A ce jour, les troubles musculo-squelettiques (TMS) qui affectent la région lombaire sont considérés non seulement comme un problème majeur de santé au travail mais également comme un véritable problème de santé publique. Même si tous les secteurs d’activité sont touchés, l’agriculture et notamment la viticulture concentrent un nombre important de ces atteintes à la santé. En conséquence, ce travail de thèse doctoral avait pour objectif de construire au sein d’entreprises vini-viticoles une action efficace destinée à prévenir les symptômes associés aux TMS de la région lombaire. Pour répondre à cet objectif, deux actions ont été successivement menées.Dans un premier temps, une analyse ergonomique en situation réelle de travail a été réalisée. Cette dernière s’est déroulée pendant l’activité de taille, activité qui représente presque six mois de travail et qui détermine le bon déroulement et la qualité des autres activités. L’analyse ergonomique avait tout d’abord pour objectifs d’identifier les localisations anatomiques douloureuses et répertorier la sévérité des symptômes associés. Ensuite, cette dernière a évalué de façon objective les exigences physiques auxquelles étaient confrontés les vigneronnes et vignerons pendant l’activité de taille. Afin de répondre à ces objectifs, deux études complémentaires (Etudes I et II) ont été réalisées. Dans l’Etude I, la localisation et l’intensité des douleurs auto-rapportées par les vigneronnes et vignerons a confirmé les résultats de plusieurs études sur cette population, à savoir que la région lombaire était la localisation anatomique la plus fréquemment affectée et la plus douloureuse. De façon plus originale, l’Etude I, a également mis en évidence, à partir d’enregistrements vidéo que l’activité de taille était associée à des flexions du tronc considérées comme « extrêmes » dans la littérature. Dans l’Etude II, l’utilisation de capteurs embarqués a permis de démontrer que l’activité de taille associait flexions et rotations du tronc. Au final, ces deux études réalisées en conditions réelles de travail ont montré que pendant l’activité de taille, les vigneronnes et vignerons présentaient des douleurs importantes au niveau de la région lombaire et que cette activité les exposait à un risque important de survenue de TMS au niveau de cette région anatomique.Sur la base de ces résultats et de l’inefficacité des actions menées jusque là, la construction d’une action de prévention des TMS de la région lombaire semblait nécessaire. Pour ce faire deux études (Etudes III et IV) ont été réalisées. Ces dernières avaient pour objectifs de développer, mettre en place et évaluer un programme d’activités physiques adaptées (APA) destiné à améliorer l’endurance des muscles fléchisseurs et extenseurs du tronc ainsi que la souplesse du rachis. Les résultats de l’Etude III menée au sein d’une entreprise vini-viticole ont tout d’abord montré que le programme d’APA conduisait à une augmentation de ces capacités neuro-musculaires. En parallèle, l’Etude III a démontré l’efficacité du programme d’APA pour diminuer la sensibilité à la pression au niveau de la région lombaire. Les résultats de l’Etude IV ont non seulement confirmé à plus grande échelle les résultats de l’Etude III mais ont également mis en évidence à l’aide d’une évaluation des procédés que le contexte dans lequel s’est déroulée l’intervention avait grandement contribué à l’efficacité du programme.Finalement, l’ensemble des travaux présentés dans cette thèse de doctorat a montré qu’une analyse ergonomique était une condition préalable et indispensable au développement d’actions destinées à prévenir les TMS. Il a également été démontré que la promotion d’une activité physique sur le lieu de travail adaptée aux exigences professionnelles et aux individus constituait une piste de travail prometteuse pour la prévention des TMS de la région lombaire dans le secteur viticole. / Work related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) affecting the low back do represent one of the most pressing health problems and a major issue among workers in Europe including vineyard workers. It is noteworthy that the negative effects at the individual, employer and societal levels make the prevention of WMSDs affecting the low back a priority target in the viticulture sector. Within this context, the aim of this PhD thesis was to build an effective action to prevent WMSD symptoms of the low back among vineyard-workers.A field ergonomic work exposure analysis was first conducted (i) to question the location and severity of WMSD symptoms and (ii) to objectively quantify the kinematics during pruning activity. Of note, this winter activity was chosen because it represents six months of the annual physical workload. To reach this first sub-objective, two complementary studies were conducted (Studies I and II). In Study I, self-reported musculoskeletal pain ratings confirmed the existing literature that the low back was the most painful anatomical region among vineyard-workers. In addition, two-dimensional video-recordings of pruning activity revealed that vineyard-workers frequently adopt trunk forward bending postures considered as ‘extreme’. In Study II, the use of wireless tri-dimensional inertial sensors further demonstrated that pruning activity was also associated with trunk postures combining forward bending and rotation. On the whole, these two field studies indicated that vineyard-workers adopted trunk postures known to increase the risk of WMSD symptoms over the low back during the performance of pruning activity.Based on these findings, a workplace supervised APA program was subsequently conceived, implemented and evaluated to specifically prevent WDMS symptoms of the low back among vineyard-workers. The APA program was supplementary to classical ergonomic interventions. To achieve this second objective, two complementary studies (Studies III and IV) were conducted in which volunteer vineyard-workers were invited to follow supervised warm-ups and training APA sessions targeting trunk muscle endurance and flexibility, known to decrease in case of WMSD symptoms over the low back. Results of Study III showed the effectiveness of this workplace supervised APA program to increase trunk muscle endurance and flexibility and to decrease pressure pain sensitivity over the low back, hence demonstrating the positive effects of APA on pain mechanisms. Results of Study IV further provided a comprehensive view on how and to what extent the context of the implementation of the APA program and the collaboration between stakeholders were decisive to reach a high compliance rate and were likely to increase the program’s effectiveness.As a whole, this PhD thesis demonstrated that, based on an ergonomic work exposure field analysis, a supervised workplace APA program can help to prevent WMSD symptoms of the low back among vineyard workers. Interestingly, even though the question of sustainability still remains to be assessed, these promising results have convinced other wine-producing companies to integrate this APA program as one component of their health policies already including ergonomic approaches.

