The application of the psychological contract to workplace safety

INTRODUCTION: Psychological contracts of safety are conceptualized as the beliefs of individuals about reciprocal safety obligations inferred from implicit or explicit promises. Although the literature on psychological contracts is growing, the existence of psychological contracts in relation to safety has not been established. The research sought to identify psychological contracts in the conversations of employees about safety, by demonstrating reciprocity in relation to employer and employee safety obligations. The identified safety obligations were used to develop a measure of psychological contracts of safety. METHOD: The participants were 131 employees attending safety training sessions in retail and manufacturing organizations. Non-participant observation was used to collect the data during safety training sessions. Content analysis was used to analyze the data. Categories for coding were established through identification of language markers that demonstrated contingencies or other implied obligations. RESULTS: Direct evidence of reciprocity between employer safety obligations and employee safety obligations was found in statements from the participants demonstrating psychological contracts. A comprehensive list of perceived employer and employee safety obligations was compiled and developed into a measure of psychological contracts of safety. A small sample of 33 safety personnel was used to validate the safety obligations. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPACT ON INDUSTRY: Implications of these findings for safety and psychological contract research are discussed.     

基于生态市建设的生态可持续发展研究——以常州市为例

以常州市为例,探讨了基于生态市建设的生态可持续发展的内涵,提出“生态保育区-生态提升区-生态新建区”的生态建设分区模式和市域生态防护网架是构建区域生态安全格局的基本框架和促进区域生态可持续发展的调控途径。     

煤矿企业的安全文化建设探索与实践

煤矿的安全生产与企业安全文化有着内在的联系,两者相辅相成、相互联系。结合莒山煤矿对安全文化建设进行探索与实践,坚持以“三个代表”重要思想为指导,通过健全管理组织体系,完善各项规章制度,采取丰富多样的宣传手段,装备有效的安全设施以及强化安全基层基础管理等途径,倡导和树立安全发展理念,激发员工“关注安全、关爱生命”的本能意识,塑造正确的安全价值观,建成能充分保障员工安全与健康的安全文化体系。     

生态旅游:西南喀斯特山区摆脱"贫困陷阱"之路

西南喀斯特山区“贫困陷阱”的根本对策在于扭转人口生存领先掠夺土地的状况,生态旅游提供了这们的途径。西南喀斯特地区特有的自然风光和民俗风情等旅游资源优势,通过生态旅游开发,顺理成章地可转换成产品优势,“穷山恶水”就成为“青山绿水”,“穷乡僻壤”就成为“自然生态”和“特色民俗”。这不仅满足现代社会的需求,也使当地的资源潜力得到发挥。而且把资源利用的方式从掠夺、耗竭型转换为可持续型。另一方面,要真正和持续地实现这些资源的价值。必须保护原生态、原文化,这就引入了保护的经济机制．保护与开发的两难悖论可由此突破。本文还以贵州省绥阳县为例,阐述了西南喀斯特山区旅游资源特色和开发生态旅游的目标．为摆脱“贫困陷阱”提供一个示范。     

生态伦理:可持续发展理论架构的基础

生态伦理作为可持续发展的基础理论构架的根据．主要体现在：从自然内在价值论与自然权利论的角度出发为可持续发展价值观提供了合理性证明：通过对人与自然间伦理关系的确定、道德原则规范的制定及对人类道德境界的全新诠释,为人类可持续发展提供了新的道德观支持;通过对“环境公正”理论的深入阐发．丰富和完善了“公正”这一可持续发展的核心理念。     

How developing countries can engage in GHG reduction: a case study for China

It has been clearly recognized that future global climate change will limit the possibilities for sustainable development in China. To minimize these negative effects, as a practical strategy, we suggest that the Chinese government engage in international cooperation as a key contributor in the prevention of global warming. This suggestion results from numerical estimations of China’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emission trends accompanied with economic growth up to 2100. The results show that China’s gross domestic product (GDP), measured in terms of purchasing power parity (PPP), may overtake the sum of the GDPs of the United States and Canada in 2020. It is predicted that GDP per capita may reach US$20,000 and $80,000 in 2050 and 2100, respectively; meanwhile, CO₂ emissions in China will increase from 6.6 billion tons (in carbon equivalent units) in 1990 to 54.6 billion tons in 2100. This means that the global peak concentration of GHG cannot be practically reduced without significant contributions from China. For international cooperation in mitigating global climate change, we introduce a new option, “per-capita emission restricted by assigned amount,” as an accounting rule for GHG reduction. This baseline classifies global CO₂ reduction actions into three categories: compulsory reduction, self-imposed reduction, and voluntary reduction. We suggest that China contribute to world CO₂ reduction according to the following timetable: voluntary reduction until 2012, self-imposed reduction until 2020, and compulsory reduction from 2020. The simulation results also indicate that China can benefit from this strategy in terms of improvements in its domestic economy and environment, for instance, by reducing fossil fuel consumption and the emission of pollutants.

Effective environmental management through life cycle assessment

Unplanned and unsustainable development (particularly rapid industrialisation) has placed great pressure in every dimension of the environment (air, water, soil, health, etc.). The resulting disturbance in the natural ecological balance is a serious concern. Sustainable development is the need of the hour; it can only be achieved through effective environmental management. Environmental management will become indispensable in the future as regulatory restrictions tighten and public expectations of environmental performance increase. The day is not far away when a customer will prefer to buy products produced by an environmentally committed organisation. In short, the environmental commitment of an organisation will become a market strategy.

Environmental management is a set of actions based on a structured methodology to ensure that an organisation is committed to the environment and that the production process has minimal/no adverse affect on it. This article emphasises environmental management in the real engineering sense of the term, and discusses how to develop an effective environmental management system through life cycle assessment. It further demonstrates through a real life case study how an industry has achieved landmark success in managing its environment, production, as well as winning the good faith of society.     

清洁生产理论基础

重点分析了清洁生产的物流基础、价值基础、经济基础,并与末端治理对比,从而论证了清洁生产是实现经济效益和环境效益的最佳模式,是实现可持续发展的必然选择。     

吐鲁番地区生态环境特点及可持续发展

就吐鲁番地区生态环境特点,提出可持续发展的对策和建议。     

三峡工程对长江流域可持续发展的影响

可持续发展观念应该正确理解,研究可持续发展不能脱离国家或地区的发展水平。在分析长江流域可持续发展的限制因子（频繁的洪水灾害、偏低的防洪能力、落后的社会经济水平及脆弱的生态环境）的基础上,从三峡工程的防洪作用、发电效益、航运效益以及三峡工程效益发挥的可持续性方面,研究了三峡工程对长江流域可持续发展的促进作用。同时论述了三峡工程的建设对长江中上游地区生态环境综合治理及库区社会经济发展的带动作用。认为三峡工程的建设符合我国当今可持续发展战略,是全面促进长江流域社会经济环境可持续发展的关键性工程。