M.Tech. (Business Administration, Faculty of Management Sciences), Vaal University of Technology. / The majority of mine health and safety authorities around the world agree that the quality of safety standards is of increasing importance to the mining industry across the world (Kleyn & du Plessis 2016:309). Mining companies in many countries such as New Zealand, (an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean), Australia, South Africa and China have taken up the challenges of guaranteeing liability and improving performance of the safety and health of their workers, aware that many workers are injured, if not fatally. These incidents result in production loss. This study provides not only an opportunity to evaluate the status of the safety control measures of the work system in a mining company, but also enables management to pinpoint the causes of poor safety performance and implement efforts that ensure safety improvement. The primary objectives of this study were to examine factors influencing the adherence and employee perceptions towards safety control measures in a mining company. Furthermore, the governments in many countries have tried to implement legislation to try to curb the scourge of industrial accidents. Safety disclosures of the annual reports from the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) of South African mining organisations, discloses 10 major mining accidents that happened in 2015 at Northern Cape mining companies. Six of these accidents occurring from a small mining sector and four from a large mining sector, except previous year’s safety records as detailed in this study. A quantitative approach was adopted for the study. The data were collected using a sample of 200 participants in which a survey questionnaire was administered to permanent mine employees and full time contractors in the mine. A simple sampling technique was used and data were then analysed using the Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS) version 25.0 to formulate frequency tables and descriptive analysis graphs. Furthermore, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and t-test were utilised to analyse the data and examine significant differences between employee perceptions and attitudes towards safety control measures, age and length of service (Willemse 2009:118-121). The results reveal that although the mine was considered compliant, with its employees showing a positive attitude towards safety control measures, ANOVA revealed different perceptions of employees based on their age and years of experience. However, no differences were found in relation to gender and occupation. Based on the findings, this study further recommends future studies to be conducted in order to explore the effectiveness of implementing an internal system of self-evaluation as a starting point in any safety improvement process. An effective system of internal self-evaluation will trademark the mining sector internationally and improve workers’ safety by improving effectiveness and assurance of the control measures and the level of control performance criteria. The system should create the awareness of adherence to safety control measures and deal with employee perception towards safety adherence in mining. In addition it should be a system that ensures a structured and standardised approach to learning from incidents and that all necessary steps are followed to safeguard against repeats of incidents and accidents through an effective incident investigation process (Van den Berg 2014:11). The findings of the study revealed that the leadership in the mine has a strong, positive and significant influence on the performance of safety. In this regard, this study recommends that an effective employee engagement system to be developed and that mine managers establish a safety control charter that must be understood by the mine workers, develop a code of ethics that requires ethical and honest behaviour from all employees in order to improve safety performance and learn from these accomplishments. Mine workers will take their cue from the attitude and example displayed by management, therefore, it is recommended that mine management develop an organisational culture, which assigns authority and responsibility to employees and organises and develops employees with direction provided by management that determines the type of culture in that mine. To minimise or reduce the risk of health exposure of each activity as highlighted under Regulation 9 of the Mine Health and Safety Act (29 of 1996), it is recommended that mine manager’s enforce the use of protective equipment. The leadership and human resources, mine workers and all persons who may be affected by the mining activities in the surrounding area of operation need to be aware of the factors that can impact their well-being. The study also presented managers, mine owner and other decision makers within the mining company with important insight on key areas of factors that may require particular attention in order to enhance their operational strategies towards zero harm in the mine.

Thesis (LLM.) -- University of Limpopo, 2017. / In South Africa, during the then apartheid era, the mining sector had records of extremely high fatalities, injuries and occupational diseases that led to massive death of miners predominantly the Blacks. In the post-apartheid era, numerous laws have been enacted to address the problem. One of the laws that was introduced is the Mine Health and Safety Act 29 of 1996 which provides for radical enforcement of health and safety standards using various mechanisms, such as monitoring systems and inspections, investigations, and employers' and employees' duties to identify hazards and eliminate, control and minimise the risk to health and safety of mine workers. This study examines the extent, efficient and efficacy of the implementation and enforcements of these laws and points out the challenges being encountered and prospects made thus far. The study used Australia and Chile for comparative study and showcased how the government and the laws they have passed are being effectively used to contain and curtail health hazards, accidents and fatalities in the mining environment.

