Not available / text

Not available / text

published_or_final_version / Sociology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

No description available.

No description available.

Previous research has shown that firefighters and emergency services personnel are at increased risk of fatal and non-fatal occupational injury compared to other U.S. workers. Analyses of injury and workers’ compensation claims data in this population has demonstrated that injuries are both common and an economic burden on the fire service, especially those caused by overexertion and that lead to sprains/strains. The increased risk of injury is associated with specific job tasks, including physical exercise, patient transport and fireground work, and with personal characteristics such as physical fitness. The economic evaluation of injury and injury prevention can help inform decision making on the part of leadership, including the identification and evaluation of potential targets for injury prevention programs. The aims of the current study were to: 1) evaluate a fitness intervention for new firefighters in terms of health, fitness, injury outcomes as well as workers’ compensation claims costs; 2) to analyze workers’ compensation claims data for trends in cause and injury type, as well as the effect of worker age; and 3) to model the expected change in back injury frequency and costs among emergency medical services personnel following the implementation of electrically powered stretchers. Primary data for the current study, including injury surveillance and workers’ compensation claims data, were provided by the Tucson Fire Department (TFD), Tucson, Arizona. The Probationary Firefighter Fitness Program (PFF-Fit) was designed by University of Arizona researchers in partnership with TFD. The program was implemented in the 2012 recruit academy. Outcomes, including measures of health and fitness, injury, workers’ compensation claim frequency and claims costs, were measured over 17 consecutive months for the intervention class, and compared to outcomes from controls comprised of the three most recent TFD recruit classes for the same time period. Comparing the intervention class to controls, health and fitness outcomes were statistically equivalent. The intervention group experienced statistically significantly fewer injuries, filed significantly fewer claims, and accrued aggregated claims costs approximately $33,000 less than the controls with an estimated equivalent reduction in indirect costs for a total of $66,000. The program implementation costs were nearly $69,000, leading to a one-year return on investment of -0.52 if based only on direct costs (workers’ compensation claims) or -0.048 if an estimate of indirect costs is included. Injury in the U.S. fire service has been the subject of many previous studies but the pattern of workers’ compensation claims has been studied much less frequently. Specifically, the effect of increasing worker age on the frequency and cost of claims has not been studied in this population. Routine injury surveillance and workers’ compensation data from TFD were merged and costs were described by mechanism of injury, injury type, body region and by age of the worker. The analysis of claims data shows that acute overexertion injuries are significantly more costly than injuries caused by other mechanisms, and that sprain/strain injuries are significantly costlier than other injury types. Results also show that age is an important predictor of claims cost in this population, with claims costs for firefighters over age 50, 120 to 144% greater than claims for workers under age 30. Back injury is common and costly among emergency services employees, including firefighters and emergency medical services providers, who transport patients. Previous research has demonstrated that electrically powered stretchers (EPS), which lift and lower the patient and stretcher between the loading and transport positions, are an effective means of reducing back injury among emergency medical services (EMS) providers, but to date no economic evaluation of this device has been conducted. A Markov decision analysis model simulation of a cohort of emergency services employees for incident back injury, disability and associated costs was used to compare outcomes with and without the use of the EPS. Implementation of the EPS resulted in an average cost savings of $4,617-$5,422 per emergency services employee over the service life of the equipment. Results of the current study show the PFF-Fit program may be a worthwhile program to reduce injury and claims costs but further research is needed to better understand the program’s potential effectiveness. We observed reductions in injury frequency and compensation costs among PFF-Fit program participants compared to controls; however, the mechanisms by which the PFF-Fit program were believed to be effective did not appear to be responsible for this difference. Workers’ compensation claims data analysis results continue to highlight the importance of targeting injuries caused by acute overexertion and injuries that result in sprain/strain. The results also indicate that targeting injury prevention efforts toward the specific needs of older workers may lead to important cost savings for the fire service. The EPS is likely an effective intervention to reduce back injuries and claims costs among fire and emergency services personnel, but further research is needed to evaluate injury and claims costs following implementation at several departments.

