M.A. (Psychology) / Interest has grown over the past decade in the study of stress and more recently in the development and Implement at Ion of primary prevention programmes for various forms of stress related illnesses. Such programmes hold great promise for reducing , illness reactions in combination with, or, as an alternative to pharmacological medication. None of these programmes have been conducted amongst a sample of South African black blue-collar workers and it is important that these procedures are tested in order to evaluate their efficacy for specific cultural contexts. In this dissertation, an extensive review of the literature on the various models of stress is included as well as a proposed model for South African blue-collar workers. The stressors inherent in the lives of the sample population are also discussed. The sample consisted of sixty six male black blue-collar workers between the ages of twenty five and fifty five employed in the milling industry. Over a period of six weeks the effects on work-related stress of five different treatment regimes consisting of the following are evaluated: just lying down, relaxation tape, placebo, Royl 6 (vitamin B) and Panado (paracetamol). sUbjects completed the Job-related tension questionnaire and the Anxiety-stress questionnaire upon commencement of treatment and two weeks after' they had concluded treatment. An analysis of variance and a multivariate analysis of variance showed that there was no significant difference in the levels of work-related stress at the post-measurement stage of assessment.' This indicates that none of the five treatment regimes had any affect on the work-related stress levels of the subjects...

Thesis (MTech (Business Administration))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2020 / Employee perceptions of Workplace Health Promotion (WHP) are pivotal for researchers to ascertain the degree of employee satisfaction and as a quality indicator of such an initiative within an organisation. However, there are considerable challenges faced regarding participation in WHP as employees do not trust the confidentiality of the programme. The problem is further exacerbated in that employees experience the wellness programme as a demand by the employer rather than a beneficial resource to the employee. Thus, this research study aimed to determine the effect of workplace health promotion on downstream outcomes within an organisation. To realise the primary research objective, this study looked into the effect of WHP on clothing and textile employee’s (CTE) physical, mental, cognitive and affective outcomes, and social wellbeing. It also explored the effect of the facilitation of preventive interventions. This study evaluated the perceptions of employees on workplace health promotion in the clothing and textile industry in Cape Town. A combination of both qualitative and quantitative research approaches was followed. Quantitative data were collected from 121 CTEs through a survey questionnaire. The qualitative data were collected via interviews amongst managers, clinical staff and WHP program promotors. SPSS was utilised for analysing the quantitative data, and content analysis was conducted for qualitative data. The results of the study mostly pointed to the fact that employees in the clothing and textile industry perceived WHP in a very positive light. Most respondents recognised the benefits of WHP to the organisation which includes reduced healthcare costs in the long term and employee satisfaction, among others. The findings further revealed that the majority of CTEs were either unsure or noticed no effect of WHP on their physical health. However, this statement is contradicted in that 84.3% of respondents stated that they feel physically better due to participation in the WHP service offering. A previous study reported disagreement or indecisiveness to this statement amongst WCWs. This study revealed that there had been a positive impact on absenteeism and psychosocial issues. Most of the CTEs perceived that participation in WHP made the prevention of illnesses financially affordable.

The finances of blue-collar workers were the most acutely impacted as these workers lost their jobs during the Great Recession of 2007 through 2009. The literature revealed a minimal understanding of how blue-collar workers allocated funds for their retirement, and what their investments might be when they invested. To address this problem, the current qualitative study addressed (a) how blue-collar workers chose to invest or not invest for retirement and (b) how blue-collar workers diversified their portfolio if they chose to invest. Theoretical foundations of the study were based on regret theory and prospect theory. A nonrandom purposeful sample of 10 blue-collar worker participants answered 19 open-ended questions. Data from these questions were analyzed inductively. Findings revealed that, as participants reached the age of 30, they started to consider investing for their retirement. Participants under the age of 30 were not as likely to invest. Only one person over the age of 30 did not invest for retirement. The factors that contributed to these blue-collar workers' investment decisions for retirement were based on an employer-provided retirement accounts, the fear of running out of money later in life during retirement, and the addition of new family members. One of the most popular retirement investment products for the participant group, which included mechanics, laborers, and material movers, was the U.S. Treasury Bonds. Other popular investments were mutual funds, 401(k)s, and IRAs. These findings may inform researchers who are conducting a study on the investment decisions of blue-collar workers. The findings can also be beneficial for other blue-collar workers by showing them that other blue-collar workers do invest, and by revealing their rationales in doing so.

