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Communication in the workplace: Defining the conversations of supervisors
Abstract
Background:
Communications plays a central role in promoting the health and wellbeing of workers. Although much literature has shown the positive benefits of safety communication in the workplace, research has yet to explore the nature of these communication practices within supervisor-worker relationships. This study overcomes this gap in the literature through objectively monitoring communication within the daily working lives of work-group supervisors in one organization.
Aims:
The aims of the research were to: (a) categorize communication in the workplace into three categories, namely task-related communication, relationship-related communication, and safety-related communication; and (b) explore the frequency of these dialogs.
Method:
We periodically recorded brief snippets of ambient (acoustic) sounds in supervisors' workplace environment by using an Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR). The EAR was run on an Apple iPod, with an application downloaded for free on iTunes (i.e., iEAR). The EAR was programmed to record for 30 s every three minutes for eight working hours a day of a five-day working week.
Results:
A total of 12.38 h of acoustic sounds from five workgroup supervisors was useable for coding. The results found examples of task-related (productivity, efficiency, workflow, and human resources) communication, as well as relationship-related (greetings, personal life discussions, workplace relations), and safety-related communication. We also found that the majority of the communication recorded was task-related communication compared with relationship-related and safety-related communication. Practical applications: This research provides preliminary insights into communication practices in the workplace and avenues for future research.
... Combined with management responsibility, which is paramount, training is a necessary part of a comprehensive hazard control program [16,17]. Improving the effectiveness of OHS training efforts and other interventions is important especially as workplaces and workforces change [18,19]. ...
... At the policymaker level, factors that may cause workers' unsafe behaviors mainly include: excessive pursuit of economic interests [1, [43][44][45], insufficient investments in safety [46][47][48], over-scheduling [49,50], unreasonable safety input and allocation of resources [18,30,51], illegal subcontracting [52,53], inadequate safety management systems [17,19,54], ignoring production safety [43,45], etc. At the management level, factors that may cause workers' unsafe behaviors mainly include: unreasonable technical safety plans [52,55], no contingency programs [37,52], no security hardware and software protection [13,36,[55][56][57], the construction plan approval not being strict [37], illegal orders [18,25,58], non-implementation of security measures [35,59], lax supervision [1,14], improper emergency handling [19,50,59], lack of vigilance [43,45], the continuation of work despite potential dangers [48,59], etc. ...
... At the policymaker level, factors that may cause workers' unsafe behaviors mainly include: excessive pursuit of economic interests [1, [43][44][45], insufficient investments in safety [46][47][48], over-scheduling [49,50], unreasonable safety input and allocation of resources [18,30,51], illegal subcontracting [52,53], inadequate safety management systems [17,19,54], ignoring production safety [43,45], etc. At the management level, factors that may cause workers' unsafe behaviors mainly include: unreasonable technical safety plans [52,55], no contingency programs [37,52], no security hardware and software protection [13,36,[55][56][57], the construction plan approval not being strict [37], illegal orders [18,25,58], non-implementation of security measures [35,59], lax supervision [1,14], improper emergency handling [19,50,59], lack of vigilance [43,45], the continuation of work despite potential dangers [48,59], etc. At the operational level, factors that may cause workers' unsafe behaviors mainly include: irregular operating [25,58], violation of construction procedures [37], carelessness [9,19,44], passive execution [22,58], a lack of sensibility towards emergencies [19,50,59], no proper security measures [35,59], excessive fatigue [50,[60][61][62], etc. Unsafe behaviors of policymakers play a guiding role in safety production, leading to the occurrence of unsafe behaviors of managers and operators [58]. ...
Safety education and training for employees is important to ensure the safety of construction and improve the safety awareness of employees. It is difficult to meet the needs of the new situation of safety production with traditional safety education and training consequences of construction enterprises. To address this deficiency, this research analyzed the formation mechanism of safety behavior of personnel at different levels in construction enterprises from the perspective of behaviorist psychology and studied their different needs for safety training, designing training programs for simple safety behavior and complex safety behavior according to the degree of difficulty of the training content. This research also developed and tested models of training frequency and training times and carried out corresponding experimental research. Through the experiments of “safety behavior by wearing a helmet” and “fire control consciousness training”, it was found that the training of consciousness of relatively complex safety behavior should follow the principles that each training should last longer and the training interval should not be too short, so as to minimize the cost of safety education and training while ensuring the quality of safety education and training.
... Lyndon, et al. [68] discussed, a variety of communication methods are employed in an organization to raise employee motivation levels in order to preserve workplace safety and behavior development; mutual communication is crucial for these goals in order to modify employee behavior [68]. According to Newnam and Goode [69] earlier research on safety literature, two-way safety communication between managers and safety leaders is crucial as a safety-management strategy to lower occupational accidents and improve workplace safety [69]. To ensure workplace safety, Brown, et al. [70] explained top management in organizations is in charge of defining work standards and rules, as well as allocating safety-related activities and assignments [70]. ...
... Lyndon, et al. [68] discussed, a variety of communication methods are employed in an organization to raise employee motivation levels in order to preserve workplace safety and behavior development; mutual communication is crucial for these goals in order to modify employee behavior [68]. According to Newnam and Goode [69] earlier research on safety literature, two-way safety communication between managers and safety leaders is crucial as a safety-management strategy to lower occupational accidents and improve workplace safety [69]. To ensure workplace safety, Brown, et al. [70] explained top management in organizations is in charge of defining work standards and rules, as well as allocating safety-related activities and assignments [70]. ...
Workplace safety is a notion that derives from research on high-reliability organizations. The possibility of physical injury, whether immediate or gradual, to people, property, or the environment while they perform their duties is a feature of work systems. We explained the main strategies and advancements to achieve no accidents in the workplace. It acts as the foundation for building a strong safety structure that protects the health and safety of those engaged in hazardous oil, chemical, and gas industries. Here, our work emphasizes obtaining and maintaining Safety Integrity Level (SIL) ratings in accordance with Indian and international standards to reduce hazardous gas leaks and implement security measures. We also discussed the statistical techniques of workplace safety and its factors, such as strategic insights into communication, procedures, infrastructure, leadership, and emergency procedures. We used five distinct manufacturing and healthcare-based industries for comparison. Company 4 has a high mean in incident awareness and communication (3.46±0.21). Company 5 has a high mean in risk assessment and hazard identification. Company 1 has a high mean in training and competency, including emergency response and incident reporting. It also explains how safety-conscious companies can lower workplace accidents through the use of emergency response, incident communication, and safety management techniques.
... The rate of occupational injuries/accidents and hazards requires every worker's participation. Commitment to unsafe Acts and unsafe conditions could enhance workplace safety if every individual adhered to the organizational safety rules and was eager to strengthen safety performance (57). Similarly, (121) revealed positive safety performance-maintained safety measures, procedures, and rules derived from regular communication between supervisors and employees. ...
... Different forms of safety communication were identified, such as safety meetings, alerts, training sessions, reports, audits, and feedback mechanisms. Effective safety communication enables workers to identify and report hazards, take corrective actions, and learn from safety incidents, ultimately preventing future occurrences (28,50,57,161,162). ...
