Leadership’s Role in Process Safety: An Understanding of Behavioral Science Among Managers and Executives Is Needed

ABSTRACT

A recent prevalence of high visibility catastrophic events has garnered increased attention to process safety issues. While the use of Behavior-Based Safety interventions demonstrate a reduction in workplace injuries by targeting employee behavior, we believe that process safety requires a greater focus on the behavior of leaders (e.g., creating and executing strategy). One effective method to begin targeting leader behavior for the improvement of process safety is to teach leaders about the principles of behavior, including ways by which the science may be applied within their own organizational models.     

Quality of Life Indexes for National Policy: Review and Agenda for Research

A number of governments and public policy institutes have developed Quality of Life Indexes – statistics that attempt to measure the quality of life for entire states or regions. We develop 14 criteria for determining the validity and usefulness of such QOL indexes to public policy. We then review 22 of the most-used QOL indexes from around the world. We conclude that many of the indexes are successful in that they are reliable, have established time series measures, and can be disaggregated to study subpopulations. However, many fall short in four areas: (1) indexes vary greatly in their coverage and definitions of domains of QOL, (2) none of the indexes distinguish among the concepts of input, throughput, and output that are used by public policy analysts, (3) they fail to show how QOL outputs are sensitive to public policy inputs, and (4) none have examined convergent validity against each other. We conclude that many of these indexes are potentially very useful for public policy and recommend research to further improve them.     

The Second Approximation to an International Standard for Life Satisfaction

An earlier study, based on data from Western countries, concluded that an international standard for life satisfaction could be stated as 75 ± 2.5 percentage of the measurement scale maximum score. This study presents a similar analysis based on data from countries representing all major geographic regions. It is reported that these data yield a more inclusive standard of 70 ± 5 percentage of scale maximum. While the major correlates of life satisfaction are found to be individualism and national wealth, the life satisfaction levels of some countries are distinctly anomalous in this regard. It is concluded that the narrow range of population data suggest that life satisfaction is held under homeostatic control. The anomalous levels of life satisfaction reported by some countries indicate caution in the interpretation of life satisfaction data as implying some desirable population state.     

Exposure Assessment of TSEs from the Landspreading of Meat and Bone Meal

Recent changes in European legislation have meant that certain processed abattoir waste, which has been appropriately heat treated and ground to a specified particle size, can be spread on nonpasture agricultural land. This has opened the way for the potential landspreading of mammalian meat and bone meal (mMBM) derived from animals slaughtered for human consumption. This article reports on two separate case studies (Study 1 carried out in Great Britain (GB) and Study 2 carried out in Ireland) on the potential exposure to TSE infectivity following the spreading of abattoir waste (derived from animals slaughtered for human consumption) on nonpasture agricultural land. For Study 1, the average TSE infectivity on nonpasture agricultural land per year from sheep with scrapie was found to be higher (five orders of magnitude) than that estimated for BSE in cattle (3.9 x 10(-3) Ovine Oral ID(50)/ton of soil compared to 3.3 x 10(-8) Bovine Oral ID(50)/ton of soil). The mean estimate for BSE in sheep was 8.1 x 10(-6) Ovine Oral ID(50)/ton of soil. The mean level of infectivity in mMBM was assessed to be 1.2 x 10(-5) and 2.36 x 10(-5) ID(50)/ton of mMBM for Study 1 and 2, respectively. For Study 2 the spreading of mMBM was estimated to result in infectivity on nonpasture land of 1.62 x 10(-8) Bovine Oral ID(50)/m(3). The mean simulated probability of infection per year per bovine animal was 1.11 x 10(-9). Given the low infectivity density and corresponding low risks to bovines the spreading of mMBM could be considered a viable alternative for the utilization of mMBM.     

Subjective Quality of Life and Self-Esteem in Children: The Role of Primary and Secondary Control in Coping with Everyday Stress

Two major predictors of subjective quality oflife (SQOL) in adults are known to beself-esteem and a sense of primary control.Moreover, secondary control is known to be animportant defence strategy when primary controlfails. This study aimed to determine whetherthese relationships also apply to children. Asample of 66 children aged from 5 to 12 yearswere compared on their use of primary andsecondary control and on their ratings of SQOLand self-esteem. SQOL was measured using theComprehensive Quality of Life Scale,self-esteem by using the CoopersmithSelf-Esteem Inventory, and primary andsecondary control were measured by codingchildren's responses to three short video clipsof children in stressful situations. It wasfound that younger children use more primarycontrol and less secondary control than olderchildren. However, five year olds were foundcapable of producing secondary controlstrategies. Contrary to expectation, primaryand secondary control did not predict eitherself-esteem or SQOL. However, self-esteempredicted SQOL as expected and no sexdifferences were found. These findingsemphasise important differences from the adultliterature and the reasons for this arediscussed.     

The Contribution of Job and Partner Satisfaction to the Homeostatic Defense of Subjective Wellbeing

Two studies investigate subjective wellbeing (SWB) homeostasis. The first investigates the contribution of job satisfaction (JS) and partner satisfaction (PS) to the homeostatic defense of SWB. The extant model of homeostasis does not include either variable. The second study investigates the relationship between Homeostatically Protected Mood (HPMood) and other factors involved in the homeostatic model. It has been proposed that HPMood is the basic, biologically determined, positive mood that saturates SWB and other related variables, and forms the basis of the SWB set-point. Thus, if HPMood is an individual difference and it perfuses other homeostatic variables, then HPMood should be responsible for much of the shared variance between such variables. Two comparative samples are involved. One is a group of 171 Hong Kong Chinese recruited through convenience sampling. The other is a group of 343 Australians recruited via a general population survey. Results indicate that both JS and PS predict significant variance in Global Life Satisfaction beyond the existing factors in the homeostatic model. It is also found that, after controlling for the effect of HPMood, the strength of correlations between SWB and other homeostatic variables is significantly diminished. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

Malthus to modernity: wealth,status, and fertility in England, 1500–1879

A key challenge to theories of long-run economic growth has been linking the onset of modern growth with the move to modern fertility limitation. A notable puzzle for these theories is that modern growth in England began around 1780, 100 years before there was seemingly any movement to limit fertility. Here we show that the aggregate data on fertility in England before 1880 conceals significant declines in the fertility of the middle and upper classes earlier. These declines coincide with the Industrial Revolution and are of the character predicted by some recent theories of long-run growth.