Darbe atlikta teorinė kvalifikacijos kėlimo statybinėje organizacijoje UAB „Žemda“ analizė. Iškelta hipotezė kvalifikacijos kėlimas motyvuoja darbuotojus geresniems darbo rezultatams. Anketinės apklausos metodu buvo atliktas tyrimas, kurio tikslas – išryškinti personalo ugdymo problemas UAB „Žemda“ ir nustatyti priemones joms spręsti. Atlikta statistinė duomenų analizė. Tyrime dalyvavo 66 respondentai iš statybinės organizacijos UAB „Žemda“. Anketą pildė 30 administracijos darbuotojų ir 36 darbininkai. Svarbiausios empirinio tyrimo išvados: 1. Būtina visokeriopai skatinti ir remti savarankišką mokymąsi. Išanalizavus gautus tyrimo duomenis matome, kad tik labai nedidelė dalis darbininkų kartais lankosi kvalifikacijos kėlimo kursuose, o didžioji dalis iš viso nėra dalyvavę kvalifikacijos kėlimo kursuose, tuo tarpu administracijos darbuotojai lankosi kvalifikacijos kėlimo kursuose. 2. Personalo rengimas, kvalifikacijos kėlimas, persikvalifikavimas ir planavimas reikalauja ištisos mokymo sistemos, kvalifikuotų pedagoninių kadrų ir lėšų. Pasaulinė personalo apmokymo praktika rodo, kad, nepaisant brangios apmokėjimo sistemos, lėšos šiems tikslams yra skiriamos. Išanalizavus gautus tyrimo duomenis matome, kad dalis darbininkų dirba darbą kuris neatitinka jų kvalifikacijos. Darbininkų teigia, kad darbo subtilybių išmoko dirbant, tuo tarpu didžiosios dalies administracijos darbuotojų kvalifikacija atitinka jų darbo pobūdį. 3. Kvalifikacijos kėlimas svarbus darbuotojams ir darbdaviams... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / A theoretical analysis of an in-service training in a building enterprise „Žemda“ was made in this work. The risen hypothesis states that qualification training motivates workers to achieve better results. A questionnaire was used in order to investigate the problems of the development of the personnel in „Žemda“ and to suggest means to solve them. So a statistical data analysis was fulfilled. There were a total number of 66 respondents from the „Žemda“ participating in the research (36 simple workers and 30 office workers). The main conclusions of the empirical part of this work: 1. It is necessary to motivate and support individual learning. Analysis of data shows that only a small amount of simple workers sometimes take part in-serving training while the rest of them had never participated in any of qualifying training. Contrary to simple workers, administration workers often use in-service training. 2. Personnel and qualification training, retraining and its planning require entire educational system, the sequence of pedagogical knowledge and financial support. The global practice of the personnel training shows that despite of an expensive payment system, financial problems are being solved. According to the results of the research, a part of simple workers has a job which does not correspond to their educational background. They gain knowledge and necessary skills while practical usage. However, the majority of administrative workers do not have that kind of... [to full text]