<p>Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögskolan, 1991. Sammanfattning på engelska med titeln: Work motivation : a study of engineers. Spikblad saknas</p>

Forskning har visat på ledarskapets betydelsefulla roll för att främja hälsa och minimera arbetsrelaterad ohälsa. Detta samtidigt som ledares egen arbetsroll ofta kännetecknas av hög arbetsbelastning och påfrestning vilket är riskfaktorer för arbetsrelaterad stress och ohälsa. Studien undersöker upplevelser och hantering av stress på arbetsplatsen hos chefer med personalansvar. Även arbetsrelaterade resurser har undersökts för att synliggöra huruvida dessa inverkar vid hantering av stress. Sex individuella djupintervjuer med personalchefer genomfördes och databearbetningen gjordes med en kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Resultaten visar att stress hos cheferna var associerat med stort ansvar, krav på att prioritera mellan uppgifter, ansvar som inte matchas med tillräckliga befogenheter, hög arbetsbelastning samt för många olika arbetsuppgifter. Analysen identifierade fem olika copingstrategier: Kommunikativa, Kompensatoriska, Ansvarsbefriande och Avstängande, Icke-kommunikativa samt Distansierande. Strategierna delades in i konstruktiva och icke-konstruktiva kategorier. Detta då några strategier upplevdes främja hälsan medan andra upplevdes minska den. Kommunikativa arbetsrelaterade resurser användes kontinuerligt som strategier hos respondenterna.