Background: Smoking is the leading cause of preventable deaths in the United States. The rates of smoking remain elevated in rural, low income populations in comparison with the rest of the United States. Thus, prompting the process improvement project of implementing the Ask–Advise–Connect (AAC) method to the national quitline in a nurse practitioner–managed clinic for an automotive manufacturing plant in rural Tennessee. Methods: Ask–Advise–Connect method was added to the current smoking cessation program. The employees who utilized the clinic were assessed for smoking status at each visit and subsequently counseled on cessation. Individuals interested in cessation were connected to the national quitline with the AAC method. Pharmaceutical options and nicotine replacement therapy was also offered at no cost to the employee. Findings: In the 4-month period, the clinic provided 102 tobacco cessation counseling visits to workers who smoke. Twenty-four employees enrolled in the cessation program. The participants reported a cessation rate of 12.5% and 21% had a significant decrease in the number of cigarettes smoked. Of the participants, 12.5% (n = 3) engaged in behavioral counseling with the quitline. Conclusion/application to practice: The addition of the AAC method as part of the smoking cessation program had limited success. As smoking cessation is difficult to achieve, any success greater than 7% can be considered an achievement. The 12.5% cessation rate of the participants was above the national average. Thus, demonstrating the benefit of having a workplace cessation program and incorporating the AAC method to the current smoking cessation program.

Recent nutrition reports conclude that changing dietary practices is a strategic way to reduce cancer rates in the United States. Nutrition recommendations to decrease risk of cancer include reducing fat intake to 30% of total calories, increasing fiber consumption to 20-30 g/day, and increasing fruit and vegetable consumption to five servings daily. However, recent studies suggest that fruit and vegetable consumption decreases with educational and income levels within a population, and that blue-collar workers tend to consume 38-40% of total calories as fat. It is possible that national campaign efforts to change dietary practices are not reaching educationally and economically challenged populations. This research identifies the perceptions of blue-collar workers regarding a link between dietary practices and disease prevention. Six focus groups, three of women and three of men were conducted in urban, suburban, and rural Virginia counties. A total of 66 workers participated, and each group was comprised of 8-16 blue-collar workers 35-65 years of age. Most participants were aware of a link between dietary practices and health. A "healthy person" was described as eating low fat foods, fruits and vegetables, and maintaining a healthy weight. Fatty meat consumption, food processing, and chemical treatment of food were perceived as increasing risk for disease. Few participants were aware of a potential link between diet and cancer. Many contributed risk for cancer to factors beyond their control such as heredity, environmental factors, and the influence of the food industry. Those who had experienced a disease, either themselves or through a loved one expressed a greater sense of urgency to modify their eating habits. Most of those attempting dietary modification were addressing health issues relating to cardiovascular disease. The majority reported consuming less than five servings of fruits and vegetables daily, most often as canned or frozen products. Participants reported receiving nutrition education from non-interactive sources, such as television, newspapers, magazines, and radio, and interactive sources such as health professionals and community programs. Those that mentioned interactive sources were more likely to elaborate on specific information learned. Television segments, newsletters, and worksite programs were selected as the most preferred ways to receive nutrition education. When asked what topics would be most helpful in a newsletter series, people requested information regarding heart disease more frequently than cancer. Health benefits of fruit and vegetable consumption, menus, and recipes were also mentioned. The findings suggest that nutrition education efforts concerning cardiovascular disease have penetrated the blue collar population. Community educators need to broaden messages to include current information regarding the potential link between dietary practices and cancer. Furthermore, 35-65 year olds may exhibit more willingness to change dietary habits through nutrition education due to changes in health among themselves or loved ones. / Master of Science