Health, safety, and environment (HSE) are critical aspects of any industry, particularly in high-risk environments, such as the oil and gas industry. Continuous accident reports indicate the requirement for the effective implementation of safety rules, regulations, and practices. This systematic literature review examines the relationship between safety communication and safety commitment in high-risk workplaces, specifically focusing on the oil and gas industry. The review comprises 1,439 articles from 2004 to 2023, retrieved from the Scopus and Web of Science databases following the PRISMA comprehensive guidelines. This study considers safety communication, communication climate, and communication satisfaction to evaluate their influence on safety commitment under occupational health and safety. This study identifies safety commitment issues and their underlying factors, discussing measures for preventing and reducing accidents and incidents and highlighting preventive measures for future research. It also signifies the variables influencing accident and incident rates. The research underscores the importance of communication dimensions and the need for workers to possess adequate skills, knowledge, and attitudes regarding occupational safety and health procedures. Moreover, the study contributes to the industrial and academic domains by improving organizational safety commitment, promoting a safety culture, and developing effective communication strategies. Furthermore, practitioners may benefit from this comprehensive overview in developing, evaluating, and enhancing occupational safety.
... Adams and Walls (2020) found that 'transparent and thoughtful communication could contribute to trust and a sense of control'. Regular, clear, considered and supportive communication from an organisation and line managers is shown to help staff stay focused and assured in their roles, helping to minimise psychological risk, and promoting the health and wellbeing of workers (Newnam and Goode, 2019;Adams and Walls, 2020;Greenberg et al, 2020;Woodford et al, 2020). Communication practices in an organisation have a significant impact on the quality of relationships in the workplace (Newnam and Goode, 2019). ...
... Regular, clear, considered and supportive communication from an organisation and line managers is shown to help staff stay focused and assured in their roles, helping to minimise psychological risk, and promoting the health and wellbeing of workers (Newnam and Goode, 2019;Adams and Walls, 2020;Greenberg et al, 2020;Woodford et al, 2020). Communication practices in an organisation have a significant impact on the quality of relationships in the workplace (Newnam and Goode, 2019). Improving workplace communication skills contributes to increased levels of professional contentment, improved working relationships and reduced occupational stress (Lapeña-Moñux et al, 2015). ...
Background
Health professionals are considered a group vulnerable to developing mental health symptoms during a pandemic, with redeployment being a risk factor. However, previous literature suggests workplace communication can be a protective element.
Aims
An audit aimed to evaluate NHS research staff's experiences of redeployment in order to provide suggestions for future improvements in the process.
Methods
A questionnaire was disseminated to all staff in the clinical research directorate of an NHS trust. Responses were analysed using thematic analysis.
Findings
Over half the redeployed staff experienced perceived negative psychological outcomes. The main reported contributor to this was perceived lack of communication.
Conclusion
Communication needs to be improved in future redeployments. Future research should consider a larger cohort and more input from team members who remained on the pre-COVID-19 studies in order to improve the transition back from redeployment.
... The findings supported this role and confirmed the important effect of different forms of digital communication and the benefits and usefulness of it. Moreover, the study findings are associated with the developments at the workplace due to the development in the communication methods between members and teams to execute the key daily activities as stated by (Newnam & Goode, 2019). All study theoretical assumptions were supported and provided agreed insights in the topic of digital communication, the present study also contributes with novel thoughts and contributions to the existed body of the relevant literature, in addition it expands the limited research works and studies that generally focused on the aspect of the digital communication environments as an emerging phenomenon and conducted a qualitative research approach of the subject issue. ...
In higher education institutions, effective digital communication is crucial for achieving administrative goals, such as improving student services, managing resources, and facilitating collaboration among staff members. By exploring the impact of copresence factors on digital communication effectiveness, higher education institutions can gain a deeper understanding of the factors that influence their digital communication and develop strategies that optimize its efficiency. The study applied a quantitative research approach through a questionnaire survey to collect required responses from employees who are working in the higher education institutions of Jordan with a total of 304 participants. The findings of this study indicate that copresence factors play a significant role in the effectiveness of digital communication within higher education institutions in Jordan. The results support the framework developed by others and suggest that self-copresence and partner-copresence have a positive impact on the efficiency of communication. This highlights the importance of considering the presence of individuals during digital communication and the impact it can have on the quality of the exchange. In conclusion, the study sheds light on the importance of correspondence in digital communication and its impact on the efficiency of communication within higher education institutions. The findings can help in the development of strategies and practices for enhancing the effectiveness of digital communication and improving administrative work in higher education institutions in Jordan.
... The comments expressed about the principle of 'Positive safety' mirror scholarly viewpoints and findings from empirical studies suggesting that focusing on positive outcomes can be a powerful motivator for safe behaviour (Wei & Yazdanifard, 2014) and highlighting the crucial role of effective safety communication (Zara et al., 2023) and the influence of supervisors (Newnam & Goode, 2019). The differences between senior management and staff from lower organisational levels and across years of work experience align with publications suggesting that senior management can view different organisational aspects (e.g., communication, leadership and engagement, performance) more negatively than frontline staff (Kivanc, 2023). ...
Considering the scarcity of empirical studies about the contextualisation of new safety initiatives, this exploratory study was performed in a large Australian construction company to assess the presence, implementation appetite and feasibility of 12 principles representing new safety paradigms. First, during focus group sessions, 53 participants, perceived as useful and feasible for further consideration 11 out of the 12 principles. Subsequently, a cross-sectional survey of 514 employees revealed varying degrees of current presence and implementation appetite across business units. While statistical analyses showed some differences across variables such as business units, job roles, and years of experience, the small effect sizes indicated these differences had no practical significance. The study findings demonstrate that implementing new safety principles requires con-textualisation to specific organisational needs and highlight the value of participatory approaches in capturing diverse perspectives. A key conclusion is that successful implementation demands tailored strategies across different business units rather than a one-size-fits-all approach. Overall, this research contributes to the broader discourse exploring the perceived value of new safety paradigms in the industry.
... Communication is important in daily life as well in business (Szkudlarek et al., 2020). Communication in conventional or co-located teams is mostly dependent on in-person contacts, frequent team meetings, and physical closeness because team members shared workstation facilitates (Newnam & Goode, 2019). Communication undergoes a fundamental shift as teams move from traditional to virtual. ...
Purpose: This study aims to understand the critical elements influencing the cost-effectiveness of virtual teams and their strategic application in enterprises. Research methodology: The research uses a literature review to assess the organizational dynamics, money allocation, and efficiency of virtual teams. Results: The study finds that investing in technology, especially communication platforms, is crucial. Savings are identified in team development, office space, travel costs, and communication expenses. Limitations: The research relies heavily on prior studies, limiting its generalizability and requiring adaptation to rapid technological changes.
... They found 11 scenarios of interpersonal conflict, with common issues including divergent ideas, communication breakdowns, poor programming practices, and challenges in time estimation. Newnam and Goode [25] analyzed workplace communication patterns in a tech company by examining conversations between supervisors and workers. They categorized communication into task-related, relationship-related, and safety-related types. ...