Purpose – Specialists on industrial safety (Sifas) are appointed by companies due to German occupational safety act (ASiG) as safety advisors, to analyse the work environments and the work procedures. Their principal task is to inspect workplaces for adherence to regulations on health, safety and environment, and design actions to prevent from disease or injury of workers and environmental damages. Due to variety of settings in which work safety specialists are involved, they are obliged to continuous further education and permanent adoption to changing circumstances of occupational context. To do so, Sifa’s need access to tools which provide the following three key features: - possibility to share knowledge with experienced specialists on industrial safety (Sifa-Community), - ability to promptly recognize critical topics in the field of their activities (Trend- Monitoring), - opportunity to create track of records of further education on current topics, including the validation and certification of work-related informal learning (Sifa-Portfolio). Sifa-Portfolio and Trend-Monitoring are based on Sifa-Community, an exchange platform (www.sifa-community.de) with currently 5.000 members established in the context of a longitudinal study on Sifas. This paper will focuses on the concept of Sifa-Portfolio that was developed as a prototype of further education application based on the concept of EPortfolios. It allows Sifa’s to share their knowledge, recognize critical topics and create track of records of their informal further education to showcase their competencies and eventually receive certification. Design/methodology/approach – In the paper authors present the approach of Sifa- Portfolio - an application for further education, based on Sifa long-term study (Sifa- Langzeitstudie), data mining (text mining), and user centred design. It starts with the description of results of an online study and specific requirements that have to be considered when designing applications for specialists on industrial safety. It then presents the trend monitor based on Sifa-Community posts, which provides up to date information about most important topics that are being discussed within the community. It finally introduces Sifa-Portfolio, a high fidelity prototype of an expansion module for Sifa-Community. Originality/value – Until now, there are no dedicated solutions for further education of professional group of Sifas, which comply to the specific requirements of this group and which enable to react promptly to changing demands of the safety issues in dynamicly growing companies. Practical implications – The presented approach delivers a concept of a softwaremodule that could be implemented into Sifa-Community Forum. Due to evaluation with users, we could identify requirements and specifications of Sifa-Portfolio. Furthermore this concept can be transferred to variety of professional-groups, which are working in dynamic professions to support their work-related informal further education.

Thesis (M. Com. (Accounting)) -- University of Limpopo, 2019 / Sustainability reporting (SR) in South Africa is on a ‘report and explain’ basis because the King IV Code has not made it mandatory for all companies operating but only for those companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. It has become difficult to align SR with stakeholder value creation. This study examines the relationship between SR and stakeholder value creation represented by employees’ health and occupational safety, return on assets, community projects and green investments. The study used a quantitative method that utilises the multiple regressions method to analyse data from selected manufacturing companies for 11 years (2007-2017) listed at South African Johannesburg Stock Exchange’s (JSE). The study measures the relationship between employees’ health and occupational safety, investment in community projects, green investments and ROA. Results show insignificant relationships between employees’ health and occupational safety and ROA, investment in community projects and ROA and green investments and ROA. The study recommends future research on all sectors or inter-country research on sustainability reporting and stakeholder value creation. Keywords: sustainability, sustainability reporting, stakeholder value creation, employees’ health, occupational safety, community projects, green investments, return on assets.

