In public health, prevention is a fundamentally political process as both the selection of problems to be addressed and solutions recommended reflect decisions that are informed by economic, social and cultural forces. Yet prevention is often presented as a monolithic enterprise, an objective and scientific discourse that does not take sides. Behind this facade of political neutrality, diversely positioned individuals and groups often fail to find and/or sustain a common ground for shared prevention initiatives. Increasingly, many prevention awareness campaigns focus upon true accounts or injury narratives that serve both as a catalyst to build multipartite consensus through developing shared collaborative prevention discourses and practices and to mobilize public support for health and safety issues. While the use of the true account form is a recommended strategy in the public health literature directed toward practitioners, the engagement of true accounts in prevention campaigns has not been adequately problematised and examined from a critical social theoretical perspective. A qualitative, sociologically oriented case study of the use of the true account form, the commemorative, in young worker safety campaigns is proposed to deepen our understanding of this particular type of prevention intervention in particular and prevention as an enterprise more generally. The study investigates the socio-historical context in which the Young Worker Memorial LifeQuilt, a Canadian young worker educational initiative, emerged and unraveled as a multipartite prevention campaign centered upon the true account form of consensus commemoratives. A key finding is that true accounts of young workers killed on the job are socially mediated to diffuse blame and build consensus between diversely positioned occupational health and safety practitioners and the family survivors of workplace tragedies. What is included and excluded from these true accounts of workplace injuries, as socially constructed narratives in multipartite prevention awareness campaigns, may be, in part, a product of the terms and conditions negotiated between lead players. The true accounts included in collaborative, cross-institutional prevention campaigns, while referencing real events, may be told in ways that accommodate and harmonize the political perspectives of diversely positioned stakeholders. Conversely, the true account form is a potentially problematic strategy for collaborative prevention discourses and practices, as consensus commemoratives can be retold as critical remembrances of workplace death, with the result that the unifying narrative of a shared, collective memory project is undermined. This dissertation finds that the activity of collaboration shapes prevention as a socio-political activity/practice.

Workplace accidents and injuries are a growing problem for organizations in Sweden as well as in many other countries. As a consequence, improving workplace safety has become an area of increasing concern for employers and politicians as well as researchers. The aim of this thesis was to contribute to an increased understanding of how leadership and management practices can influence safety in organizations. In Study I, three leadership styles were investigated to determine their relative importance for different safety outcomes. A leadership style specifically emphasizing safety was found to contribute the most to employee safety behaviors; transformational leadership was found to be positive for safety behaviors only when it also involved a safety focus; and a transactional leadership style (management-by-exception active) was shown to be slightly negatively related to workplace safety. Study II examined the role of leader communication approaches for patient safety and the mechanisms involved in this relationship. Support was found for a model showing that one-way communication of safety values and leader feedback communication were both related to increased patient safety through the mediation of different employee safety behaviors (safety compliance and organizational citizen behaviors). Study III explored whether and in what ways the use of staff bonus systems may compromise safety in high-risk organizations. The three investigated systems were all found to provide limited incentives for any behavioral change. However, the results indicate that design characteristics such as clearly defined and communicated bonus goals, which are perceived as closely linked to performance and which aim at improved safety, are imperative for the influence that bonus programs have on safety. Group-directed goals also appeared to be more advantageous than corporate- or individual-level goals. The thesis highlights the importance of actively emphasizing and communicating safety-related issues, both through leadership and in managerial practices, for the achievement of enhanced workplace safety. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following paper was unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 1: Manuscript.</p>

