SafetyInsights.org

This looked at the impact of work-life balance on project performance with job burnout as a mediator and organisational support as a moderator. 230 surveys were returned from people within multiple telecommunication companies (within Pakistan). It’s noted that work-life balance shouldn’t be confused with spending equal time on and off work, but rather the appropriate… Continue reading Impact of work–life balance with the role of organizational support and job burnout on project performance

This study explored the use of safety-critical procedures in maritime transport. Interviews, observations and document reviews were included in the methodology. Before moving into the findings, the authors provide a nice overview of ideas around procedures and the perception of procedures. One line of research they cover argues that procedures aren’t just strict if-then scripts… Continue reading Why do they violate the procedures? – An exploratory study within the maritime transportation industry

Another study which explored and expanded on the ‘seductive allure of neuroscience explanations’ (SANE) phenomenon. SANE “is the finding that people overweight psychological arguments when framed in terms of neuroscience findings” (p1). That is, inclusion of irrelevant or flawed arguments using visual or verbal descriptions of neuroscience findings and brain images etc. lead to people… Continue reading Extending the seductive allure of neuroscience explanations effect to popular articles about educational topics

This is a pretty well-known and cited paper from 2009. Via ethnographic methodology, it explored the impact of a risk-awareness program on workers’ awareness of risk at two sites within a large contract maintenance organisation in Australia. The risk awareness program has two components, 1) a pocket card used by workers before commencing work to… Continue reading Exploring risk-awareness as a cultural approach to safety: exposing the gap between work as imagined and work as actually performed

This systematic review & meta-analysis evaluated the evidence between occupational physical activity and cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality. 31 articles met the criteria from 3345 articles. This topic is said to be important because evidence is conflicting about beneficial effects of physical activity, since it has mostly been derived from leisure-time research and not in occupational… Continue reading Physical activity at work may not be health enhancing. A systematic review with meta-analysis on the association between occupational physical activity and cardiovascular disease mortality covering 23 studies with 655 892 participants

This conference paper explored the impact that fatigue (physical & mental) has on productivity of a construction crew in a dam construction project in Queensland. The calculated economic impact of the lost productivity was also calculated. A sample of concrete crew members were monitored over a working week. This involved: 1. Psychomotor vigilance task (PVT)… Continue reading The impact of fatigue on labour productivity: Case study of dam construction project in Queensland

Abstract In ten years from 2004 to 2013, 359 workers died in the Australian construction industry because of work related causes. This paper investigates crane-related fatalities in order to find the upstream causation of such accidents. The National Coroners’ Information System (NCIS) database was searched to identify fatal accidents in the construction industry involving the… Continue reading Causes of Fatal Accidents Involving Cranes in the Australian Construction Industry

This conference paper co-authored by the son of the late Geert Hofstede re-evaluated findings from a report covering the BP Deep Water Horizon accident, using in their words a sociotechnical safety questionnaire. This questionnaire included items relating to cultural and behavioural items in addition to safety system items – see image below. The authors then… Continue reading Safety culture misbehaving – time for change

This was really interesting. It explored the effects of time-on-task fatigue on hazard recognition and visual attention/gaze characteristics during a simulated excavator activity with experienced operators. Time-on-task fatigue describes the effects (typically negative) from prolonged and often monotonous tasks, like cognitive performance decrements and/or drowsiness. 12 participants were included in the study in a lab… Continue reading Evaluating the impact of mental fatigue on construction equipment operators’ ability to detect hazards using wearable eye-tracking technology

Abstract BACKGROUND: We investigated how night shift duration and sleep problems were jointly associated with disabling low back pain (LBP) among workers in different occupations. METHODS: An online-survey was conducted regarding work schedules, disabling LBP, sleep problems, and other relevant factors in 5,008 workers who were randomly selected from a market research panel. Multiple logistic… Continue reading Disabling low back pain associated with night shift duration: Sleep problems as a potentiator