Globally organisations face unacceptable levels of fatalities that translate into financial losses and bad publicity, which can be attributed to the inadequate employee engagement in decision making in daily work activities. This study explores the participative role of employees in the management of occupational health and safety (OHS), and investigates the impact of employee participation on the decision making processes that create a safe workplace. The joint labour-management committees encourage employee participation that improves the injury and disease prevention programs. Four participative approaches exist in the decision making processes, namely Directed Participation, Involvement, Pro-active Participation and Ownership, that are interrelated and integrated with the decision making process. When employees are required to abide by set guidelines and procedures, Directed Participation is appropriate. This has been observed to occur with little or no input from employees, whilst the application of legislation requires the process of involvement where critical decisions are made outside the domain of the employee. The pro-active participation process entails the sharing, consulting and making of joint decisions, which is most suitable in the Safety Health and Environmental committees, ensuring the process of Ownership empowers employees to champion the OHS activities. In OHS management there are instances when numerous participative approaches are utilised simultaneously to make decisions. All employees, both blue collar workers and management have a positive influence in creating a safe workplace, with the likelihood of older and experienced employees participating more than their younger counterparts in the decision making processes within the various OHS forums. Also, the more employees assume full responsibility for their health and safety, the greater is their influence to find solutions to the safety challenges. Additionally, making joint decisions to create a safe workplace will, in turn, encourage employees to participate more. The use of the participative approaches results in an improvement in the iii decision making processes within S.H.E. committees and OHS management processes, thereby making a positive contribution. More research is recommended to explore the relationships between employee participation in decision making and the compliance to OHS legislation, employee training, the safety culture and the influence of trade unions. / Business Management / DBL

Recent decades have seen an explosion of research centered on understanding the influential impact that job stressors have on employees' subjective well-being, and now more recently, on objective assessments of physical health. Utilizing baseline data from a larger study funded by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), I conducted a field study on blue-collar employees from two organizations in the construction industry, with the goal of exploring the impact of job stressors on job satisfaction (subjective well-being) and body mass index (objective health), as well as the influence of organizational justice as a moderator and exercise as a mediator in those relationships. In support of previous research, results show that job stressors (job demands, low skill discretion, and low decision authority) all had significant direct effects on job satisfaction in the expected directions, signifying that the fewer demands and more control one has in their work role, the more satisfied one is. Results also indicate that distributive and procedural justice have significant main effects on job satisfaction, illustrating that higher perceptions of justice are related to higher levels of job satisfaction. With respect to objective health, the data provides empirical support for the relationship between job control (skill discretion and decision authority) and BMI; however, job demands did not have a significant main effect on BMI. More importantly, the rarely studied relationship between organizational justice and BMI was investigated (Robbins et al., 2012), with results indicating that procedural and distributive justice are important influences on one's BMI level. Post hoc analyses revealed that distributive and procedural justice are two relevant mediators to consider in the job stressor-job satisfaction relationship, illustrating the importance of considering employees' fairness perceptions with regards to their satisfaction levels. Moreover, exercise was found to be a significant moderator to the relationship between job demands and BMI, as well as the relationship between distributive justice and job satisfaction, shedding light on physical activity within the work and health contexts as a factor that interacts with employees' perceptions of justice and their workload demands to impact their psychological and physical health. Considering the cross-sectional nature of these data, all mediation and moderation results should be interpreted with caution. With empirical support found for the direct association between job stressors and organizational justice and the outcomes of job satisfaction and BMI, this study has significant implications for researchers and practitioners alike to further expand upon these findings and implement them into organizational practice in support of the Total Worker Health initiative, which aims to promote employee safety and health (Schill & Chosewood, 2013). Results suggest a healthy workforce is the result of the combination of employers transforming the work environment into a more just, transparent and trustworthy place to work, starting with the dynamics between supervisors and their employees, in conjunction with targeted interventions on employees' modifiable behaviors, such as engaging in physical activity and healthier eating habits.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree ot Master of Arts in Industrial Social Work by course work, 1998 / This study explored the effects of perceived trade union social support on the work stress of blue collar workers. It was hypothesised that blue collar workers who obtain social support from their trade union would experience the least stress. This study is a comparative qualitative study. The sample involved 60 blue collar workers in a Telkom workshop. The role orientation questionnaire was used to test their stress levels and thereafter the trade union social support scale was used to test their levels of perceived trade union social support study revealed that blue collar workers are indeed exposed to stress, however, those that perceived the trade union as giving them social support, experienced the least stress. On the basis of the findings it is recommended that occupational social workers intervene on micro, meso and macro levels in order to help in alleviating the stress levels of blue collar workers. / AC2017