Dispatched employment has become one of the most popular ways of employment under globalization. The corporate can freely choose the most favorable business environment whereby they can by-pass collective bargaining with trade unions and legal restrictions. Dispatched workers and regularly employed workers in the same client company may experience different working conditions (including wages, working hours, overtime and vacation, etc.). Workers of the same dispatching agency who are dispatched to client companies may also experience different working conditions. Often, working conditions of dispatched workers are relatively poor. This study mainly explores dispatched workers¡¦ working conditions in different companies and how these conditions would affect their organizational commitment to client companies. Four hundred and twenty copies of a questionnaire were distributed to workers who are dispatched to companies located in Kaohsiung, Tainan and Pingtung. Out of these 134 copies were returned and counted as valid response. The findings revealed that (1) working conditions varied across gender and age; (2) dispatched workers tended to accept working conditions below the legal standards; (3) organizational commitment varied across education, job duties and depended on how workers felt about the conditions; (4) working conditions and organizational commitment were significantly related. This study therefore recommends that: Dispatching companies should 1.Employ dispatched workers as full-time workers, rather than merely-registered workers; 2.Provide more training opportunities to dispatched workers; 3.Fulfill their legal obligations to the workers. Client companies should 1.Create a gender-equal working environment; 2.Create sanitary and safe working conditions; 3.Take the responsibility of a joint employer. Authorities of labor affairs should 1.Inspect labor conditions more frequently and closely; 2.Establish a formal legal system to regulate dispatched employment; 3.Specify dispatching agencies and client companies as joint employers in relevant laws and regulations.

Moral questions surrounding businesses’ labour practices and the ethical management of working conditions in developing countries are gaining increasing attention. This dissertation is an exploratory investigation on moral imagination amongst managers and union stewards involved in the management of working conditions in the Kenyan tea industry. Semi-structured interviews were used to generate information from participants on their thoughts and experiences as they managed potentially morally-laden issues related to working conditions of lower-tier workers. Thematic analysis was used to examine the accounts participants shared, in order to uncover the deliberative processes participants engaged in as they strived to make sense of these issues. The use of a qualitative approach facilitated a comprehensive examination of the context in which these organizational stakeholders are embedded. The moral imagination framework allows for an examination of how individuals attend to contextual cues as they deliberate on situations of moral import in the work environment. Overall, the findings of this research show that there are diverse patterns of analysis of moral situations among organizational stakeholders. The findings provide empirical support for Bartlett’s (2003) argument that there are many, yet unexplored, intervening processes between problem perception and action when it comes to moral deliberation and decision-making. Among the managers in the study, they were found to include processes of attribution of agency for observed harm, analysis of individual, organizational and social consequences, reflection on conflicts of interest and values, as well as creative imagination in envisioning and enacting actions that could address perceived problems. Among the stewards, they included reflections on principles of justice and human rights, reflection on opportunities for self-development, as well as creative imagination. In addition, the findings suggest role-related differences in the nature of individuals’ moral deliberations. Managers often appealed to an ethics of care in their deliberations on their employees’ working conditions. Union stewards appealed to both an ethics of care and an ethics of justice.

The present study analyses the welfare state as employer by studying eldercare workers’ experiences of their work in Sweden and Denmark.  The Nordic welfare states are often described as potentially women-friendly due to the availability of publicly provided services that enable women to combine paid work and caring responsibilities.  Whereas this might be empowering for a large group of women, paid care workers are often neglected in the discussion. The theoretical point of departure is Nancy Fraser’s dualistic model of gender justice, which encompasses redistribution (of material resources) and recognition (in the form of social status). By utilising survey-data (NORDCARE) on Swedish (n=532) and Danish (n=732) eldercare workers, the study shows that care recipients have larger needs and working conditions are more arduous in Sweden. However, in both countries workers report deficiencies with regard to insufficient resources, such as lack of staff, limited opportunities for development and training, and lack of necessary equipment for lifting service users, of support from managers and of reasonable time for the tasks to be performed. The pressure at work makes the care workers feel inadequate in relation to quality of care they are able to offer. The differences in job strain between the countries turn out to be of little importance when the care workers’ experiences of bodily and mental fatigue are compared. The bodies of the care workers are their main working tool and thus the bearer of the working conditions. More than 60 per cent of the respondents state that they often are physically tired after the day's work, and two-fifths of the respondents have seriously considered leaving their job during the past year. In both countries, the experience of physical and mental fatigue and the number of sick days over the past year are important factors behind thoughts about quitting the job. Using a dualistic model of gender justice, where redistribution and recognition are theorised as overlapping analytical dimensions, the results are interpreted as continuous organisational shortcomings which make the care workers’ everyday work invisible, and in the long run imply a risk for their health.