Software workplaces are increasingly recognized as key spaces for professional development, where developers encounter various challenges in their roles, which they often discuss in online forums. This paper analyzes 47,368 posts on the Workplace StackExchange site, aggregating developer insights and applying topic modeling techniques. Through manual analysis, we identified 46 distinct topics grouped into seven categories: Employee Wellness, Communication, Career Movement \& Hiring, Conflicts \& Mistakes, Corporate Policies, Management/Supervisor Responsibilities, and Learning \& Technical Skills. Our findings show that approximately 30\% of discussions involve workplace conflicts, marking this as the most prominent topic. Additionally, we found that workplace culture, harassment, and other corporate policy-related issues represent significant areas of difficulty commonly discussed among developers.
... Newnam and Goode (2019) [8] These are planning procedures that cover the main goals of the organization and offer suggestions on how to realize the organization's general future course. ...
... The findings supported this role and confirmed the important effect of different forms of digital communication and the benefits and usefulness of it. Moreover, the study findings are associated with the developments at the workplace due to the development in the communication methods between members and teams to execute the key daily activities as stated by (Newnam & Goode, 2019). All study theoretical assumptions were supported and provided agreed insights in the topic of digital communication, the present study also contributes with novel thoughts and contributions to the existed body of the relevant literature, in addition it expands the limited research works and studies that generally focused on the aspect of the digital communication environments as an emerging phenomenon and conducted a qualitative research approach of the subject issue. ...
In higher education institutions, effective digital communication is crucial for achieving administrative goals, such as improving student services, managing resources, and facilitating collaboration among staff members. By exploring the impact of copresence factors on digital communication effectiveness, higher education institutions can gain a deeper understanding of the factors that influence their digital communication and develop strategies that optimize its efficiency. The study applied a quantitative research approach through a questionnaire survey to collect required responses from employees who are working in the higher education institutions of Jordan with a total of 304 participants. The findings of this study indicate that copresence factors play a significant role in the effectiveness of digital communication within higher education institutions in Jordan. The results support the framework developed by others and suggest that self-copresence and partner-copresence have a positive impact on the efficiency of communication. This highlights the importance of considering the presence of individuals during digital communication and the impact it can have on the quality of the exchange. In conclusion, the study sheds light on the importance of correspondence in digital communication and its impact on the efficiency of communication within higher education institutions. The findings can help in the development of strategies and practices for enhancing the effectiveness of digital communication and improving administrative work in higher education institutions in Jordan.
... At first, she decided not to tell her problems to others and perceived that her work performance at school should not be interfered. Evidently, the majority of communication in workplaces was task-related compared to relationship-related communication whereas communication played a pivotal role in promoting workers' well-beings (Newnam & Goode, 2019). ...
This present study explores how thesis writing anxiety causes delay in thesis writing completion along with its coping strategies. It adopted narrative inquiry as the research method. The participant was one former student of English education graduate program at a state university in Central Java, Indonesia. Data were garnered through semi-structured interviews. The data were then analyzed by employing thematic analysis. The results suggest that thesis writing anxiety was caused by family and financial problems, full-time working duties and poor time management, as well as unpleasant administrative staff services. Thesis writing anxiety empirically affected thesis writing completion in terms of thesis writing procrastination as well as lack of confidence and feeling worried of making mistakes. Successful coping strategies include identifying problems and seeking solutions, establishing mutual communication with thesis supervisors and workplace stakeholders, as well as maintaining self-motivation. Practical implications and suggestions for further studies are also discussed.
DOI: 10.26905/enjourme.v7i2.8004
... The effectiveness of leader's verbal communication will help reduce ambiguity in tasks, overcome communication barriers, as well as satisfying employees' social needs (Bornman & Puth, 2017). With varied purposes and types of verbal communication, successful leader-subordinate interaction is obtained and employees are motivated and satisfied (Klar & Brewer, 2013;Newnam & Goode, 2019). Previous studies have explored the impact of leader's verbal communication in achieving organisational goals through multiple communication dimensions (Edelman & Knippenberg, 2016;Refozar et al., 2017). ...
Lack of job satisfaction and low motivation level lead to an increasing rate of turnover intention among academic staff in higher learning institutions. With the growing number of private institutions, it increases the choices for voluntary turnover among academicians who seek for better institutions. The best approach in retaining quality workforce is to maintain staff’s engagement to the institution, which can be achieved with the establishment of job satisfaction. The Leader’s Motivating Language (LML) specifically focuses on the three main aspects of leader’s communication which can elevate employees’ job satisfaction. This study investigated the use of LML by faculty’s academic administrators and examined the relationship between the use of LML and academic staff’s job satisfaction level. A quantitative approach was employed, with 185 academic staff from Universiti Selangor (UNISEL) recruited through purposive sampling to provide the required data for this study through a questionnaire. The findings revealed that the LML is practiced at a moderately high level within the faculties of UNISEL. It was also found that there is a strong, significant and positive relationship between the use of LML by the academic administrators and academic staff’s job satisfaction. This study has theoretical implications for understanding how the use of LML strongly relates to the level of job satisfaction which can help sustain UNISEL academic staff’s engagement in the institution hence reducing staff turnover intention and increasing talent retention.
... In an organization, various kinds of communication are used to enhance workers' motivational levels in order to maintain workplace safety and development of behavior; for these purposes, two-way communication is important in order to change workers' behavior [77]. The prior investigation of safety literature shows that two-way safety communication with managers and safety leaders plays a most important role as a safety-management practice to reduce occupational accidents and increase workplace safety [78]. Similarly, in the questionnaire survey, safety communication and feedback were included in order to check feedback from various forms of workers, and they showed that safety performance is influenced by the level of communication in the organization [77,79]. ...
This study examines the impact of critical safety-management practices on the occurrence of occupational accidents by means of safety compliance in Malaysia’s oil and gas industry. This study employed a cross-sectional design, in which data were collected from oil and gas downstream operations in five states within Malaysia using the convenience-sampling technique. The valid data of 280 responses were analyzed with Smart-PLS, and the structural-equation-modeling technique was applied. The study’s outcome revealed that safety-management practices (i.e., safety training, workers’ involvement, safety communication and feedback, management commitment to safety, safety-promotion policies, and safety rules and procedures) were significantly associated with occupational accidents via safety compliance. Thus, this study is helpful for practitioners and researchers to understand the importance of safety-management practices in reducing occupational accidents.
... At first, she decided not to tell her problems to others and perceived that her work performance at school should not be interfered. Evidently, the majority of communication in workplaces was task-related compared to relationship-related communication whereas communication played a pivotal role in promoting workers' well-beings (Newnam & Goode, 2019). ...
The pandemic situation leads to a change in the education system which requires innovative technology to substitute traditional learning with the modern one. Consequently, it also happened to any level of learners from the early start. The early start in teaching English became an ability to create successful learning by using innovative technology. The purpose of this study is to investigate an early start to learn the English using Zoom by enrolling five students to participate along with problems. The researcher gained the data by observation techniques and interview using qualitative method. The finding revealed that students are more interested while learning by Zoom. The problem was the unstable internet connection.
DOI: 10.26905/enjourme.v6i2.6475
... Communication patterns between staff of differing rank and its impact on work culture have been examined in various work settings. One study examined the occurrence of workplace communication relating to tasks, relationships and safety to highlight the importance of supervisors approaching the topic of safety by emphasizing workers' wellbeing [25]. Mikkelson [26] examined the components of relational communication in staff and supervisors' talk and found that supervisors' sense of dominance was negatively associated with job satisfaction, motivation and organizational commitment. ...