[pt] O Brasil é o quarto país no ranking mundial de acidentes com vítimas fatais e o décimo quinto em relação aos demais acidentes de trabalho, segundo a Organização Internacional do Trabalho (OIT). Se as empresas são obrigadas a arcar com alíquotas maiores por lei pelos acidentes, o trabalhador, além de poder arcar com a vida, arca também com a culpa. É comum a liderança relacionar a ocorrência de um acidente a um comportamento inseguro do trabalhador. Essa visão é até certo ponto alimentada por uma literatura que enfatiza a responsabilidade do empregado justificando os acidentes através de categorias, como erro humano, ato inseguro, dentre outras. Este trabalho busca contribuir para os estudos das causas de acidentes de trabalho, examinando como a questão da responsabilidade é descrita por aqueles que gerenciam a segurança do trabalho. A partir de uma perspectiva etnometodológica, pretende-se identificar que concepções de senso comum sustentam as explicações que eles apresentam. O corpus é constituído de entrevistas realizadas com profissionais cuja posição hierárquica é mais próxima do topo da pirâmide e lidam com trabalhadores que executam atividades com risco iminente. Os resultados apontam, por um lado, a persistência da noção de ato inseguro, responsabilizando o trabalhador, com base em explicações que reforçam questões como agência, conhecimento e até intenção em provocar o acidente. Por outro lado, os resultados mostram também explicações que apontam para a responsabilização da empresa, o que nem sempre é assumido em casos de acidentes. Quanto àqueles envolvidos com o gerenciamento da segurança do trabalho, explicações de base cultural servem para desresponsabilizá-los, uma vez que a cultura da empresa e do trabalhador impossibilita qualquer ação eficaz. Dados esses resultados, verifica-se que, na prática, a tendência é buscar culpados e não apurar a responsabilidade de todos na ocorrência de acidentes. / [en] Brazil is the fourth country in the world ranking of accidents with fatal victims and the fifteenth in relation to other accidents at work, according to the International Labor Organization (ILO). If companies are forced to pay higher rates by law for accidents, the worker, in addition to being able to afford life, is also to blame. It is common for leadership to relate the occurrence of an accident to unsafe worker behavior. This view is to some extent fueled by a literature that emphasizes employee responsibility by justifying accidents through categories such as human error, unsafe act, among others. This research seeks to contribute to the study of the causes of occupational accidents, examining how the issue of responsibility is described by those who manage work safety. From an ethnomethodological perspective, we intend to identify which common-sense conceptions support the explanations they present. The corpus consists of interviews with professionals whose hierarchical position is closest to the top of the pyramid and deal with workers who carry out activities with imminent risk. The results indicate, on the one hand, the persistence of the concept of an unsafe act, making the worker responsible, based on explanations that reinforce issues such as agency, knowledge and even intention to cause the accident. On the other hand, the results also show explanations that point to the responsibility of the company, which is not always assumed in cases of accidents. As for those involved in the management of work safety, culturally based explanations serve to reassure them, since the culture of the company and the worker precludes any effective action. Given these results, it turns out that, in practice, the tendency is to seek guilty and not to ascertain the responsibility of all in the occurrence of accidents.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-02-24T20:10:35Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 CristianeACC_DISSERT.pdf: 769165 bytes, checksum: b07191d8079e469329883492d6054541 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-04-25 / OBJETIVO: As doen?as osteomusculares s?o as afec??es ocupacionais mais prevalentes em cirurgi?es-dentistas. Nosso prop?sito: 1) investigar os conhecimentos, aplicabilidades cl?nicas dos princ?pios ergon?micos em discentes e docentes em atividades cl?nicas de uma universidade p?blica 2) pesquisar a incid?ncia de sintomatologias dolorosas no pesco?o, ombros, parte superior e inferior das costas, cotovelos, quadris, coxas, joelhos, tornozelos e p?s no universo de alunos em est?gios cl?nicos. 3) incitar discuss?es de normas e diretrizes ergon?micas na universidade. M?TODOS: Esse estudo investigou o universo de alunos matriculados em disciplinas cl?nicas (148) e respectivos professores (30) do curso de odontologia da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Natal-RN a respeito dos princ?pios ergon?micos utilizados na rotina cl?nica. Paralelamente foi pesquisada a incid?ncia de sintomatologia dolorosa nos alunos por interm?dio do question?rio n?rdico e a partir dos resultados foi mensurado o ?ndice de severidade dos sintomas em alunos. The Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire (NMQ) ? um instrumento de diagn?stico, proposto para padronizar a mensura??o de relatos de sintomas osteomusculares. A an?lise dos dados foi atrav?s do programa SPSS-Statistical Package for the Social Sciences, vers?o 17.0 realizada anal?tica e descritivamente, com determina??o das m?dias (x), desvio-padr?o para vari?veis quantitativas, freq??ncias simples e relativas para as vari?veis categ?ricas, al?m da estat?stica de associa??o entre grupos (teste t) e a an?lise de associa??o do quiquadrado com n?vel de signific?ncia 5% entre as vari?veis (Person). As respostas das quest?es abertas foram codificadas e transformadas em freq??ncias, descritas posteriormente. RESULTADOS: A aplicabilidade de medidas ergon?micas nas cl?nicas universit?rias n?o foi evidenciada pelo universo de discentes e docentes. Quanto ao relato de sintomas osteomusculares o sexo feminino foi o mais acometido qualquer que seja o n?vel acad?mico cursado. As regi?es anat?micas de maior grau de severidade de relatos dos sintomas foram: pesco?o, parte inferior das costas, punhos, m?os e ombros, com signific?ncia etat?stica p<0,001. CONCLUS?O: Em fun??o dos achados os autores apresentam um protocolo de interven??o cl?nica baseado nos determinantes ergon?micos da Associa??o internacional de ergonomia (EAI) como medida de preven??o da sa?de ocupacional dos futuros cirurgi?es-dentistas ainda em processo de forma??o nas cl?nicas odontol?gicas das universidades.