In 2008, there were more than 5,200 workplace fatalities in the United States (BLS, 2010b). During the same time period, U.S. employees missed almost 1.1 million days from work (BLS, 2010c). Accidents are unexpected outcomes that result not only from individuals' behaviors, but from contextual factors (Krause, 1997; Reason, 1990). Therefore, unsafe behaviors have to be interpreted according to a combination of what is occurring in the environment and what the individual is doing in that environment. The present study sought to create a more comprehensive model of safety by means of macroergonomics. Macroergonomics utilizes sociotechnical systems theory to posit that a work system is composed of a personnel subsystem (i.e., ways individuals perform tasks), a technological subsystem (i.e., tasks to be performed), and external factors (Hendrick, 2002a). Perceived control over work hours, an aspect of the technological subsystem, was examined as an antecedent of work-family conflict. Supervisor instrumental support, an aspect of the personnel subsystem, was examined as a moderator of the relationships between perceived control over work hours and work-family conflict. Supervisors have an imperative role in employees' perception of control over their work hours (Kelly & Moen, 2007). Supervisor instrumental support was also hypothesized to moderate the relationships between work-family conflict and safety performance. Supervisors who support their employees in their work-family matters exceed mandatory requirements set forth to protect workers' safety and health (Mearns, Hope, Ford, & Tetrick, 2010). A majority of the 360 participants in the present study were grocery store employees who worked in the front end of the store as cashiers. Job tenure in this particular grocery store chain was an average of 7 years (SD = 5.96) and the average number of hours worked per week was 31 (SD = 8.55). The employees were an average age of 38 years old (SD = 15.25). Two hundred and sixty-two (73%) of the participants were female, 330 (92%) were White, 196 (55%) employees were married or living as married, 146 (41%) employees identified themselves as parents with children living at home, and 58 (16%) employees provided elder care. The data were analyzed using a moderated mediation model. An employee's perceived control over his/her work hours was negatively associated with work-to-family and family-to-work conflict. Work-to-family conflict was not significantly associated with either safety compliance or participation. In contrast, family-to-work conflict was significantly associated with both safety compliance and participation. These findings replicate Cullen and Hammer's (2007) findings that family-to-work conflict, but not work-to-family conflict, is negatively associated with safety compliance and participation. The replication of these significant findings gives support to macroergonomics' assertion that external forces (i.e., family) can affect the safety of employees. All of the meditating and moderating relationships proposed in this dissertation were not significant. I conducted post hoc analyses to determine other possible significant paths in the model examined. The FSSB dimension of supervisor instrumental support was found to positively affect both safety compliance and participation. Supervisor instrumental support was also found to directly affect work-to-family conflict. Overall FSSB and its subdimensions demonstrated similar patterns in the hypothesized relationships and in additional relationships examined. Numerous implications can be recognized from this dissertation. First, interdisciplinary approaches to safety research are emerging and important in the pursuit of safer work environments. Macroergonomics and I/O psychology have commonalities that lend themselves to a good partnership where researchers can learn from each other and collaborate to advance the study of safety. Second, organizations need to focus on the stressors their employees experience as part of their safety programs, and numerous studies, including this dissertation, have found that family-to-work conflict impacts safety compliance and participation. Future safety research may incorporate macroergonomics, which emphasizes that focusing on one adverse aspect of the system may not be enough to create valuable change if there are other adverse factors still creating demands elsewhere in the system. This will allow for a more comprehensive model that ensures certain aspects of the system are not neglected, which can reduce effectiveness of constructs used to create positive changes.