Problem definition: There must be a knowledge transfer within the organisation to prevent illness and accidents at work.  Aim: Is to examine and describe how opportunities to share knowledge with other organisational members experienced by managers with occupational health and safety responsibilities. Method: A qualitative case study with semi-structured interviews from N=10 informants.  Main results: Managers' experience are perceived to be the possession of a superior power and that they need to bring in non-relational resources to dissemination knowledge. Conclusion: Theory suggests that by creating relationships by using communication and interaction to access trust and reciprocity, there are great opportunities for knowledge transfer. We have taken part of the informants' experiences, we have come to the conclusion it's not the easy to implement relationships in the work environment because it does not always precondition for this. Because of cultural differences, experience-and competence differences and organisational characteristics. / Problemformulering: I arbetet förekommer det stora risker för ohälsa och olyckor, för att kunna minimera dessa risker måste det ske en kunskapsspridning inom organisationen. Att sprida kunskap gällande arbetsmiljö är en viktig faktor i alla arbetsområden i samhället, dock är spridningen inte det enklaste. För att kunna sprida kunskap behöver vi undersöka hur chefer som ansvarar för arbetsmiljö upplever sina förutsättningar för kunskapsspridning inom organisationer. För att sedan ta del av detta och skapa förutsättningar som främjar spridningen av kunskap. Syfte: Att undersöka och beskriva hur förutsättningar att dela med sig av kunskap till andra organisationsmedlemmar upplevs av chefer med arbetsmiljöansvar Metod: En kvalitativ fallstudie med semistrukturerade intervjuer från N=10 informanter. Innehållsanalys har används för att analysera data. Huvudresultat: Skapandet av relationer är inte det enklaste tillvägagångsättet för att sprida kunskap. Chefernas förutsättningar upplevs vara att inneha en överordnad position och att de behöver/vill ta in icke-relationella resurser för att kunskapen enklare skall spridas. Slutsats: Teorin menar att nära relationer som byggs upp med hjälp av kommunikation och interaktion för att komma åt tillit och ömsesidighet medför stora förutsättningar för kunskapsspridning. Denna studie visar att tänket att skapa värdefulla relationer finns hos cheferna. Men på något vis är det inte det enklaste att genomföra, eftersom det inte alltid finns förutsättningar för detta. Det vill säga förutsättningar som, kulturella skillnader, erfarenhet- och kompetenskillnader och organisatoriska egenskaper.