Submitted by Gabriela Lopes (gmachadolopesufpel@gmail.com) on 2018-07-09T15:29:31Z No. of bitstreams: 1 ALEX_LEAL_DE_OLIVEIRA_TESE_PPGCTS.pdf: 1737911 bytes, checksum: 564a373a2b7fd71b65d68067a0c4fa6e (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Aline Batista (alinehb.ufpel@gmail.com) on 2018-07-12T12:23:03Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 ALEX_LEAL_DE_OLIVEIRA_TESE_PPGCTS.pdf: 1737911 bytes, checksum: 564a373a2b7fd71b65d68067a0c4fa6e (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Aline Batista (alinehb.ufpel@gmail.com) on 2018-07-12T12:25:50Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 ALEX_LEAL_DE_OLIVEIRA_TESE_PPGCTS.pdf: 1737911 bytes, checksum: 564a373a2b7fd71b65d68067a0c4fa6e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-07-12T12:35:19Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 ALEX_LEAL_DE_OLIVEIRA_TESE_PPGCTS.pdf: 1737911 bytes, checksum: 564a373a2b7fd71b65d68067a0c4fa6e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-09-22 / Dentre os diversos riscos ocupacionais existentes no ambiente laboral das Unidades de Beneficiamento de Sementes (UBS) de soja, destaca-se o ruído. Este é produzido pelo maquinário de beneficiamento, sendo a principal fonte geradora o separador de espiral. O presente trabalho teve como objetivo o estudo do Nível de Pressão Sonora (NPS) emitido pelo separador de espiral e a identificação de medidas que permitam a atenuação e convivência com o ruído originário do funcionamento do equipamento. Primeiramente, foi feito um estudo através de mapa de ruído sobre o funcionamento dos separadores de espiral no interior de uma edificação de referência localizada no estado do Rio Grande do Sul, que foi avaliada in loco, considerando as suas características construtivas e disposição de maquinário na UBS. O conjunto de espirais também esteve submetido à avaliação em condição de campo livre para determinação da distância de segurança sonora. Para a realização das avaliações foi utilizado um medidor de NPS posicionado em pontos de leitura previamente estabelecidos. Identificou-se que o separador de espiral não está de acordo com a legislação vigente relacionada à saúde e segurança do trabalho para os parâmetros de emissão de ruído. É possível a adoção de escala colorimétrica e mapas de ruído para determinação de áreas de insegurança sonora, para identificação da necessidade de pagamentos de insalubridade e para a seleção de EPIs na operação do separador de espiral aberto. A emissão de ruído observada em campo livre tende a formação de onda omnidirecional com área de segurança sonora iniciada aos 8m de afastamento do equipamento. Na segunda etapa do trabalho foram identificados os requisitos de clientes para o desenvolvimento de separador de espiral mais seguro. Participaram do levantamento das necessidades de clientes, profissionais ligados ao setor sementeiro que apontaram as principais necessidades de melhoria em seis itens (operação, transporte, manutenção, segurança, eficiência ambiental e aparência). Os requisitos de clientes permitem a relação com os requisitos de produto (levantados pelos fabricantes) por meio do QFD para o desenvolvimento de separador de espiral mais seguro que considere, além do ruído, o trabalho em altura e substituição de partes cortantes. Por fim, foi elaborado um material instrucional em linguagem quadrinizada sobre a convivência com o ruído ocupacional para operadores de UBS. / Among the various occupational hazards in the working environment of Seed Conditioning Plants (SCP) of soybeans, stands out noise. This is produced by the processing machinery, and the spiral separator is the main source. This work aimed to study the Sound Pressure Level (SPL) issued by the spiral separator and the identification of measures that enable attenuation and coexistence with the original noise operation of the equipment. Firstly, a study was done by map noise on the operation of spiral separators inside a reference building in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, which was evaluated in situ, considering their construction and machinery position in the SCP. The set of spirals was also subjected to evaluation in free field conditions to determine the sound safety distance. For the evaluations it was used a SPL meter positioned on previously established reading points. It was identified that the spiral separator is not in full accordance with current legislation relating to health and safety, for noise emission parameters. It is possible to adopt colorimetric scale and noise maps for determining areas of insecurity sound to identify the need for unsanitary payment and selection of PPEs in the operation of the open spiral separator. Concerning noise emission observed in the open field, this tends to training omnidirectional wave with sound security area starting to 8m of distance