Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Idaho, 2005. / Also available online in PDF format. Abstract. "December 2005." Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2007. / The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on September 28, 2007) Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S. in Joint Campaign Planning and Strategy)--Joint Forces Staff College, Joint Advanced Warfighting School, 2007. / Title from title screen; viewed on July 9, 2007. "23 May 2007." Electronic version of original print document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 64-66).

National Science Foundation Grant no. SIA75-00739

Thesis (M.A.)--Duquesne University, 2009. / Title from document title page. Abstract included in electronic submission form. Includes bibliographical references (p. 71-80) and index.

This thesis sets out to identify the organisational antecedents of individual safety behaviour in the workplace, particularly rule violations. The research was set in the UK offshore oil and gas industry as an example of safety management in hazardous work environments. Study la is a review of incident reports collected over one year in a large UK offshore operating company (n=296). The database was examined using Tripod methodology (Groeneweg, 1996) to understand the relative importance of human factors causes within accident causal pathways. This revealed that unsafe acts, in particular procedural violations, were the most frequent immediate cause of accidents. This was followed by Study lb, a review of the company's safety-related internal audit findings and their remedial actions, which again showed the prevalence of human factors issues; whilst the remedial measures were largely addressing non-human factors issues. A problem with historical reports is their reliability; therefore Study 2 took a proactive approach to determine the frequency and type of rule breaking prevalent in the UK oil and gas industry. This was carried out through a questionnaire study on three locations, offshore and onshore (n=279). The instruments were drawn from existing rule breaking scales (HSE, 1995a; Mearns, Flin, Fleming, & Gordon, 1997), but further developed to test Lawton's (1998) violations taxonomy. This revealed a high prevalence of rule breaking, particularly Situational and Routine violations, which provided support for the violations taxonomy. Also, more frequent rule breaking was associated with a higher injury frequency among co-workers and more self-reported injuries. For a better understanding of these results, Study 3 developed and tested a model of the organisational antecedents of individual rule breaking behaviour. A questionnaire study was used, across 12 offshore locations (n=1414) using a combination of established instruments and scales developed specifically for this research. This revealed that the two independent variables, Organisational Features (Work pressure, Job Satisfaction, Safety Discussion and Satisfaction with Safety Management System Activities) and Social Safety Norms (Others Approval of Shortcuts and Relationship with Supervisor), were associated with self-reported rule breaking. However Organisational Features was more strongly associated with individual accident involvement and Social Safety Norms was a stronger predictor of violations. This study also revealed other aspects of rule-breaking behaviour, which has not been studied extensively in previous research. In particular, it highlighted the importance of job satisfaction and perception of one's colleagues attitudes to safety in predicting violations. This study also revealed that the relationship between rule breaking and some of its antecedents (Involvement, Work Pressure and Approval of Shortcuts) are better explained by non-linear relationships. For the Social Safety Norms variable, the direct influences on individual rule breaking were compared for senior management, site management, immediate supervisor and colleagues. This showed that colleagues' approval of shortcut taking was the strongest predictor of individual rule breaking. This was discussed in relation to Social Exchange theory (Blau, 1964) for Organisation Features, and to Social Influence theory (Latane, 1981) for Social Safety Norms. This however does not address the indirect organisational influences on individual behaviour. There is much speculation about the importance of senior managers in safety management (HSE, 1999; Flin et al, 2000) but little previous research specifically on their role. Study 4 was therefore based on appraisals of safety leadership and leadership style by subordinates (n=256) and self-reports (n=59), from the most senior managers in the company. This was done using instruments developed for this study and the Multifactorial Leadership Questionnaire of Transformational, Transactional and Passive Leadership styles (Bass & Avolio, 1995). This revealed that a charismatic leadership style, (Idealised Influence Behaviour) is associated with a stronger perceived commitment to safety; whilst managers with a more passive style (Laissez-Faire and Management by exception passive) were perceived more negatively. For a sub-sample, subordinate perceptions were correlated with safety performance data. This showed that the priority placed on safety was the strongest determinant of organisational safety performance, with those placing a higher priority on safety having a better safety performance. Overall, the evidence presented in this thesis highlights the organisational influences on committing violations and the importance of managing rule breaking to accident prevention. However, to achieve this requires a focus at the workgroup and leadership level, as well as the traditional management system and individual worker-focused approaches.

Submitted by Tatiana Lima (tatianasl@ufba.br) on 2015-03-20T18:21:40Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Pimenta Neto, Melquiades Augusto.pdf: 1911422 bytes, checksum: e61044a727f113afac20cc0a82ce2d03 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Tatiana Lima (tatianasl@ufba.br) on 2015-03-20T19:35:28Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Pimenta Neto, Melquiades Augusto.pdf: 1911422 bytes, checksum: e61044a727f113afac20cc0a82ce2d03 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-03-20T19:35:28Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Pimenta Neto, Melquiades Augusto.pdf: 1911422 bytes, checksum: e61044a727f113afac20cc0a82ce2d03 (MD5) / A qualificação profissional sempre foi vista como um diferencial positivo para o ingresso no mercado de trabalho e tem sido objeto de políticas públicas e empresariais. Essa pesquisa tem como o objetivo principal analisar as dimensões e atores que influenciam no aproveitamento das oportunidades ocupacionais da indústria de petróleo e gás natural na Bahia pelos profissionais qualificados pelo PROMINP, tendo como questão central a pergunta: Como as oportunidades ocupacionais da indústria de petróleo e gás natural na Bahia podem ser socializadas com os profissionais qualificados, ampliando sua inserção no mercado de trabalho? Como resultado, apresenta um perfil da trajetória dos alunos qualificados pelo PROMINP entre 2006 e 2010, que evidencia a necessidade de aprimoramento da qualificação profissional na Bahia, em função dos números de pessoas que não conseguiram empregos após os cursos. Outro resultado deste trabalho foi a sistematização de ações de inserção profissional, postas em práticas por alguns dos Fóruns Regionais do PROMINP, apresentados no produto tecnológico - uma cartilha – com as ações empreendidas, para posterior socialização com os demais FRS e com a sociedade em geral. Sugere-se, como continuidade, novos estudos sobre o novo programa de qualificação profissional operacionalizado nacionalmente pelo PRONATEC.