Abstract The purpose of the research presented in this thesis was to explore experiences from studies on participatory ergonomics methods conducted during a period of seven years. The phenomenon of interest was participative methods for implementation of best practices in order to improve conditions in different work environments. The posed research questions dealt with the usefulness and applicability of the assessed ergonomics methods/tools. One question concerned the change agents, what those were, and in which way the workers could be empowered in their daily work. The thesis is built on four case studies using a qualitative approach. In the first study an assessment of the Future Workshop as a participatory ergonomics method was made. This was achieved by conducting workshops in which professional cleaners, health care personnel and miners participated, and by assessing their perceptions of the conducted workshops and their immediate and long-term effects on safety work. The second study determined whether home care personnel used their gained knowledge and skills after completing a training programme in patient transfer technique, and identified hindering and supporting factors for the use of safe work technique. The assessment was performed through focus group interviews and individual interviews with home care staff, unit leaders and safety representatives. The third study evaluated a team-based systematic risk assessment method and action plans at two municipal homes for elderly. Lastly, the fourth study described experiences from a participatory ergonomics project in home care services. In this case, an occupational therapist was working together within the home care teams, as well as functioning as an investigator during a period of three years. Studies one to three had an explorative, descriptive design, while the fourth study was inspired by action research. A phenomenological approach for analysing the data was used in the first and fourth study, and the second and third were analysed through qualitative content analysis. The research presented in this thesis contributes to theory and practice in two ways. From a pragmatic point of view, the research provides knowledge (knowing) from reality. The empirical findings in the four studies showed participative methods to be suitable and functional tools in safety and health work in different environments. The research also showed that the essential change agent is empowerment, and that employees are empowered by their own involvement in the work. From a theoretical point of view, the research gives support for earlier research within the area, and connects approaches such as learning by doing and reflective practice with the concept of participatory ergonomics. / Tiivistelmä Tässä väitöskirjassa tutkittiin kokemuksia osallistuvista ergonomiametoditapauksista seitsemän vuoden ajalta. Osallistuvia metodeja käytettiin tapaustutkimuksissa parhaiden toimintatapojen käyttöönottoon työolojen parantamiseksi. Tälle tutkimukselle asetetut tutkimuskysymykset kattoivat ergonomia metodeiden/työkalujen hyödyllisyyden ja soveltuvuuden arvioimisen. Yksi kysymyksistä käsitteli muutosagentteja: mitä ne olivat, ja millä tavalla työntekijät voidaan voimaannuttaa päivittäiseen työhönsä. Väitöskirja on rakennettu neljän tapaustutkimuksen pohjalta käyttäen laadullista lähestymistapaa. Ensimmäisessä tapauksessa tehtiin arvio ”tulevaisuuden työpajasta” osallistuvan ergonomian metodina. Tämä toteutettiin järjestämällä työpajoja ammattisiivoojien, terveydenhuollon työntekijöiden ja kaivostyöläisten keskuudessa ja arvioimalla niiden lyhyen sekä pitkänajan vaikutuksia turvallisuustyöhön. Toinen tapaus määritteli, käyttivätkö kotihoidon työntekijät potilaiden siirtotekniikkakoulutuksessa kartuttamaansa osaamista ja taitoja hyödyksi työssään. Tutkimus toteutettiin fokusryhmä- ja yksilöhaastatteluilla kotihoidon työntekijöiden, yksikönvetäjien ja turvallisuusedustajien parissa. Kolmas tapaus arvioi ryhmäpohjaista systemaattista riskinarviointimenetelmää ja toimintasuunnitelmia kahdessa kunnallisessa vanhustenkodissa. Neljäs tapaus kuvaili kokemuksia kotihoidon palveluita käsittelevästä osallistuvasta ergonomiaprojektista. Viimeisessä tapauksessa toimintaterapeutti työskenteli kotihoidon tiimeissä, osallistuen tutkijana kolmen vuoden ajan. Tapauksissa 1-3 tutkimusotteena oli eksploratiivinen, kuvaileva tutkimusote, kun taas neljäs oli toimintatutkimuksen inspiroima. Fenomenologista lähestymistapaa käytettiin saadun datan analysointiin ensimmäisessä ja neljännessä tapauksessa, kun taas toisen ja kolmannen tapauksen dataa analysoitiin laadullisen sisällönanalyysin keinoin. Tämän väitöskirjan tutkimus edistää teoriaa ja käytäntöä kahdella tavalla. Pragmaattisesta näkökulmasta tämä tutkimus tarjoaa tietämystä todellisuudesta. Neljän tutkimuksen empiiriset löydökset tukivat osallistuvien metodeiden soveltuvuutta ja työsuojelutyön toimivia työkaluja eri ympäristöissä. Tutkimus osoitti, että voimaannuttaminen (empowerment) on oleellinen muutosagentti ja että työntekijöiden oma työhön osallistuminen voimaannuttaa heidät. Teoreettisesta näkökulmasta tämä tutkimus tukee alueen aiempaa tutkimusta ja yhdistää osallistuvan ergonomian konseptiin tekemällä oppimisen ja reflektoivan käytännön.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Psychology / James C. Shanteau / Unintentional injuries represent the leading cause of death among Americans aged 1-44 years. While there have been many life-saving advances in engineering, attempts to save lives by changing people's behavior have been less successful. For instance, safety and health communications have sometimes led to increased knowledge and self-reported intentions to comply with recommendations, but traditional efforts to demonstrate changes in actual target behaviors have often failed. Research in many settings has shown that narrative communications have exceptional power to persuade and affect peoples' decisions. This suggests that safety and health messages might be more effective if they include narratives, such as brief stories about people who have been injured. The purpose of this dissertation is to determine if safety communications that include stories about injuries result in superior behavioral compliance when compared with traditional abstract safety messages. Teams of two participants assembled a swing set, using written instructions that contained relevant safety messages. Fifty-four teams were randomly assigned to three conditions: story-based safety messages, concrete nonstory safety messages, and traditional abstract safety messages. Compliance with safety messages was defined as the number of compliant components in the finished swing set. After adjustment for covariates, story-based messages resulted in a 20 percent improvement in compliance, compared with concrete nonstory and traditional abstract messages. Covariates included age, gender, (log) childcare experience, equipment assembly experience, presence of observer, and a final covariate related to timing of experimental sessions conducted by different experimenters. A positive relationship was noted between behavioral compliance and immediate (but not delayed) recall of message content. Narrative transportation was also positively related to compliance, but only within the story-based condition. Behavioral compliance was not related to remindings or judgments about the likelihood of injuries. The research is important because of its potential for improving safety communications and saving lives. Stories about injuries improved safety behavior even though the stories were brief and not designed to be entertaining or transporting. In contrast, the lack of correspondence between observed behavior and many surrogate measures suggests caution is in order when evaluating interventions using self-report measures, delayed memory, and other common dependent variables.