from the equipment. In the second stage of the study, customer requirements were identified for the development of safer spiral separator. Participated in the survey of customer needs, professionals linked to the seed sector that pointed out the major improvement needs in six items (operation, transportation, maintenance, safety, environmental efficiency and appearance). The clients requirements identified enable relation with product requirements (raised by each manufacturer) through the QFD matrix for the development of safer spiral separator that consider, besides noise, working at height and replacement of cutting parts. Finally, was designed an instructional comics material language about living with the occupational noise for SCP operators.

This study explores conceptualizations of transnational corporate accountability in the responses of Canadian organizations to a crisis in global capitalism. Empirically this study focuses on discussion and debate concerning the involvement of Canadian retail companies in the Rana Plaza disaster, which killed over 1,100 Bangladeshi garment workers on 24 April 2013. Information was drawn from Canadian Parliamentary Committee sessions, documents published by Canadian retail companies, governmental departments and civil society organizations, and nine semi-structured interviews with individuals possessing professional knowledge about corporate governance in global supply chains. A critical discourse analysis method, theoretically informed by the corporate crime literature, Gramsci’s concept of hegemony and Foucault’s notion of knowledge and power, examined the economic, political, and legal assumptions that characterized discussions about transnational corporate crime and accountability. Overall, dominant voices reinforced neoliberal beliefs about the effectiveness of allowing corporations to develop and implement their own means of transnational regulation. Claims describing the social benefits of free markets and flexible regulatory regimes overshadowed concerns about the dangerous and exploitive practices inherent in the production of private capital, which effectively reproduced the (de)regulation of multinational corporations.

The master's thesis deals with the design of a press, which will be part of a robotic workplace. This workplace is designed for a company operating as a subcontractor for the automotive industry, for which automation is one of the most important processes of development and increasing labor productivity. The robotized cell is part of a line for heat treatment of plastic tube semi-finished products. The cell itself is used to press the conical extension of the pipe ends using a steel mandrel. In order to manipulate the parts, the corresponding end effectors of robots are designed in the work, which safely load and remove parts from the automated press. Design and control calculations are supplemented by finite element strength analysis in Solidworks. A drawing documentation is also made in this program. The work is performed with regard to the requirements of technologists and the quality department.

Sexual harassment has significant adverse psychological and physical effects on employees and can negatively impact the workplace, and overall business operations. A gap in current research was identified concerning whether the employee's sex affects employee's perceived workplace sexual harassment climate, sexual harassment experience, and perceived safety from sexual harassment. This study examined the effects of employee workplace sexual harassment experience and perception of workplace sexual harassment psychological climate on employee's perceived safety from sexual harassment moderated by sex. Results showed that perceived workplace sexual harassment climate and employee workplace sexual harassment experience were both significant predictors of perceived safety from sexual harassment. Additionally, the findings revealed that for both men and women, high intolerance for sexual harassment and low employee sexual harassment experience were significantly associated with increased perceived safety from sexual harassment. When perceived workplace sexual harassment climate and employee sexual harassment experience were observed together, only perceived workplace sexual harassment climate was associated with increased perceived safety from sexual harassment. Further research into diverse populations and anti-harassment programming's impact on perceived safety may provide further insights. The findings from this study could assist decision-makers in organizations to promote better physical, psychological, and emotional security in the workplace. Therefore, reducing sexual harassment in the workplace would promote positive social change by reducing the number of adverse events affecting individuals, businesses, and society.