Novice nurses’ successful transition to practice is impacted by their interactions with senior nurses. Ensuring that novice nurses are adequately supported during their transition to practice has wide-ranging and significant implications. The aim of this study is to explore the communication patterns between novice and senior nurses by applying an interaction analysis technique. Trimonthly onboarding evaluations between novice and senior nurses were recorded. The Roter Interaction Analysis System was adapted and deployed to identify communication patterns. In total, twenty-two interactions were analyzed. Senior nurses spoke more (64.5%). Task-focused exchange was predominant amongst senior (79.7%) and novice (59.5%) nurses. Senior nurses’ talk was concentrated in clusters of information-giving (45%) and advice or instructions (17.2%), while emotional expression (1.4%) and social talk (0.4%) were rare. Novice nurses’ talk was concentrated in clusters-information giving (57%) and positive talk (39.5%). The communication patterns between senior and novice nurses during the onboarding period indicate aspects of novice nurse transition that could be addressed, such as encouraging novice nurses to use these interactions to communicate more, or emphasizing the importance of social talk. These insights can be used to inform mentorship and preceptorship training to ensure that senior nurses are able to adequately support novice nurses through all parts of the transition to practice period.
... Safety-related communication management between leaders and employees can hence have a significant impact on an employee's safety commitment [40] to avoiding disasters and incidents. Safety communication management comes in varying forms, including policies and procedures, performance statistics, hazard and incident reports, workplace inductions, risk assessments, and training. ...
Health, safety and the working environment are of paramount importance, especially in the high-risk environments found at facilities in the oil and gas industry, where hazards are inevitable and accidents may lead to regrettable situations such as explosions, oil spills and other disasters. The high number of accidents and disasters at such facilities bring safety-related matters to the fore. The complexity of the communication process is very often underestimated, where failures in communication could lead to major disasters. This paper investigates the role of communication management and the organizational communication climate and their impact on incidents and disaster avoidance. This study embarks on a quantitative approach involving 260 personnel from high-risk workplaces at oil and gas facilities, based on purposive sampling. Hypotheses were tested using PLS-SEM to identify causal relationships and for mediation analysis. The findings of this study show that communication management and the organizational communication climate have a significant impact on disaster avoidance. The organizational communication climate is also found to be a significant mediator for the relationship between communication management and disaster avoidance. Communication management and the organizational communication climate need to be enhanced and to be integrated with other technology and innovation to improve safety regulation adherence in the oil and gas industry.
... In safety management practices, one of the important factors that have been ignored is the usage of drugs at the workplace (Vinodkumar and Bhasi, 2010). However, drug usage control is not included in management safety practice, but it can be included in the survey achieve organizational safety goals and improve safety performance at the workplace (Grill et al., 2017;Newnam and Goode, 2019). In the past, many studies have discussed the importance of safety commitment and safety performance (Ajmal et al., 2020). ...
his paper aims to investigate how the relationship between safety management practices and occupational health and safety performance have been examined in the literature, and which future research areas can be recommended. This systematic literature review applied the matrix method to examine major literature in safety management practices and occupational health and safety performance. A total of 24 papers in English peer-reviewed from 21 journals were selected and analyzed. The synthesis of these empirical studies revealed the following: The relationship between safety management practices and occupational health and safety performance has mostly been investigated quantitatively in many countries and sectors; management commitment to safety, safety rules, and procedures and safety training are still most commonly used safety management practices to improve occupational health and safety performance. In this study, research articles were selected only from English journals; therefore, some research articles in other languages might not be included. The findings of this study can be used to develop a safety management model to reduce the rate of injuries, accidents, and near misses in high hazardous risk organizations. Overall, the findings provide Safety management practices overview that practitioners use to manage safety performance. There are only a few systematic literature reviews available on safety management practices, occupational health, and safety performance. This paper is among the first systematic literature reviews to analyze how safety management practices have been associated with occupational health and safety performance and provide potential research avenues.
... Communication has many important functions in the organisation. Primarily, it "plays a central role in promoting the health and wellbeing of worker" (Newnam and Goode 2019). ...
The development of modern technologies has also changed the form of communication. Increasingly, the traditional way of direct contact is replaced by inventions of information and communication technologies, which become intermediaries in human relations. The article reflects on the impact of information and communication technologies on the functioning of organizations, society, individuals and the quality of people-to-people relationships. An attempt was made to determine what the communication process is from a management perspective. It describes some of the significant benefits of using ICT and the selected risks that may arise. The importance of developing ethics in the consideration of the essence of ethical communication has been signalled.
... For success in research, healthy communication between group leaders and their team is imperative [5]. Communication helps to sort issues that may turn out be detrimental for the laboratory environment. ...
Good leadership is important for the efficient functioning of an organization. PhD and postdoctoral research is a mentally challenging job, and a good mentor must be able to both treat students with compassion and provide motivation. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has resulted in the decline of the mental health of a large fraction of mentees.
... For instance, two years of research (Day & Lubitsh, 2012) on the NHS complex reforms revealed that mutual trust plays a pivotal role in dealing with fear and anxiety and provides conditions that encourage people to collaborate and participate in the change process. Under the same rationale, studies (Bstieler et al., 2017;Mattson Molnar et al., 2019;Newnam & Goode, 2019) found that the trust relationship between top management and employees, during an organizational change, enhances their understanding and knowledge leading to less fear and anxiety about the change, improved alignment and better performance, and acceptance of the change decisions. ...
Introduction:
Modern approaches to Occupational Health and Safety have acknowledged the important contribution that continuous improvements to working conditions can make to the motivation of employees, their subsequent performance, and therefore to the competitiveness of the company. Despite this fact, organizational change initiatives represent a path less traveled by employees. Specialized literature has drawn on the fact that employees' satisfaction presents both the foundation and catalyst for effective implementation of improvements to working conditions.
Method:
This paper conceptualizes the alignment of employees through measurement of job satisfaction and uses the Bayesian Network to assess the influence of human factors, particularly the cognitive, emotional, and behavioral aspects. Toward this aim, the Bayesian Network is evaluated through a cross-validation process, and a sensitivity analysis is then conducted for each influential dimension: emotional, cognitive, and behavioral.
Results:
The results reveal that these three dimensions are interrelated and have a direct influence on job satisfaction and employees' alignment during the organization change. Further, they suggest that the best strategy for enhanced alignment and smooth conduct of organizational changes is simultaneous enhancement of the three dimensions. Practical applications: This study shows the influence of emotional, cognitive, and behavioral dimensions on job satisfaction and employees' alignment during the organizational change. Furthermore, it elaborates the way to develop efficient and effective strategies for a successful change implementation and sustained alignment.
... Failure to share information is one of the practices that jeopardizes safety at work [27]. The study by [28] presents a worrying scenario when realizing that supervisors' oral communication is predominantly related to the task, with few records that relate it to safety. ...
