positive attitude toward job changes. Building on hedonic adaptation, we examined how career orientations influence changes in job satisfaction and turnover intention throughout a job change. We compared self-centered and organization-centered employees using random coefficient modeling on two longitudinal data sets with voluntary job changers. Our results illustrate that self-centered career orientations foster a stronger decline in job satisfaction with the new employer, as well as a larger increase in turnover intention, than organization-centered career orientations. In contrast, employees with organization-centered career orientations experienced an upward trend in job satisfaction toward the end of the first year. Our findings offer important implications for research on the determinants of job attitude trajectories when individuals join a new organization.     

Are there higher pedestrian fatalities in larger cities?: A scaling analysis of 115 to 161 largest cities in the United States

Objective: In 2012, 4,743 pedestrians were killed in the United States, representing 14% of total traffic fatalities. The number of pedestrians injured was higher at 76,000. Therefore, 36 out of 52 of the largest cities in the United States have adopted a citywide target of reducing pedestrian fatalities. The number of cities adopting the reduction goal during 2011 and 2012 increased rapidly with 8 more cities. We examined the scaling relationship of pedestrian fatality counts as a function of the population size of 115 to 161 large U.S. cities during the period of 1994 to 2011. We also examined the scaling relationship of nonpedestrian and total traffic fatality counts as a function of the population size.

Methods: For the data source of fatality measures we used Traffic Safety Facts Fatality Analysis Reporting System/General Estimates System annual reports published each year from 1994 to 2011 by the NHTSA. Using the data source we conducted both annual cross-sectional and panel data bivariate and multivariate regression models. In the construction of the estimated functional relationship between traffic fatality measures and various factors, we used the simple power function for urban scaling used by Bettencourt et al. (2007 Bettencourt LMA, Lobo J, Helbing D, Kühnert C, West GB. Growth, innovation, scaling and the pace of life in cities. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2007;104:7301–7306.[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], 2010 Bettencourt LMA, Lobo J, Strumsky D, West GB. Urban scaling and its deviations: revealing the structure of wealth, innovation and crime across cities. PLoS ONE. 2010;5:e13541.[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) and the refined STIRPAT (stochastic impacts by regression on population, affluence, and technology) model used in Dietz and Rosa (1994 Dietz T, Rosa EA. Rethinking the environmental impacts of population, affluence and technology. Human Ecology Review. 1994;1:277–300. [Google Scholar], 1997 Dietz T, Rosa EA. Effects of population and affluence on CO₂ emissions. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 1997;94:175–179.[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) and York et al. (2003 York R, Rosa EA, Dietz T. STIRPAT, IPAT and IMPACT: analytic tools for unpacking the driving forces of environmental impacts. Ecol Econ. 2003;46:351–365.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]).

Results: We found that the scaling relationship display diseconomies of scale or sublinear for pedestrian fatalities. However, the relationship displays a superlinear relationship in case of nonpedestrian fatalities. The scaling relationship for total traffic fatality counts display a nearly linear pattern. When the relationship was examined by the 4 subgroups of cities with different population sizes, the most pronounced sublinear scaling relationships for all 3 types of fatality counts was discovered for the subgroup of megacities with a population of more than 1 million.

Conclusions: The scaling patterns of traffic fatalities of subgroups of cities depend on population sizes of the cities in subgroups. In particular, 9 megacities with populations of more than 1 million are significantly different from the remaining cities and should be viewed as a totally separate group. Thus, analysis of the patterns of traffic fatalities needs to be conducted within the group of megacities separately from the other cities with smaller population sizes for devising prevention policies to reduce traffic fatalities in both megacities and smaller cities.     

What matters for work engagement? A diary study on resources and the benefits of selective optimization with compensation for state work engagement

This diary study addresses the benefits of employees' daily use of selective optimization with compensation (SOC) for state work engagement. We hypothesized that day‐level SOC not only directly fosters work engagement but that SOC also reveals its beneficial effects for work engagement in interaction with both external and internal resources. Specifically, we proposed SOC substitutes for job control, role clarity, and state of being recovered, thus helping employees manage low daily levels of these resources. We tested our hypotheses with a sample of 138 employees who completed two daily surveys over a total of 545 workdays. Results of multilevel analyses revealed that SOC benefits work engagement in both proposed ways. First, day‐level SOC was positively related to state work engagement. Additionally, day‐level role clarity and state of being recovered predicted state work engagement, but day‐level job control did not. Second, SOC benefitted state work engagement by offsetting low levels of role clarity and being recovered, and by boosting job control in their respective relationships with work engagement. The results suggest that by using SOC at work, employees can actively enhance their own work engagement on a given workday. This knowledge provides promising starting points for the development of interventions.     

What is most important for safety climate: The company belonging or the local working environment? – A study from the Norwegian offshore industry

Obtaining knowledge about factors affecting health, safety and environment (HSE) is of major interest to the petroleum industry, but there is currently a severe shortage of relevant studies. The aim of this study was to examine the relative influence of offshore installation (local working environment) and company belonging on employees’ opinions concerning occupational health and safety. We analyzed data from a safety climate survey answered by 4479 Norwegian offshore petroleum employees in 2005 on the dimensions “Safety prioritisation”, “Safety management and involvement”, “Safety versus production”, “Individual motivation”, “System comprehension” and “Competence” using one way analysis of variance (ANOVA), effect size and mixed model. The companies differed significantly for “Safety prioritisation”, “Safety versus production”, “Individual motivation”, “System comprehension” and “Competence”. The local offshore installation explained more of the safety climate than the company they were employed in or worked for did.