The purpose of this study was to develop a probabilistic model that could be used by petroleum refiners to evaluate the economic potential of refinery capital investment proposals. The following two requirements were placed on the development at the outset: (1) that the model use linear programming to simulate refinery operations; and (2) that the model keep computer time within reasonable bounds. A probabilistic model was developed that requires the following steps for its application: (1) use linear programming to simulate both the operations of the existing refinery and the operations assuming that the investment is made; (2) select two variables that can be treated as probabilistic variables and assign either a theoretical or a subjective probability distribution to represent future values for the two variables; (3) develop return on investment interpolation data by computing a return on investment for all pair combinations of three tenth year values for each of the two probabilistic variables; (4) develop a return on investment distribution by selecting values at random from the two probability distributions and interpolating among the interpolation data to obtain return on investment data; (5) interpret the return on investment distribution. The model was applied to an actual refining situation that involved determining the expected internal rate of return of a proposed hydrocracker addition to a United States refinery. Total computer time required to evaluate the hydrocracker proposal was about 159 minutes. Accuracy of the interpolation feature of the model was also determined during the application. The average error of ten interpolated return figures that were selected at random for the accuracy check was 1.89 per cent.

This research was designed to investigate the relationship between audit risk and the conduct of the audit engagement in the specific context of an oil and gas audit. Because reserve estimates are in the financial reports of oil and gas entities (in the depreciation, depletion and amortization calculation, the limitation on capitalized costs for companies using the full-cost method, and the required supplementary disclosure for companies subject to Securities and Exchange Commission requirements) and because the reserve estimation process is considerably affected by numerous factors, there is a chance that a material error could be incorporated into the financial statement representations with which the auditor is associated. The objective of the research was to (1) identify conditions which are important in an assessment of audit risk in associating with reserve estimates, and (2) determine the impact of some of these conditions on the conduct of the audit.

The aim of this thesis is to explain and analyse Britain's policy with regard to oil and the control of oil sources in the Middle East during the period 1919 to 1932. A great many books, articles, and some theses have been written on Middle Eastern oil, dealing with various aspects of the subject, but none has specifically aimed to explain in detail British oil policy between 1919 and 1932. The nearest approach to it is probably to be found in B. Shwadran's "The Middle East, Oil and the Great Powers" (New York, 1955), which was written, however, from an American point of view, and without access to British Government archives. It is hoped, therefore, that this present work may help to fill this gap and, also, that it may help to dispel the many inaccurate (and often wildly fanciful) notions about Britain's Middle Eastern oil policy which have long been current. The term "Middle East" in this context includes Persia, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Transjordan, the Arabian Peninsula, and Egypt, but most attention has been given to Iraq, since it was on Iraq that the main international oil controversies of the period centred. The Persian oil situation has been discussed in some detail, but no attempt at an exhaustive account has been made, since there is already a great deal of well-informed literature written on the subject. It has been found necessary to restrict the scope of the thesis to the main theme of British oil policy, avoiding any detailed treatment of the wider issues with which British oil policy was interwoven. Thus the purely diplomatic aspects of the many issues with which the oil questions were involved are not covered in any detail. In particular, no systematic attempt has been made to place Britain's oil policy in the context of its foreign policy as a whole, either in the Middle East or elsewhere, nor has any attempt been made to examine in full the oil policies (or general strategies in the Middle East) of countries other than Britain. There are several reasons for these limitations of scope. Firstly, the practical reason that, for reasons of space, no single thesis could deal adequately with all the diplomatic and other issues which were connected with British oil policy during the period under consideration. Secondly, adequate treatment of these peripheral issues would necessitate a full programme of research into the archives of the several different countries concerned, in particular those of the French Government and of the United States Government. Apart from the fact that such a programme of work would hardly be practicable in the time available, there is the added consideration that, in particular, French Government archives for the period are still closed. Of relevance to this aspect of the matter, too, is the fact that published works which might be expected to yield much information on, for example, French Middle Eastern oil policy, simply do not contain sufficient relevant information to fill satisfactorily the gap left by the non-availability of French Government archives. A third reason for restricting the scope of the thesis is the need for lucidity. In order to keep what is itself a highly complicated theme reasonably clear, much pruning of materials not absolutely central to the main theme has had to be done, sometimes with the result that issues of great importance in themselves, but having only an indirect link with the central theme, have been given only scant treatment.