In this study a model was developed for analyzing communication on the shop floor using a Structural Equation Modeling with Partial Least Squares estimation (Partial Least Square, PLS). The model included as an exogenous variable (independent) Knowledge Management (KM), and four endogenous variables (dependent): Written Communication (WC), Oral Communication (OC), Man interaction with Information and Communication Technologies (M-ICT), and Operational Communication (OpC). The data for the exploratory study were collected in a land-based oil production region in the Northeast of Brazil. The data analysis was performed using the SmartPLS® software. The structural model supported six of the nine hypotheses proposed, presenting statistical significance and predictive relevance. The evaluation of Pearson’s determination coefficients (R2) demonstrated a satisfactory degree of adjustment and adherence in explaining the variance of endogenous variables. The effect size (f2) of the variance explained by the exogenous variable in the four endogenous variables was classified as “very strong”, as shown: in WC f2 = 0.802; OC f2 = 0.825; M-ICT f2 = 2,534; and OpC f2 = 2.003. The model presented predictive validity, KM showed effect (q2) classified as "very high" in the M-ICT and OpC. The effect (q2) of KM on WC and OC presented predictive relevance between medium and high, with q2 = 0.337 and q2 = 0.267, respectively. The causal relationships between the observed variables and the percentage of participation of each indicator in its construct are contributions to the management of information about production.
The construction industry faces persistent challenges in workplace safety, with safety compliance being a key determinant of accident prevention. This study investigates the relationships among positive leadership, job competence, safety participation, and safety compliance behavior to identify actionable strategies for enhancing safety performance. Data were collected from 249 respondents across two major construction companies, CSCO (Phils) and SM Development Corporation, using structured surveys and analyzed through Pearson correlation and multiple regression methods. The findings revealed that positive leadership significantly influences safety compliance behavior, accounting for 22.8% of its variation, while safety participation emerged as a stronger predictor, explaining 33.6% of the variance. Conversely, job competence showed limited direct impact, suggesting a disconnect between technical proficiency and compliance adherence. The study highlights the importance of integrating leadership development with targeted safety training to address gaps in emergency preparedness and proactive safety engagement. Recommendations include fostering a safety-oriented culture through participative leadership, recognition programs, and leveraging technology for training and hazard reporting. The research provides a comprehensive framework for reducing workplace accidents and enhancing employee well-being by aligning leadership, participation, and competency strategies. These findings underscore the critical need for collaborative efforts among stakeholders to build safer, more efficient construction environments. Keywords: Positive leadership, safety compliance, job competence, safety participation, construction safety.
Objectives. Earlier work found gaps with respect to legislative compliance and disparities in perceptions, attitudes and beliefs towards occupational health and safety in the Ontario manufacturing sector. The current follow-up study was undertaken to gain a more thorough understanding of the cause of these gaps and differences in perspectives. Methods. Focus group discussions were held with workers and managers separately. Key questions related to health and safety in general, health and safety training, and health and safety communication were asked of each focus group. The discussions were qualitatively analysed. Results. Overall, 12 worker focus groups (n = 76) and seven manager focus groups (n = 38) were conducted. Individuals who felt safe in their workplace indicated that it was a supportive environment, and that health and safety was a priority. Health and safety training was considered important but improvements in engagement and frequency were suggested. Conclusions. Health and safety communication might be hindered by technical terms and language barriers. Delivering this communication in multiple ways as well as the tone of communication should be taken into consideration. Overall, safety culture was lacking and manufacturing workplaces should be mindful of the gaps identified to improve health and safety performance.
Innovation Performance (IP) serves as a measure of a company’s effectiveness in translating innovative endeavors into tangible outcomes, encompassing new products, processes, services, and enhancements to existing offerings. This study investigates the relationship between IP, Innovation Knowledge Management (IKM), which includes Innovation Culture (IC) and Knowledge Management (KM), and Supervisory Communication Frequency (SCF). SCF refers to the frequency and quality of communication between supervisors and subordinates, influencing the impact of IKM on IP. Using a structured questionnaire, 320 valid responses were collected from companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE). Data analysis employed Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) and Process Macro Model 1, with reliability and validity assessed based on criteria from Hair et al. and Fornell and Larcker. Discriminant validity was confirmed with construct correlations lower than the square root of the average variance extracted (AVE). Path analysis revealed significant differences in IP scores across SCF frequency groups (F (4, 315) = 12.47, p < .001), with three monthly interactions showing the highest mean IP score (M = 3.6905, SD = 0.9375). These findings highlight the importance of regular supervisor-employee interactions alongside robust KM and IC practices for optimal innovation outcomes.
JEL Code: O32 - Management of Technological Innovation and R&D; M15 - IT Management; L25 - Firm Performance: Size, Diversification, and Scope; O31 - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives
This paper explores key communication strategies for success. It covers essential elements of effective communication, including active listening, assertive communication, and ethical practices. The importance of non-verbal communication and navigating challenging situations like stress and conflict are also addressed. By mastering these strategies, individuals can become more persuasive, influential, and build stronger relationships.
Safety compliance is a vital aspect of minimizing organizational risk of injury. However, much of the current scholarship neglects social processes that have important implications for the efficacy of efforts to increase compliance. Leveraging theories of social comparison and social reciprocation as a foundation, the present study investigated the compliance of others as a moderator for the relationship between supervisor safety priority and individual compliance, safety communication and individual compliance, and perceived departmental support and individual compliance. Utilizing unique data from U.S. Navy personnel (N = 8,331), we took a multilevel approach by examining three levels (individual, department, and ship) and found support for our hypotheses at
the individual level. Further, when examining the compliance of others within their department assignments, we found that department compliance of others strengthens the relationship between supervisor safety priority and individual safety compliance. Providing a unique contribution to safety science, our findings emphasize the importance of cultivating normative perceptions, considering multilevel factors, and stressing compliance with safety protocols.
Purpose
Leadership assessment programs are intended to ensure that the organization retains or hires high-quality leadership. Among the many skills that must be included, executive communication is a cornerstone of effective leadership. However, there are many techniques to assessing executive communication that impose numerous advantages and disadvantages. The purpose of this study is to explore several techniques for evaluating executive communication skills in leadership assessment programs.
Design/methodology/approach
Building upon case studies from novel commanding officer selection efforts in the military, the current study outlines three possible areas of executive communication for leadership assessment programs: panel-based interviews, guided discussion and executive writing.
Findings
Although each technique offers some advantages, the best technique depends upon the context. Panel-based interviews can provide excellent depth in evaluating candidates, whereas executive writing focuses more upon crafting a deliberate and clear message without the ability to clarify or use nonverbal cues. Selecting an appropriate technique depends greatly upon the workload imposed on the leadership assessment team and the number of candidates available.
Originality/value
Leadership selection programs are often done piecemeal or based on local experience. By building upon novel efforts in military commanding officer selection, the goal is to promulgate effective executive communication techniques that will enhance leadership selection through more effective communication across all levels of leadership positions.
The vampire as a mythical as well as a literary figure has undergone a multitude of transformations that have expanded its significance as a cultural metaphor. The paper seeks to investigate how the vampire figure in Suzy Mckee Charnas’ The Vampire Tapestry is unlike any other rendition of the literary vampire that we have seen, the major difference being the vampire having been stripped of its supernatural baggage. The paper also talks about how the vampire serves as a medium for the other characters in this design of five novellas to explore their own identities and memories, and how it itself comes to terms with its own changed psychological and cultural reality. It becomes interesting to study how this vampire serves to be a metaphor to represent the postmodern peculiarities of the contemporary man and the contemporary world.