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts (Organisational Psychology), 2017 / The aim of the present study was to utilise a mixed methods design as a means of investigating the relation between job demands, job resources, safety, and burnout in Air Traffic Management (ATM) technicians. It was also of interest to determine participants’ perspectives on the job demands and resources that may be present in their occupational environment, their participation in safety behaviours, and their perceptions regarding their work and safety performance. Non-probability, convenience sampling was employed to acquire the participants of the present research study. Participants included 33 ATM technicians (50.77% response rate) who took part in the quantitative component of the research study and 14 ATM who took part in the interview process. Participants’ ages ranged from 27 to 55 years (M = 38.91; SD = 8.76) and 90.1% were male (n = 30). Jackson and Rothmann’s (2005) original Job Demands-Resources Scale was used for the assessment of the job demands and resources sixteen items were also added to the original JDRS scale. Sixteen items were added to incorporate the possible job resources and demands experienced by ATM technicians, which were separated into the following sub-scales: shifts, weather conditions, travel, and equipment. Schaufeli, Leiter, Maslach, and Jackson’s (1996) Maslach Burnout Inventory-General Survey (MBIGS) was used to assess ATM technicians’ burnout. Safety behaviours were assessed through the integration of items found within two safety behaviour scales developed by Neal and Griffin (2006) and Hofmann and Morgeson (1999). A semi-structured interview process consisting of open-ended questions was used to discuss the following issues: job tasks, job demands, job resources, burnout, job safety, work-family spillover, and job performance. The findings depicted a weak, positive correlation between the perception of job demands and the experience of burnout (r = .376, p < .05) and a weak, negative correlation between the perception of job resources and the experience of burnout (r = -.383, p < .05). Job resources significantly predicted the experience of burnout (β = -.494, p = .002), as did job demands (β = .489, p = .003). A moderate, positive correlation between the perception of job resources and safety behaviours was obtained (r = .514, p < .01). The participants’ perceptions of job resources explained 26.5% of the variance in safety behaviours, (R2= .265, F(1, 31) = 11.16, p < 0.05. ATM technicians took part in the following safety behaviours: they consistently communicated with both management and air traffic controllers as a way of knowing exactly what the problem is before they went to a site, they took part in training programs as a means of keeping up to date with the latest technological knowledge, attended safety meetings, always communicated with management on how to increase safety, and made sure that a first aid kit was always available. ATM technician’s safety and performance appeared to be heavily influenced by their own personal understanding of the occupation’s risks, the weather conditions that take place on each specific site, the safety equipment that is worn, the knowledge of the possible repercussions that may arise from making any mistakes, and their own individual mood or disposition. / XL2018

The purpose of this dissertation was to create a safety compliance model which would advance the state of the art of safety compliance models and provide management with a practical tool which can be used in making safety decisions in an environment where multiple objectives exist. A goal programming safety compliance model (OSHA Model) was developed to fulfill this purpose. The objective function of the OSHA Model was designed to minimize the total deviation from the established goals of the model. These model goals were expressed in terms of 1) level of compliance to OSHA safety and health regulations, 2) company accident frequency rate, 3) company accident cost per worker, and 4) a company budgetary restriction. This particular set of goals was selected to facilitate management's fulfillment of its responsibilities to OSHA, the employees, and to ownership. This study concludes that all the research objectives have been accomplished. The OSHA Model formulated not only advances the state of the art of safety compliance models, but also provides a practical tool which facilitates management's safety and health decisions. The insight into the relationships existing in a safety compliance decision system provided by the OSHA Model and its accompanying sensitivity analysis was demonstrated by the empirical application during the research. The optimal solution values showed what could be accomplished with a given objective structure and the existing safety and health functional relationships. The optimal solution values obtained during the sensitivity analysis showed how sensitive the model is to the uncertainties relating to goal structures and the specific exogenous and endogenous parameter values. This new insight available to management can provide a scientific base upon which the total system decisions can be made.

Thesis (Ph.D. (Health Care Science)) -- University of Limpopo, 2022 / Background: The health and safety of the miners in the South African mining industry are guided by the regulations and standards which are anticipated to promote a healthy work environment and fatalities. It is of utmost importance for the miners to comply with these regulations/standards to protect themselves from potential occupational health and safety risks, accidents, and fatalities. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to develop and validate strategies to enhance compliance with the Health and safety standards within the mining industries of Limpopo province in South Africa. Methods: A mixed-method exploratory sequential research design was adopted. The population consisted of 5350 miners. Purposive and total sampling was used to select the participants in the qualitative strand and stratified random sampling in the quantitative strand. Semi-structured interviews were conducted among the occupational health nurse practitioners and the health and members of the health and safety team. Thematic analysis was used to generate an understanding of the interviews. In the quantitative strand, a survey was conducted using a self-administered questionnaire. Data were analysed using SPSS version 26.0. A descriptive statistical test was used in the analysis of data including frequencies, means, and standard deviation. Cronbach's alpha test was used to measure internal consistency. Results: The integrated results revealed that there are diverse experiences related to health and safety standards compliance among the mineworkers. The main findings were challenges related to leadership compliance and also related to the cost of maintaining safety, Miner's behaviour-related challenges; the impact of non-compliance on the overall health of the miners was also described, the conflict between production and safety. As a result, strategies to enhance compliance of health and safety standards at the selected mining industries in Limpopo province, South Africa were developed. Conclusion: Health and safety compliance in the mining is not just mere compliance with regulations and standards but a culture that warrants the miners and organization to take responsibility for their behaviour and actions towards health and safety. Thus taking responsibility for your well-being and other miners

Рост штрафов, репутационные риски при несоблюдении требований охраны труда и промышленной безопасности, экономический ущерб от аварий и т.д. – это вызовы, стоящие перед энергокомпаниями. Переход России на риск-ориентированный подход к управлению охраной труда и промышленной безопасностью требует ввод новых методов управления в существующие бизнес-процессы. Цель диссертации – совершенствование действующих систем управления охраной труда и промышленной безопасностью в энергокомпании. Научная новизна предполагает: обобщение мирового опыта управления охраной труда и промышленной безопасностью в энергокомпаниях; оценку актуальных тенденций развития данной сферы; а также совершенствование существующих систем управления охраной труда и промышленной безопасностью для Филиала «Свердловский» ПАО «Т Плюс». Полученные результаты позволят Филиалу «Свердловский» поэтапно перейти на риск-ориентированный подход к управлению процессами не только в области охраны труда, но и промышленной безопасности и привести внутренние бизнес-процессы в этой сфере к требованиям вновь вводимых нормативных и законодательных актов России. / The growth of fines, reputational risks in case of non-compliance with the requirements of occupational health and industrial safety, economic loss from accidents, etc. – are the challenges facing energy companies. Russia's transition to a risk-oriented approach to occupational health and industrial safety management requires the introduction of new management methods into existing business processes. The aim of the dissertation is to improve the existing management systems of occupational and industrial safety in the energy company. The scientific novelty assumes: generalization of world experience of occupational and industrial safety management in energy companies; assessment of actual tendencies of this sphere; as well as improvement of existing systems of occupational and industrial safety management for Branch “Sverdlovskij” of PJSC “T Plus”. The obtained results will allow Branch “Sverdlovskij” to gradually move to a risk-oriented approach to managing processes not only in the field of occupational health safety, but also industrial safety and bring internal business processes in this area to the requirements of the newly introduced regulatory and legislative acts in Russia.

[EN] This thesis has been created within the framework of the interoperability of the networks of sensors in industrial environments, using standard SWE (Sensor Web Enablement). It has developed from the participation in different research projects, within the research group SATRD (Distributed Real Time Systems and Applications) of the Communications Department of the UPV. Has gone a long time since the appearance of the first sensors that were only able to respond to a stimulus, to the concept of sensor web, where sensors can be remotely configured, perform actions and process and integrate data from other sensors. Nowadays, the use of networks of sensors or WSN (Wireless Sensor Networks) is widespread in several fields, to gather information, which can then be used by other applications. As it increases its use, it is necessary to combine or add data from sensors of different WSN, which is not always possible, due to the lack of interoperability between different manufacturers. That is why OGC (Open Geospatial Consortium) founded SWE, in order to develop standards for access to sensors via the Internet and thus improve the interoperability. For these reasons, in this thesis is specified an IoT architecture (Internet of Things) generically, so that it can be extended to multiple environments. The I3WSN architecture is designed for monitoring and control systems, ensuring interoperability between the different elements through the integration of SWE standards. After the design, the application of the architecture is carried out in three different contexts, associated