This study interviewed 121 workers across several Canadian sectors in temporary and permanent employment, exploring ways workers managed workplace hazards given employment insecurity. Not a summary – way too much to cover. Extracts: Ref: Hall, A. (2016). Trust, uncertainty and the reporting of workplaces hazards and injuries. Health, Risk & Society, 18(7-8), 427-448. Study link: https://doi.org/10.1080/13698575.2016.1264576 My… Continue reading Trust, uncertainty and the reporting of workplace hazards and injuries
Procedure excellence: Changing paradigms to enable human reliability
This paper from Elliot Wolf-Stokes and Rob Fisher may interest peeps – around orientating towards operational excellence. Covers a lot of ground – systemic drivers to procedural departures, error drivers in written guidance, mental models, enablers of human reliability and more. I’ve skipped HEAPS, so just a few extracts (link to full paper in comments):… Continue reading Procedure excellence: Changing paradigms to enable human reliability
Ethical use of Risk Matrices
I found this an interesting section of a paper which I’ll post soon – talking briefly of the ethics of risk matrices. They’ve barely touched the surface, but good to see the reference to ethical practice in risk. Some points are that: Study posted maybe next week. Ref: Sutherland, H., Recchia, G., Dryhurst, S., &… Continue reading Ethical use of Risk Matrices
Getting away “Scott” (but not Susan) free: The effects of safety-specific abusive supervision and supervisor gender on follower attributions & safety
This study explored how workers perceive and rationalise abusive supervision, and how gender influences the relationship. 3 studies were utilised – 2 experimental and 1 field study. For background: · Abusive supervision “may not always be perceived as harmful, as employees’ perceptions of abusive supervision are subjective (Tepper, 2000), including their evaluations of supervisors’ intentions… Continue reading Getting away “Scott” (but not Susan) free: The effects of safety-specific abusive supervision and supervisor gender on follower attributions & safety
Cooking the books: how injury measures and Executive incentives (can) lead to ruin
Another interesting report from Safe Work Australia, authored by O’Neill, Wolfe & Holley, which explored performance measurement & CEO/executive incentives. Too much to cover, so just a few points on injury measures: · They highlight the limits of a “single injury rate as a generic, all-purpose indicator of WHS performance”, relating to data quality and the… Continue reading Cooking the books: how injury measures and Executive incentives (can) lead to ruin
Workplace health and safety performance at the client-contractor interface: Measurement, management and behaviour
A really interesting paper exploring performance measurement and management (PMM) systems in construction. They looked at: · How do clients measure WHS performance in the delivery of construction projects? · How do clients use this measurement to manage WHS performance? and · How do performance measurement and management practices adopted by construction clients influence contractors’… Continue reading Workplace health and safety performance at the client-contractor interface: Measurement, management and behaviour
Audits, excessive compliance focus and risk blindness
Still genuinely surprised that our last paper on audit failures has generated, relatively speaking, so much interest: now the second-most accessed paper in the Process Safety Progress journal. [* It shows as number 1 but that’s a glitch in the matrix. There’s a study on ‘red squirrels tests’ that has HEAPS more views.] No doubt… Continue reading Audits, excessive compliance focus and risk blindness
The limits and of lost time injury and other injury measures: ‘risk blindness’
This Safe Work Australia report mentioned yesterday, authored by O’Neill & Wolfe, discussed measuring & reporting on WHS. One section dived into the limits of injury measures. Some highlights: · “a single injury number or frequency rate is too aggregated to provide meaningful information to guide business decisions” · “the majority of LTIs have relatively short-term consequences… Continue reading The limits and of lost time injury and other injury measures: ‘risk blindness’
The Illusive Pipedream of Zero Harm: A South African Mining Industry Perspective
Not much to say here – nor anything particularly new to practitioners – just thought this was an interesting extract from a study that unpacked South African mining company OHS annual reports. They highlight: · “where the injury rates and OD rates show a decreasing trend over time, this should not be construed to mean that health… Continue reading The Illusive Pipedream of Zero Harm: A South African Mining Industry Perspective
Poor psychosocial safety climate increases teleworker vulnerability to suicidal ideation
A poor psychosocial safety climate (PSC) increases teleworker vulnerability to suicide ideation, according to a new Japanese study. 1,988 participants were surveyed in a cross-sectional design. Key findings: · “poor PSC had a direct effect on an increase in suicidal ideation, even after controlling for task-level occupational factors in both teleworkers and nonteleworkers” · “the association between… Continue reading Poor psychosocial safety climate increases teleworker vulnerability to suicidal ideation
SafetyInsights.org 