Keywords: Vampire as a Cultural Metaphor, Identity, Psychological Vampire Fiction, Postmodern Vampire.
An exponential amount of academic research has been dedicated to the safety culture concept, but still, no consensus has been reached on its definition and content. In general, safety culture research lacks an interdisciplinary approach. Furthermore, although the concept of safety culture is characterised by complexity and multifacetedness, the safety culture concept has been characterised by reductionism, where models and theories simplify the concept in order to better grasp it, leading to confined approaches. In this article, the multifacetedness of safety culture is acknowledged, and the topic is addressed from a safety science perspective, combining insights from multiple academic disciplines. An integrative and comprehensive conceptual framework to assess safety culture in organisations is developed, taking into account the limitations of existing models, as well as the needs of the work field. This conceptual framework is called the ‘Integrated Safety Culture Assessment’ (ISCA), where the ‘assessment’ refers to its practical usability. The practical rendition of ISCA can be used to map the safety culture of an organisation and to formulate recommendations in this regard, with the ultimate goal of bringing about a change towards a positive safety culture. The comprehensiveness of ISCA lies in the inclusion of technological factors, organisational or contextual factors and human factors interacting and interrelating with each other, and in considering both observable or objective safety-related aspects in an organisation, and non-observable or subjective safety-related aspects. When using ISCA, organisational safety culture is assessed in an integrative way by using a variety of research methods involving the entire organisation, and by taking into account the specific context of the organisation.
Food safety continues to be a challenge worldwide despite scientific advances, continuous improvement in food safety management systems and increasing academic debate on food safety. This paper aims to validate a new model of food safety cultural compliance to identify the challenges that organisations face in their pursuit of a positive food safety culture. A mixed-method approach was adopted via the quantitative analysis of a stage one ‘Enlighten Questionnaire’ involving 202 respondents using parametric statistics (ANOVA with appropriate Post-Hoc tests and t-tests). Hochberg's GT2 was used for the Post-Hoc tests due to different group sizes and appropriate non-parametric tests were also run to confirm these results. Qualitative analysis of stage two semi-structured interviews totalling 40 participants and stage three focus groups each consisting of 3 groups of 9 employees equating to 27 participants was utilised. Thematic analysis was adopted to synthesise and cluster key themes. Our findings identify the misalignment of management and employees in the pursuit of establishing and embedding a positive food safety culture. Four key themes of the Enlighten Food Safety Culture Model (EFSCM) namely; Control, Co-operation, Communication and Competence were core cultural factors that could be used to realign management and employee behaviours to help stimulate a positive food safety culture.
Communication skills and soft skills is one of the prerequisite needs for employment and placements in present day scenario and mastery over the language prompts visibility, leading to better job opportunities. For advancement in career and academics, English language skills, fluency, vocabulary and the art of narration whether oral or written play a pivotal role. Exposure and access to English language leads to acceptance, recognition and better opportunities. For Engineering students, courses like Professional communication or communication skillsarea skill based and value addition course usually taught by Humanities and social sciences department to inculcate and nurture good communication competency among the technical students. Although technical students primarily focus more on their technical expertise, the need for improvising their communication to foster employability during placements is inadvertently realized. However, although Indian students spend almost twelve years of learning English before entering higher education, yet it is observed by recruitment bodies that students fail to articulate their thoughts in the right manner, thus failing to fetch the right jobs. There is some lacuna in our teaching learning methodologies which needs to be seriously addressed. Hence this article analyses these lacunas and explores newer methods and strategies which would be potentially beneficial to achieve communicative competency to seek better employment and thereby bridge the gap between industry and academia.
While other research has shown that higher paid truck and bus drivers are safer, this is the first study showing why higher paid drivers are safer. We estimate the labour supply curve for long-haul truck drivers in the United States, applying two-stage least squares regression to a national survey of truck drivers. We start with the standard model of the labour supply curve and then develop two novel extensions of it, incorporating pay level and pay method, and testing the target earnings hypothesis. We distinguish between long-haul and short-haul jobs driving commercial motor vehicles. Truck and bus drivers choose between long-distance jobs requiring very long hours of work away from home and short-distance jobs generally requiring fewer hours. The labour supply curve exhibits a classic backward bending shape, reflecting drivers’ preference to work until they reach target earnings. Above target earnings, at a ‘safe rate’ for truck drivers, they trade labour for leisure, working fewer hours, leading to greater highway safety. Drivers work fewer hours at a higher pay rate and likely have less fatigue. Pay rates also have implications for driver health because worker health deteriorates as working time exceeds 40 hours.
JEL Codes: I14, J28, J33, J88, L92, M55
The article presents a randomized field study designed to improve safety climate and resultant safety performance by modifying daily messages in supervisor-member communications. Supervisors in the experimental group received 2 individualized feedback sessions regarding the extent to which they integrated safety and productivity-related issues in daily verbal exchanges with their members; those in the control group received no feedback. Feedback data originated from 7-9 workers for each supervisor, reporting about received supervisory messages during the most recent verbal exchange. Questionnaire data collected 8 weeks before and after the 12-week intervention phase revealed significant changes for safety climate, safety behavior, subjective workload, teamwork, and (independently measured) safety audit scores for the experimental group. Data for the control group (except for safety behavior) remained unchanged. These results are explained by corresponding changes (or lack thereof in the control group) in perceived discourse messages during the 6-week period between the 1st and 2nd feedback sessions. Theoretical and practical implications for climate improvement and organizational discourse research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved).
Past research has examined women’s subjective satisfaction in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), but the actual events that correlate with disengagement have not been identified. In this study, workplace conversations of 45 female and male STEM faculty were sampled using the Electronically Activated Recorder, a naturalistic observation method, coded for research or socializing content, and correlated with self-reported job disengagement. Both men and women were less likely to discuss research in conversations with female as compared to male colleagues, and when discussing research with men, women were rated as less competent than men. Consistent with the idea that women in STEM experience social identity threat, discussing research with male colleagues was associated with greater disengagement for women, whereas socializing with male colleagues was associated with less disengagement. These patterns did not hold for men. These findings point to the unique challenges women face in STEM disciplines.
Researchers have been giving increased attention to the role larger organizational variables play in safety and accidents. Although generally neglected by this research, the nature of the exchange relationships between individuals, leaders. and the organization appears to have safety-related implications. The present research linked leader-member exchange (LMX) and perceived organizational support (POS) to safety communication, safety commitment, and accidents. Data were collected from 49 supervisor–group-leader dyads in a manufacturing facility. The results indicated that POS was significantly related to safety communication and that LMX was significantly related to safety communication, safety commitment, and accidents. Support was also found for a structural model linking POS and LMX to safety communication, safety commitment, and accidents. Implications of these findings for safety and social exchange research are outlined. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Two studies report a positive relationship of employees' perception of being valued and cared about by the organization with (a) conscientiousness in carrying out conventional job responsibilities, (b) expressed affective and calculative involvements in the organization, and (c) innovation on behalf of the organization in the absence of anticipated direct reward or personal recognition. In Study 1, involving six occupations, positive relationships of perceived support with job attendance and performance were found. In Study 2, using manufacturing hourly employees and managers, perceived support was positively related to affective attachment, performance outcome expectancies, and the constructiveness of anonymous suggestions for helping the organization. These results favor the extension and integration of emotion-based and calculative theories of organizational commitment into a social-exchange approach. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
A recording device called the Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR) is described. The EAR tape-records for 30 sec once every
12 min for 2–4 days. It is lightweight and portable, and it can be worn comfortably by participants in their natural environment.