with three research projects. The first of them, in order to monitor and manage the workers' health in industrial environments, based on environmental and medical data, within the project FASyS (Fabrica Absolutamente Segura y Saludable). Secondly, to ensure the level of assurance of a smart grid environment, from the capture of the security information of all its elements, in the UniverSEC project. Finally, to manage efficiently and intelligently transport freight containers, from traffic data in real time, in the project STIMULO. / [ES] Esta tesis se ha creado en el marco de la interoperabilidad de las redes de sensores en entornos industriales, mediante la utilización del estándar SWE (Sensor Web Enablement). Se ha desarrollado a partir de la participación en diferentes proyectos de investigación, dentro del grupo de investigación SATRD (Sistemas y Aplicaciones de Tiempo Real Distribuidos) del Departamento de Comunicaciones de la UPV. Ha pasado mucho tiempo desde la aparición de los primeros sensores que únicamente eran capaces de responder frente a un estímulo, hasta el concepto de sensor web, donde los sensores pueden ser configurados de forma remota, realizar acciones y procesar e integrar datos de otros sensores. Hoy en día, la utilización de redes de sensores o WSN (Wireless Sensor Networks) está ampliamente extendida en diversos ámbitos, para recopilar información, que luego pueda ser utilizada por otras aplicaciones. A medida que aumenta su utilización, surge la necesidad de combinar o agregar datos de sensores de distintas WSN, lo cual no siempre es posible, debido a la falta de interoperabilidad entre los distintos fabricantes. Es por ello que OGC (Open Geospatial Consortium) fundó SWE, con el fin de desarrollar estándares para el acceso a sensores a través de Internet y así mejorar la interoperabilidad. Por estos motivos, en esta tesis se ha especificado una arquitectura IoT (Internet of Things) de forma genérica, para que se pueda extender a múltiples entornos. La arquitectura I3WSN se ha diseñado para la monitorización y el control de sistemas, garantizando la interoperabilidad entre los distintos elementos gracias a la integración de los estándares de SWE. Tras el diseño, se ha llevado a cabo la aplicación de la arquitectura en tres contextos distintos, asociados a tres proyectos de investigación. El primero de ellos, con el objetivo de monitorizar y gestionar la salud de los trabajadores en entornos industriales, a partir de datos del entorno y datos médicos, dentro del proyecto FASyS (Fabrica Absolutamente Segura y Saludable). El segundo, para garantizar el nivel de aseguramiento de un entorno smart grid, a partir de la captura de la información de seguridad de todos sus elementos, en el proyecto UniverSEC. Y por último, para gestionar de forma eficiente e inteligente el transporte de contenedores de mercancías, a partir de los datos de tráfico en tiempo real, en el proyecto STIMULO. / [CA] Aquesta tesi ha estat creada en el marc de la interoperabilitat de les xarxes de sensors en entorns industrialitzats, utilitzant l'estàndard SWE (Sensor Web capacitació). S'ha desenvolupat des de la participació en diversos projectes d'investigació, dins del grup d'investigació SATRD (Sistemes i Aplicacions de Temps Real Distribuïts) del Departament de Comunicació de la UPV. Ha passat molt temps des de l'aparició dels primers sensors que només eren capaços de respondre a un estímul, fins al concepte de sensor web, on els sensors es poden configurar remotament, realitzar accions i processar i integrar les dades d'altres sensors. Avui en dia, l'ús de xarxes de sensors o WSN (Wireless Sensor Networks) està àmpliament estesa en diversos àmbits, per a recollir informació, que desprès puga ser utilitzada per altres aplicacions. A mesura que augmenta el seu ús, sorgeix la necessitat de combinar o afegir dades de sensors de diferents WSN, que no sempre és possible, degut a la falta d'interoperabilitat entre els diferents fabricants. És per això que OGC (Open Geospatial Consortium) va fundar SWE, per desenvolupar estàndards per l'accés de sensors a Internet i així millorar la interoperabilitat. Per aquests motius, en aquesta tesi s'ha especificat una arquitectura IoT (Internet of Things) de forma genèrica, per tal que es puga estendre a múltiples entorns. L'arquitectura I3WSN s'ha dissenyat per la monitorització i el control de sistemes, garantint la interoperabilitat entre els diferents elements gràcies a la integració dels estàndards de SWE. Després el disseny, s'ha dut a terme l'aplicació de l'arquitectura en tres contextos diferents, associats amb tres projectes d'investigació. El primer d'ells, amb la finalitat de monitoritzar i gestionar la salut dels treballadors en entorns industrials, a partir de dades ambientals i dades mèdiques, dins del projecte FASyS (Fabrica Absolutamente Segura y Saludable). El segon, per garantir el nivell d'assegurament d'un entorn de smart grid, a partir de la captura de la informació de seguretat de tots els seus elements, en el projecte UniverSEC. I finalment, per gestionar de manera eficient i intel·ligent el transport de contenidors de mercaderies, a partir de les dades de trànsit en temps real, en el projecte STIMULO. / Giménez Salazar, P. (2015). Aplicaciones de SWE en entornos industriales [Tesis doctoral]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/51282