In many critical subject areas our schools are facing a need for teachers, particularly in the "high-need" areas of mathematics, science, and bilingual education. Educators and researchers alike have identified teacher turnover as a major contributor to the challenge of finding and keeping highly-qualified teachers in American classrooms. The purpose of the three studies in this dissertation was to investigate the potential role of working conditions in explaining the turnover rates of high school science teachers. I used data collected by the Policy Research Initiative in Science Education (PRISE) Research Group during the 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 academic years, from their random, stratified sample of 50 Texas high schools and their 385 science teachers. The first study focuses on the development of a rubric assessing individual science teachers' working conditions, which involved the examination of multiple data sources, including school master schedules and AEIS reports to determine the working conditions of 385 science teachers. Analyses from this study suggested that (a) science teachers from small schools experience tougher working conditions than science teachers from both medium and large schools; (b) veteran science teachers experience tougher working conditions than both induction and mid-career teachers; and (c) science teachers from lower minority schools experience tougher working conditions than science teachers from schools with higher MSEPs. The second study focuses on the relationship between high school science teachers? working conditions and their levels of job satisfaction. Findings included that (1) science teachers from small schools experienced tougher working conditions, even though they were more satisfied with their jobs; (2) veteran science teachers experienced tougher working conditions and were more satisfied with their jobs; and (3) science teachers from lower minority schools experienced tougher working conditions and were more satisfied with their jobs. The final study focuses on the relationship between high school science teachers' school size, MSEP, teacher type, working condition scores, job satisfaction scores, and retention status. Results of independent samples T-test revealed no significant difference in working condition scores for "stayers" versus "non-stayers." Pearson's correlation revealed school size and the experience level of the science teacher as significant predictors of working condition and job satisfaction scores. Results of the discriminant analysis revealed (a) working condition scores and job satisfaction scores as not significantly predicting science teacher retention; and (b) teacher type (beginning, mid-career, and veteran) as the only significant predictor of teacher retention.

Research has shown links between high levels of teacher self-efficacy and increased student achievement. Theorists and educational researchers have identified conditions and resources that increase teacher self-efficacy. Building on existing research, this quantitative study used data from 46 teacher respondents in one Saskatchewan school division. The purpose of the study was to examine teacher self-efficacy and its relationship to teachers’ perceptions of their working conditions. An online questionnaire, based on the Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale (TSES) and the Teaching, Empowering, Leading and Learning (TELL) Survey, was used to collect the data. The mode of data analysis consisted of frequency counts (means and standard deviations) for the descriptive items relating to levels of self-efficacy and perceptions of working conditions. Non-parametric methods were used to measure significance and level of differences among variables, and Spearman’s rho correlations were employed to identify the level of significance of relationships between and among the dimensions and items of teacher self-efficacy and teacher working conditions. A significant correlation was found between the two major constructs of teacher self-efficacy and teachers’ perceptions of their working conditions, and strong correlations were also found between specific dimensions of teacher self-efficacy and dimensions of working conditions. Teacher levels of self-efficacy were predominantly in the moderate and high levels, and teacher leadership was rated highest among working conditions variables. Time availability was rated the lowest of all working conditions, and was found to be significantly related to the teacher self-efficacy dimensions of classroom management and instructional strategies. Further research, using student achievement data and a greater number of participants, may clarify how teacher self-efficacy and working conditions affect student achievement.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Stockholm : Kungliga Tekniska högskolan, 2007. / Härtill 5 uppsatser.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T12:46:31Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 / Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T13:56:20Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 07922.pdf: 2032045 bytes, checksum: 540ba5c706789c813142675a40d3f940 (MD5) / Dissertacao (Mestrado) / IPEN/D / Universidade São Marcos, São Paulo