The acoustic data samples provide a nonobtrusive record of the language used and settings entered by the participant. Preliminary
psychometric findings suggest that the EAR data accurately reflect individuals’ natural social, linguistic, and psychological
lives. The data presented in this article were collected with a first-generation EAR system based on analog tape recording
technology, but a second generation digital EAR is now available.
Work in the construction industry is considered inherently dangerous, despite the technological improvements regarding the safety of work conditions and equipment. To address the urgent need to identify organizational predictors of safety performance and outcomes among construction workers, the present study examined multi-level effects of two important indicators of safety climate, namely contractor error management climate and worker safety communication, on safety behavior, injury, and pain among union construction workers. Data were collected from 235 union construction workers employed by 15 contractors in Midwest and Northwest regions of the United States. Results revealed significant main effects for safety communication and error management climate on safety behaviors and pain, but not on injuries. Our findings suggest that positive safety communication and error management climate are important contributors to improving workplace safety. Specific implications of these results for organizational safety research and practice are discussed.
Research in the areas of organizational climate and work performance was used to develop a framework for measuring perceptions of safety at work. The framework distinguished perceptions of the work environment from perceptions of performance related to safety. Two studies supported application of the framework to employee perceptions of safety in the workplace. Safety compliance and safety participation were distinguished as separate components of safety-related performance. Perceptions of knowledge about safety and motivation to perform safely influenced individual reports of safety performance and also mediated the link between safety climate and safety performance. Specific dimensions of safety climate were identified and constituted a higher order safety climate factor. The results support conceptualizing safety climate as an antecedent to safety performance in organizations.
A 40-item measure of organizational climate for safety was constructed and validated in a stratified sample of 20 workers from each of 20 industrial organizations in Israel. This measure of climate reflects employees' perceptions about the relative importance of safe conduct in their occupational behavior. It can vary from highly positive to a neutral level, and its average level reflects the safety climate in a given company. It is shown that there was an agreement among Ss' perceptions regarding safety climate in their company and that the level of this climate was correlated with safety program effectiveness as judged by safety inspectors. The 2 dimensions of highest importance in determining the level of this climate were Ss' perceptions of management attitudes about safety and their own perceptions regarding the relevance of safety in general production processes. It is proposed that organizational climate, when operationalized and validated as demonstrated in this article, can serve as a useful tool in understanding occupational behavior. (25 ref)
This article presents and tests a group-level model of safety climate to supplement the available organization-level model. Climate perceptions in this case are related to supervisory safety practices rather than to company policies and procedures. The study included 53 work groups in a single manufacturing company. Safety climate perceptions, measured with a newly developed scale, revealed both within-group homogeneity and between-groups variation. Predictive validity was measured with a new outcome measure, microaccidents, that refers to behavior-dependent on-the-job minor injuries requiring medical attention. Climate perceptions significantly predicted microaccident records during the 5-month recording period that followed climate measurement, when the effects of group- and individual-level risk factors were controlled. The study establishes an empirical link between safety climate perceptions and objective injury data.
A recording device called the Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR) is described. The EAR taperecords for 30 sec once every 12 min for 2-4 days. It is lightweight and portable, and it can be worn comfortably by participants in their natural environment. The acoustic data samples provide a nonobtrusive record of the language used and settings entered by the participant. Preliminary psychometric findings suggest that the EAR data accurately reflect individuals' natural social, linguistic, and psychological lives. The data presented in this article were collected with a first-generation EAR system based on analog tape recording technology, but a second generation digital EAR is now available.
The present study integrates role theory, social exchange, organizational citizenship, and climate research to suggest that employees will reciprocate implied obligations of leadership-based social exchange (e.g., leader-member exchange [LMX]) by expanding their role and behaving in ways consistent with contextual behavioral expectations (e.g., work group climate). Using safety climate as an exemplar, the authors found that the relationship between LMX and subordinate safety citizenship role definitions was moderated by safety climate. In summary, high-quality LMX relationships resulted in expanded safety citizenship role definitions when there was a positive safety climate and there was no such expansion under less positive safety climates. The authors also found that safety citizenship role definitions were significantly related to safety citizenship behavior. Implications for both social exchange theory and safety research are discussed.
Organizational climate research has focused on prediction of organizational outcomes rather than on climate as a social-cognitive mediator between environmental attributes and relevant outcomes. This article presents a model specifying that supervisory safety practices predict (safety) climate level and strength as moderated by leadership quality. Using supervisory scripts as proxy of practices, it is shown that script orientation indicative of safely priority predicted climate level, whereas script simplicity and cross-situational variability predicted climate strength. Transformational leadership mitigated these effects because of closer leader-member relationships. Safety climate partially mediated the relationship between supervisory scripts and injury rate during the 6-month period following climate and script measurement. Theoretical and methodological implications are discussed.
The behavior-based approach to managing occupational risk and preventing workplace injuries is reviewed. Unlike the typical top-down control approach to industrial safety, behavior-based safety (BBS) provides tools and procedures workers can use to take personal control of occupational risks. Strategies the author and his colleagues have been using for more than a decade to teach BBS to safety leaders and line workers are presented. In addition, a conceptual model is proposed for matching the awareness and behavior of an individual with a particular BBS intervention technique.
The authors measured perceptions of safety climate, motivation, and behavior at 2 time points and linked them to prior and subsequent levels of accidents over a 5-year period. A series of analyses examined the effects of top-down and bottom-up processes operating simultaneously over time. In terms of top-down effects, average levels of safety climate within groups at 1 point in time predicted subsequent changes in individual safety motivation. Individual safety motivation, in turn, was associated with subsequent changes in self-reported safety behavior. In terms of bottom-up effects, improvements in the average level of safety behavior within groups were associated with a subsequent reduction in accidents at the group level. The results contribute to an understanding of the factors influencing workplace safety and the levels and lags at which these effects operate.
This paper reflects on our experiences in supporting communication between fieldworkers and the designers of cooperative systems. We have investigated the nature of this communication by using a tool orginally designed to support the representation of software designs to present emerging results of ethnographic material. In this paper we discuss the tool used (the DNP) and the experiences of using the toolkit in the context of design. Our particular focus is on the use of the tool to represents results from a study of a UK financial institution where a series of prototyping exercises was underway. 2 Ethnography, communication and support for design John Hughes, Jon O Brien, Tom Rodden and Mark Rouncefield.
This article presents a leadership-based intervention model designed to modify supervisory monitoring and rewarding of subordinates' safety performance. Line supervisors received weekly feedback based on repeated episodic interviews with subordinates concerning the cumulative frequency of their safety-oriented interactions. This information identified the priority of safety over competing goals such as speed or schedules. Section managers received the same information and used it to communicate (high) safety priority. They also were trained to conduct episodic interviews to provide intermittent feedback after intervention, turning safety priority into an explicit performance goal. Safety-oriented interaction increased significantly in the experimental groups but remained unchanged in the control groups. This change in safety-oriented interaction was accompanied by significant (and stable) changes in minor-injury rate, earplug use, and safety climate scores during the postintervention period.