The constant pressure to achieve increased efficiency and profitability improvements drives companies to look at new technologies for ways to develop sustainable advantages. At the same time, the breathtakingly rapid technological development of these technologies leads, not surprisingly, to different misconceptions about the impact of IT on businesses.  This dissertation aims at clarifying some of these misconceptions by exploring one such technological breakthrough, namely wireless information systems, as used to support mobile workforces. The dissertation analyses three companies devoted to the implementation of wireless information systems, that were confronted with a number of challenges, and investigates how these challenges were met by means of different capability development activities. Evidence from the cases shows that what really matters is not the technology in itself, but how organizations use it. This study suggests that the firms that give the best performance are not necessarily those that implement different breeds of technology, but rather those that are able to learn from the challenges they are confronted with – doing so moreover on repeated occasions by means of interlinked organizational innovation processes. Thus, a piece of advice offered in this dissertation is that it is not always so important to possess all the right capabilities from the beginning, but that one needs to possess the right capabilities to develop new capabilities. / <p>Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögskolan, 2007</p>

Syftet med studien var att undersöka om den upplevda arbetstrivseln skiljer sig åt mellantjänstemän och kollektivanställda i ett industriföretag. Vidare syftade studien på att undersökaom demografiska faktorer påverkar arbetstrivseln samt om dessa har en inverkan påsambandet. Undersökningen utfördes genom en digital enkät där ett missivbrev och QR-kodtill enkäten skickades ut via mail till företaget. Det var totalt 110 respondenter som deltog istudien. Enkäten baserades på “Js Arbetstrivsel” av Hellgren et al. (1999) med ett Cronbach’salfa på 0.79. Resultatet visade att tjänstemän upplever en högre grad av arbetstrivsel änkollektivanställda. Kvinnor upplever en högre grad av arbetstrivsel än män vilket intestämmer överens med tidigare forskning som påvisat motsatsen. Vidare visade resultatet attdet inte fanns några signifikanta interaktionseffekter mellan arbetstrivsel, anställningsformoch demografiska faktorer med undantag för kön. Föreliggande studies resultat om upplevdarbetstrivsel mellan tjänstemän och kollektivanställda stämmer överens med tidigareforskning. / Title: The difference in job satisfaction between white-collar and blue-collar workers in anindustrial company. The purpose of the study was to investigate whether the perceived job satisfaction differsbetween white and blue-collar workers in an industrial company. Furthermore, the purposewas also to investigate whether demographic factors affect job satisfaction and whether thesehave an impact on the relationship. The survey was conducted through a digital questionnairewith a missive letter and QR code to the questionnaire that was e-mailed to the company. Atotal of 110 respondents participated in the study. The survey was based on “Js JobSatisfaction” by Hellgren et al. (1999) with a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.79. The result showedthat white-collar workers experience a higher degree of job satisfaction than blue-collarworkers. Women experience a higher degree of job satisfaction than men which is notconsistent with previous research that has shown the opposite. In addition, the results showedthat there were no significant interaction effects between job satisfaction, employment formand demographic factors with exception of gender. The results of the present study onperceived job satisfaction between white- and blue-collar workers are consistent with previousstudies.