Darbe atlikta teorinė komandinio darbo ypatumai statybinėje organizacijoje „Žemda“ analizė. Iškelta hipotezė, kad komandinio darbo rezultatai žymiai lenkia atskirai dirbančių individų darbo rezultatus. Anketinės apklausos metodu buvo atliktas tyrimas, kurio tikslas išanalizuoti komandinio darbo ypatumus statybinėje organizacijoje UAB „Žemda“ ir pateikti priemones darbo organizavimo gerinimui. Atlikta statistinė duomenų analizė. Tyrime dalyvavo 68 respondentai iš statybos organizacijos UAB „Žemda“. 28 respondentai buvo administracijos darbuotojai ir 40 respondentų darbininkai. Svarbiausios empirinio tyrimo išvados: 1. Komandinis darbas šiuolaikiniame pasaulyje – vienas pagrindinių įmonės sėkmę lemiančių veiksnių. Organizacijos, kurios skatina savo darbuotojus už asmeninius pasiekimus, kuria aplinką, kurioje išlieka tik stipriausieji, sunkiai persiorientuoja prie komandinio darbo, nes komandinis darbas neleidžia išryškinti asmeninių pasiekimų. 2. Didžioji dalis administracijos darbuotojų ir darbininkų teigia, kad komandos nariai bendradarbiauja tarpusavyje padeda vieni kitiems, komandos nariai pasitiki vieni kitais, gali atvirai išsakyti savo mintis todėl galima teigti, kad organizacijoje labai svarbus yra komandinis darbas. Gera komanda sujungia savyje bendradarbiavimo ir konkurencijos elementus. Tokios komandos nariai, veikdami išvien, padeda vienas kitam pasiekti geriausių asmeninių rezultatų. Efektyvi komanda turi dirbti kartu ir būti atsakinga už reikšmingų užduočių... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / An analysis of a team work peculiarities of a building enterprise „Žemda“ was made in this work. The risen hypothesis states that the results of the team work are much better than the results of an individual work. A questionnaire was used in order to analyze the peculiarities of the team work of the building enterprise „Žemda“ and to suggest several means to improve it. So a statistical data analysis was fulfilled. There were a total number of 68 respondents from the „Žemda“ (28 simple workers and 40 office workers). The main conclusions of the empirical part of this work: 1. The team work nowadays is one the leading factors influencing the success of the enterprise. Organizations encouraging workers for their personal achievements create a milieu where only the strongest exist. However, such workers have a difficulty to work in a team because a team work does not allow personal features to show up. 2. The majority of the office and simple workers states that the teamwork signifies in an organization because it gives an opportunity to collaborate with each other, learn to help and trust and openly express ideas. A good team unifies the elements of the communication and competition. A member of such team helps to achieve the best personal results for the other member and him/herself as well. An efficient team has to work hand in hand and be responsible for important assignments. Besides, the members of the team have to be motivated to work. That motivation comes with... [to full text]

Living the Brand has become a useful Human Resources strategy in post-Fordist organisations. This is due to globalized competition and decreased control structures leading to organisations needing to obtain ever higher levels of productivity and performance from highly skilled knowledge workers. Because of the nature of their work, knowledge workers are difficult to manage and control through traditional practices and are usually looking for more than just monetary remuneration. Living the Brand organisations provide a strong social identity, positive self-esteem and a sense of achievement to these employees. This small-scale qualitative study used inductive thematic analysis to investigate the after-effects of Living the Brand, using knowledge workers who had been retrenched from such organisations. The results show that the positive aspects of Living the Brand comes at the expense of the employees‟ social identity outside of the organisation. These include the identification with family, as well as their health and a sense of self beyond the organisation. As one can see in this study, this power imbalance, along with an increasingly unbalanced psychological contract, is a reality that was only truly realized by the employees after being retrenched from the organisation. Unfortunately Durban does not have a plethora of Living the Brand organisations, which in turn limits the available sample of research participants. This meant that the findings may not be applicable across cultures, and that the participants had all had several years to come to terms with their retrenchment. Further studies using a wider spectrum of participants are suggested, including those who have been more recently retrenched. / Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2010.

This study examined job satisfaction among social workers in a correctional environment. A model was derived that defines job satisfaction as an attitude based on environmental and personal factors. The purpose of this research project was to examine what factors based on the model, lead to job satisfaction within the Ministry of Public Safety and Security using the Job Satisfaction Survey (Spector, 1997). Questionnaires and surveys were sent to all social work and psychology staff employed in a correctional institution across Ontario. Results support the model that both environmental and personal factors influence the perception and assessment of job satisfaction. Overall the majority of social workers working within the Ministry reported being satisfied (M = 115.0, SD = 27.3); however, psychology staff reported greater job satisfaction (M = 137.9, SD = 21.3). For social workers, supervision, co-workers and the work itself were the factors that related to job satisfaction. Working conditions, communication, contingent rewards and opportunities for promotions were related to dissatisfaction. The proposed model offers suggestions to human service organizations that wish to improve recruiting and retention of social workers.