The structure of employee attitudes to safety: A European example

This paper concerns organizational safety culture and the structure or architecture of employee attitudes to safety as part of that culture. It begins by reviewing the somewhat scant literature relevant to this area, and then reports a study, conducted in a European company, which collected and factor analysed data on employee attitudes to safety. The framework provided for the study was that offered by Purdham (1984), and the results suggested that employees' attitudes to safety, within this company (across occupation/occupational level and country), could be mapped By five orthogonal factors: personal scepticism, individual responsibility, the safeness of the work environment, the effectiveness of arrangements for safety, and personal immunity. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed, and attention is drawn to their subsequent use in an intervention to enhance safety culture within the organization by attacking supervisors' attitudes to safety.     

Child maltreatment in families experiencing domestic violence

This study examined the association between physical domestic violence (PDV) and reported child maltreatment in a cohort of children at risk for maltreatment. Participants were 219 6- to 7-year-old children and their caregivers. PDV was measured by combining caregivers' self-reports and children's reports, while child maltreatment was based on state Division of Social Services Central Registry records. Among 219 child-caregiver pairs studied, 42 (19.2%) had at least one maltreatment report in the 2 years following the interviews. PDV consistently predicted child maltreatment, with adjusted odds ratios ranging from 2.96 to 3.46. In addition, we investigated interactions between PDV and other predictors of child maltreatment. Among Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) participants, PDV was highly associated with child maltreatment. However, this pattern was not observed among subjects who did not have AFDC. There is an increased incidence of child maltreatment reports in families experiencing PDV. AFDC participation intensified the probability of child maltreatment in the presence of PDV. Findings also suggest that in households experiencing PDV, social supports may protect children from maltreatment.     

Physical exercise,employee fitness and the management of health at work

Abstract

This paper presents some recent data on why organizations invest in exercise and physical fitness programmes for their stiff. These data suggest that, owing to a lack of evaluation studies, organizations act mainly on the basis of assumption and belief. However, from a subsequent review of the available literature on the personal and organizational effects of such programmes, it appears that these assumptions and beliefs are not altogether unfounded. The paper concludes by discussing the ways in which exercise and employee fitness programmes might help die individual and their organization in terms of the management of health at work.     

Towards the implementation of a universal control chart and estimation of its average run length using a spreadsheet: An artificial neural network is employed to model the parameters in a special case

A control chart procedure has previously been proposed (Champ et al., 1991) for which the Shewhart X ¥ -chart, the cumulative sum chart, and the exponentially weighted moving average chart are special cases. The rapid and easy production of these charts, plus many others, is proposed using spreadsheets. In addition, for all these novel charts, the average run lengths are generated as a guide to their likely behaviour. The cumulative sum chart is widely employed in quality control and is considered in greater detail. Charts are designed to exhibit acceptable average run lengths both when the process is in and out of control. A functional technique for parameter selection for such a chart is introduced that results in target average run lengths. It employs the method of artificial neural networks to derive appropriate coefficients. This approach may be extended to any of the charts previously introduced.     

CARING ABOUT POVERTY

Entry to institutional care is being used as an ineffective and expensive response to child and family poverty in a number of countries. In this paper, the practice of using institutional care for children in poverty is examined, drawing on case studies from three countries–the Republic of Moldova, Bulgaria, and Sri Lanka. Research findings reveal that poverty is a major underlying cause of children being received into institutional care and that such reception into care is a costly, inappropriate, and often harmful response to adverse economic circumstances. We suggest that alternatives to care may be funded from resources currently committed to institutions by developing a policy of gatekeeping. However, alternative strategies must be responsive to local conditions, and all such strategies need to be developed in consultation with children, their families, and communities.     

Exposure to occupational violence and the buffering effects of intra-oranizational support

This paper presents a conceptually distinct analysis of the data first reported by Leather et al. Specifically, it investigates the effects of exposure to a variety of forms of work-related violence upon work attitudes and general well-being within a sample of UK public house licensees—individuals who manage public houses and hold the licence permitting the sale of alcoholic drinks on the premises. In addition, it examines the role of social support in moderating such effects. Based upon a sample of 242 licensees, it reports a consistent interaction between exposure to such violence and the availability of perceived intra-organizational support in determining the size of any negative effects upon individual well-being, job satisfaction and organizational commitment. It is argued that exposure to all forms of work-related violence, including intimidation, verbal abuse and threat, should be seen as a potential stressor within the work environment, the negative effects of which are buffered by perceived support from within the organization, but not by that perceived to be available from informal sources such as family and friends.     

Safety culture

'Developing a positive health and safety culture is important if high standards of health and safety are to be achieved and maintained. There is a limit to the health and safety performance an organization can achieve without addressing the contribution which human factors have to play in eliminating occupational accidents and ill health' (David Eves, Deputy Director UK Health and Safety Executive; HSE 1997).     

Planning for technological innovation: Part II—investment in technological change in three major industries

In an article in the December 1977 issue the author described an analytical method to determine the reaction of British industry to the oil crisis. The purpose of this paper is to carry forward the discussion by examining and comparing circumstances in three British industries between 1963 and 1975.The paper aims first, to show how and why the cost structures of these three industries differ; second, to examine changes forced upon companies by inflation of earnings, statutory control of prices and the oil crisis; and finally to assess how far these congruent economic forces have impinged on tangible and intangible investment.The data used for this study were drawn from British and Canadian official statistics but, as described in Part 1, a new analytical technique was devised to give due weight to the full range of investment expenditure.