Work-related injuries and illnesses may lead to absenteeism, which affects the level of productivity. The purpose of this study was to determine the success of an employee workplace training program on work-related injury and illness rates at selected federal districts within a federal organization. Newman's model, which describes internal and external factors that may have an effect on an individual's health, was the framework that guided this project. A pre-post design was used to compare data from 2 publically available data sets, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration Illness and Injury and the Voice of the Employee Survey, for the years 2013 and 2014, before and after a wellness training program. According to a descriptive analysis of 91 illness and injury events that occurred during the 2-year period, the greatest number of employees who reported illnesses were mail handlers and mail processing clerks. Slips/trips and falls, strikes by machine/equipment or other objects, and repetitive motion were the top 3 types of injuries. After training, the total number of illness and injury days away from work and days of limited duty were decreased, indicating a positive impact of this workplace wellness program and a need for future training for these workers. This project has the potential to affect social change by supporting the benefits of workplace wellness in improving employee health and reducing workplace injuries at federal agencies.

<p dir="ltr">Measuring human kinematics and kinetics is critical for ergonomists to evaluate ergonomic risks related to physical workloads, which are essential for ensuring workplace health and safety. Human kinematics describes human body postures and movements in 6 degrees of freedom (DOF). In contrast, kinetics describes the external forces acting on the human body, such as the weight of loads being handled. Measuring them in the workplace has remained costly as they require expensive equipment, such as motion capture systems, or are only possible to measure manually, such as measuring the weight through a force gauge. Due to the limitations of existing measurement methods, most ergonomics assessments are conducted in laboratory settings, mainly to evaluate and improve the design of workspaces, production tools, and tasks. Continuous monitoring of workers' ergonomic risks during daily operations has been challenging, yet it is critical for ergonomists to make timely decisions to prevent workplace injuries.</p><p dir="ltr">Motivated by this gap, this dissertation proposed three studies that introduce novel low-cost, minimally intrusive, and automated methods to measure human kinematics and kinetics for ergonomics assessments. Specifically, study 1 proposed ErgoNet, a deep learning and computer vision network that takes a monocular image as input and predicts the absolute 3D human body joint positions and rotations in the camera coordinate system. It achieved a Mean Per Joint Position Error of 10.69 cm and a Mean Per Joint Rotation Error of 13.67 degrees. This study demonstrated the ability to measure 6 DOF joint kinematics for continuous and dynamic ergonomics assessments for biomechanical modeling using just a single camera. </p><p dir="ltr">Studies 2 and 3 showed the potential of using pressure-sensing gloves (i.e., tactile gloves) to predict ergonomics risks in lifting tasks, especially the weight of loads. Study 2 investigated the impacts of different lifting risk factors on the tactile gloves' pressure measurements, demonstrating that the measured pressure significantly correlates with the weight of loads through linear regression analyses. In addition, the lifting height, direction, and hand type were found to significantly impact the measured pressure. However, the results also illustrated that a linear regression model might not be the best solution for using the tactile gloves' data to predict the weight of loads, as the weight of loads could only explain 58 \% of the variance of the measured pressured, according to the R-squared value. Therefore, study 3 proposed using deep learning model techniques, specifically the Convolution Neural Networks, to predict the weight of loads in lifting tasks based on the raw tactile gloves' measurements. The best model in study 3 achieved a mean absolute error of 1.58 kg, representing the most accurate solution for predicting the weight of loads in lifting tasks. </p><p dir="ltr">Overall, the proposed studies introduced novel solutions to measure human kinematics and kinetics. These can significantly reduce the costs needed to conduct ergonomics assessments and assist ergonomists in continuously monitoring or evaluating workers' ergonomics risks in daily operations.</p>