Master of Agribusiness / Department of Agricultural Economics / Brian P. Niehoff / This thesis is the tool for moving companies to the next level in safety. I believe through this plan we can keep people safe in the agribusiness industry. This is very important, so that we can keep cost down and be able to stay in business; or avoid costly litigation / arbitration hearings because someone was injured on the job. When I was hired my job was to develop procedures that meet Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standards, reduced injuries, and would be a continuous improvement type of program. The thesis will be introductory information in regards to safety followed by a sample safety manual that I have created by working with different safety professional in the safety industry.

This thesis critically examines dominant conceptualizations of safety crimes – offences by corporations that seriously injure and kill workers – within the Alberta oil and gas industry. Using critical discourse analysis, and relying on and Foucaultian and Marxist literatures, the thesis critically examines the extent to which government fatality reports, workplace safety education campaigns and court decisions characterize safety crimes primarily as ‘accidents’ caused by ‘careless’ workers. Two main discourses were found: first, workers were responsibilized, effectively blamed for their own injury and death in the workplace while employers were characterized as largely good and law-abiding; second, serious injury and death was (re)conventionalized as the regrettable but largely unintentional and unavoidable side effect of capitalist production. In the process, the underlying causes of safety crimes, including weak and under-enforced laws and a socio-economic context that prioritizes profits over worker safety, remain untouched.

The goal of this thesis is to judge Health and Safety Management system in the company MIZ Olomouc s.r.o. It states fulfilling lawful requirements in this area. In a theoretical part of the thesis there is clarifying of general terms, programs, management standards (Bezpečný podnik, BS 8800, OHSAS 18001 etc.), legal regulations and institutions of HSMS.

The management of health and safety risks in the oil refinery tends to be centred on the collection and simulation of technical data which can then be used to make decisions on the wellbeing of the workforce as well as the refinery installations. While the number crunching in the process is immensely vital, there tends to be a problem of ignoring or, at the very least, side-lining the social-cultural values of the people dealing with health and safety risk assessment processes. The economic driver for the operation of the oil refinery tends to be more important because of the generally huge initial financial outlay, and the eventual high costs of maintenance; hence health and safety risk management should have evidence of ensuring that the installations, as well as the people that work in them, are well catered for. In the Kuwait Gulf Oil Company this problem is more evident in newer installations where lean management processes have been instituted by oil firms so that they can reduce waste in the oil refining process without compromising the occupational health and safety needs of the refinery. Therein lies the initial problem of integrating health and safety risk assessment processes because most approaches concentrate on the technical elements of waste elimination while ignoring the social-cultural factors that impact on the health and safety of the workforce. This is an exploratory piece of research that examines the impact of rational and cognitive decision theories – herein called the psychology of risk – and how they impact on the occupational health and safety systems in the oil and gas refining sector of Kuwait. The research concludes that the application of lean concepts in the oil refining process is noble in itself but it needs to be integrated with the rational and cognitive detection factors that are necessary to incorporate and support the social-cultural tendencies of the workforce. The research recommends a framework for incorporating social-cultural values in the decision making process pertaining to health and safety risk assessment in oil refining process plants. Key Words: occupational health and safety risk assessment; lean management; social-cultural values; rational and cognitive decision making; oil and gas process plants.

This project will evaluate California's narcotic registration program to determine whether or not the intent and the purpose established in the legislation is being met.

The thesis focuses on one particular organization and analyzes its options for introducing an integrated management system. The author takes a close look at the processes of that organization, and makes a list of all the important things that are related to the processes (including their limits and conditions) and that should be carefully considered when the directives and regulations of the organization are being made.

MPM / Department of Public Health