Road traffic injury is the leading cause of work-related death and serious injury in Australia. Despite this, limited attention has been given to the development and implementation of effective preventive strategies within the workplace setting. A safe driving environment at work not only depends on individual compliance with safe driving practices but on all individuals understanding risks, anticipating threats to safety, showing concern for the safety of others, and contributing to safety improvements in the organisation. In particular, workgroup supervisors play a pivotal role in creating a safe work environment. This paper describes a new and innovative conceptual framework for a program designed to improve work-related driver safety. The focus of this program is on developing the skills of supervisors in identifying situations in which their drivers may be at risk on the road (e.g., drivers are tired, stressed, under pressure to meet deadlines) and to managing these situations through effective safety leadership. This paper describes development of the Safety Management for the Occupational Driver (SMOD) program and an implementation case study.
This article introduces a novel observational ambulatory monitoring method called the electronically activated recorder (EAR). The EAR is a digital audio recorder that runs on a handheld computer and periodically and unobtrusively records snippets of ambient sounds from participants' momentary environments. In tracking moment-to-moment ambient sounds, it yields acoustic logs of people's days as they naturally unfold. In sampling only a fraction of the time, it protects participants' privacy and makes large observational studies feasible. As a naturalistic observation method, it provides an observer's account of daily life and is optimized for the objective assessment of audible aspects of social environments, behaviors, and interactions (e.g., habitual preferences for social settings, idiosyncratic interaction styles, subtle emotional expressions). This article discusses the EAR method conceptually and methodologically, reviews prior research with it, and identifies three concrete ways in which it can enrich psychosomatic research. Specifically, it can (a) calibrate psychosocial effects on health against frequencies of real-world behavior; (b) provide ecological observational measures of health-related social processes that are independent of self-report; and (c) help with the assessment of subtle and habitual social behaviors that evade self-report but have important health implications. An important avenue for future research lies in merging traditional self-report-based ambulatory monitoring methods with observational approaches such as the EAR to allow for the simultaneous yet methodologically independent assessment of inner, experiential aspects (e.g., loneliness) and outer, observable aspects (e.g., social isolation) of real-world social processes to reveal their unique effects on health.
In the spirit of giving psychology away in this “Decade of Behavior,” this article reviews the behavioral science approach to preventing workplace injuries, which is currently being applied successfully in numerous companies worldwide. Unlike the traditional command-and-control approach to occupational safety, behavior-based safety (BBS) provides tools and methods employees can use to take control of their own safety performance. The author offers strategies he and his colleagues have been using for more than a decade to teach BBS to safety leaders and line workers. In addition, two conceptual models are explained. One model suggests ways to match the awareness and behavior of an individual with a particular BBS intervention technique. The second model proposes that five psychological states or “establishing conditions” increase the probability a person will use the BBS tools and procedures to actively care for the safety and health of others.
In spite of all efforts to design safer systems, we still witness severe, large-scale accidents. A basic question is: Do we actually have adequate models of accident causation in the present dynamic society? The socio-technical system involved in risk management includes several levels ranging from legislators, over managers and work planners, to system operators. This system is presently stressed by a fast pace of technological change, by an increasingly aggressive, competitive environment, and by changing regulatory practices and public pressure.Traditionally, each level of this is studied separately by a particular academic discipline, and modelling is done by generalising across systems and their particular hazard sources. It is argued that risk management must be modelled by cross-disciplinary studies, considering risk management to be a control problem and serving to represent the control structure involving all levels of society for each particular hazard category.Furthermore, it is argued that this requires a system-oriented approach based on functional abstraction rather than structural decomposition. Therefore, task analysis focused on action sequences and occasional deviation in terms of human errors should be replaced by a model of behaviour shaping mechanisms in terms of work system constraints, boundaries of acceptable performance, and subjective criteria guiding adaptation to change. It is found that at present a convergence of research paradigms of human sciences guided by cognitive science concepts supports this approach. A review of this convergence within decision theory and management research is presented in comparison with the evolution of paradigms within safety research.
Occupational driving crashes are the most common cause of death and injury in the workplace. The physical and psychological outcomes following injury are also very costly to organizations. Thus, safe driving poses a managerial challenge. Some research has attempted to address this issue through modifying discrete and often simple target behaviours (e.g., driver training programs). However, current intervention approaches in the occupational driving field generally consider the role of organizational factors in workplace safety. This study adopts the A-B-C framework to identify the contingencies associated with an effective exchange of safety information within the occupational driving context. Utilizing a sample of occupational drivers and their supervisors, this multi-level study examines the contingencies associated with the exchange of safety information within the supervisor-driver relationship. Safety values are identified as an antecedent of the safety information exchange, and the quality of the leader-member exchange relationship and safe driving performance is identified as the behavioural consequences. We also examine the function of role overload as a factor influencing the relationship between safety values and the safety information exchange. Hierarchical linear modelling found that role overload moderated the relationship between supervisors' perceptions of the value given to safety and the safety information exchange. A significant relationship was also found between the safety information exchange and the subsequent quality of the leader-member exchange relationship. Finally, the quality of the leader-member exchange relationship was found to be significantly associated with safe driving performance. Theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed.
The relationship between investment in employee health and non-health outcomes has received little research attention. Drawing from social exchange and climate theory, the current study uses a multilevel approach to examine the implications of worksite health investment for worksite safety and health climate and employee safety compliance and commitment to the worksite. Data were collected from 1932 personnel working on 31 offshore installations operating in UK waters. Installation medics provided corporate workforce health investment details for 20 of these installations. The findings provide support for a strong link between health investment practices and worksite safety and health climate. The results also found a relationship between health investment practices and organizational commitment among employees. These results suggest that health investment practices are associated with committed workforces and climates that reflect a priority on health and safety.
Libro de metodología cualitativo para investigación en las ciencias sociales. La utilización de la computadora, el uso de datos y la recolección de los mismos. Se describen detalladamente numerosos métodos de datos y análisis.
This paper discusses an organizational change intervention program targeting safety behaviors and addresses important considerations concerning the planning of organizational change. Using layout of the plant as a proxy for ease of daily leader-member interaction, the effect of workers' visibility on the effectiveness of supervisory-based safety (SBS) interventions is examined. Through a reinforcement-learning framework, it is suggested that visibility can affect supervisors' incentive to interact with subordinates regarding safety-related issues.
Data were collected during SBS intervention studies in five manufacturing companies.
Results suggest a reinforcement cycle model whereby increased visibility generates more frequent exchanges between supervisors and employees, resulting in improved safety behavior among employees. In turn, employees' safer behavior reinforces continued supervisory safety-related interaction. CONCLUSION AND IMPACT ON INDUSTRY: Visibility is an important moderator in supervisory based safety interventions, and can serve to increase workplace safety. Implications of these findings for safety are discussed.
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Discourse-based intervention for modifying supervisory communication as leverage for safety climate and performance improvement: A randomized field study
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