In an era where automation has been transforming the industrial arena, it is important not to lose focus on the health of employees who are still engaged in manual work. Employee health both physical and mental plays a vital role in the overall performance of a company, so it must be taken care of. In the case of cross-docking warehouses where there is a need for manual laborers due to the intricacies in handling products of various sizes and weights, the importance of taking care of the health of its employees becomes more vital. In the modern world of the supply chain, a cross-docking warehouse plays a vital role in providing more efficiency to the system. The type of goods handled by these cross-docking warehouses is vast and this, in turn, brings about the need to implement manual labor onto the production. This study focuses on the main physical and psychosocial problems faced by the workers in a cross-docking warehouse and how it can be improved. Here questionnaires and interviews are used to study and develop better practices and methods to improve everyday work. This thesis focuses on one of the largest cross-docking warehouses situated in Jönköping, Sweden. Here COPSOQ version III is used to find the various main psychosocial problem areas faced by the employees and unstructured interviews are used to pinpoint the main physical problems and their causes. Preventive measures to combat the problems are suggested and are supported by literature reviews.

This study explores the peer group understandings of five male friends between the ages of six and eight years and seeks to examine the ways in which the group’s social dynamics interact to define, regulate and maintain dominant and collective understandings of masculinities. Within a self-selected affinity context, and drawing on their lived and imagined experiences, the boys’ enact and interpret their social worlds. Adopting the principles of ethnography within a framework of feminist poststructuralism and drawing on theories of ‘groupness’ and gender(ed) embodiment, the boys’ understandings of masculinities are captured and interpreted. The key analytic foci are directed towards examining the role of power in the social production of collective schoolboy knowledges, and understanding the processes through which boys subjectify and are subjectified, through social but also bodily discourses. The boys’ constructions of peer group masculinities are (re)presented through a narrative methodology which foregrounds my interpretation of the group’s personal and social relevances and seeks to be inductive in ways that ‘bring to life’ the boys’ stories. The study illuminates the potency of peer culture in shaping and regulating the boys’ dominant understandings of masculinity. Within this culture strong essentialist and hierarchical values are imported to support a range of gender(ed) and sexual dualisms. Here patriarchal adult culture is regularly mimicked and distorted. Underpinned by constructions of ‘femininity’ as the negative ‘other’, dominant masculinities are embodied, cultivated and championed through physical dominance, physical risk, aggression and violence. Through feminist poststructural analysis which enables a theorising of the boys’ subjectivities as fluid, tenuous and often characterised by contradiction and resistance, there exists a potential for interrupting and re-working particular masculinities. Within this framework, more affirmative but equally legitimate understandings and embodiments can be explored. The study presents a warrant for working with early childhood affinity groups to disrupt and contest the dominance and hierarchy of peer culture in an effort to counter-act broader gendered and heterosexist global, state and institutional structures. Framing these assertions is an understanding of the peer context as not only self-limiting and productive of hierarchies, but enabling and generative of affirmative subjectivities.

Indagine del concetto di rischio in età scolare, nelle accezioni di rischio fisico e psicologico, correlati a stress genitoriale, stili d'attaccamento, immagine di sé e caratteristiche comportamentali del bambino. / Study of risk concept in school age children, meaning as physical and psychological risk, related to parental stress, self image and child behaviour.

Les facteurs de risque de troubles musculo-squelettiques(TMS) tels que les facteurs physiques, organisationnels et psychosociaux sont un défi commun pour les industries de l'assemblage automobile qui entrainent des effets indésirables sur le système et les humains. L’ergonomie a déjà été intégrée dans les systèmes de production de ces industries pour la prise en charge de la prévention des TMS. La question est de savoir si l'approche ergonomique actuelle des industries automobiles, sur la base de normes à l'entreprise et des méthodes d'observation, peut fournir une connaissance partagée des facteurs ergonomiques pour les divers intervenants et pour faciliter l'amélioration des conditions de travail. Cette étude aborde la problématique du positionnement des différents méthodes d'évaluation (utilisées par les différents intervenants) et compare les résultats et apports de chaque méthode d'évaluation. Cette thèse propose que la procédure actuelle d'évaluation des risques de TMS ne favorise pas une connaissance partagée entre les intervenants dans les industries automobiles. On constate que les évaluations par auto-questionnaire (opérateurs) sont significativement différentes de celles issues des méthodes d'observation (ergonome) et des mesures directes (analyse biomécanique). Cependant, les opinions et jugements des opérateurs concernant les facteurs ergonomiques sont importants pour faciliter la réussite d'une approche ergonomique. Un entretien structuré et systématisé, basé sur des données objectives (Video-observations ou de mesure directe) liées aux activités et stratégies des opérateurs, pourrait être une procédure appropriée pour faire progresser l'ergonomie des situations de travail. Enfin, la connaissance tirée de cette thèse souligne que la variabilité des tâches dans l’industrie automobile nécessite une approche ergonomique qui partage les connaissances des risques entre les intervenants. Dans cette approche, les attitudes et les comportements des opérateurs sont pris en compte dans les projets d’amélioration continue. De plus, la participation des intervenants devrait être intégrée afin d'améliorer la prise en compte de l'ergonomie dans la production. Une synthèse de cette thèse en Français a été fournie dans l’annexe première. / Musculoskeletal risk factors such as physical, organizational and psychosocial factors are a common challenge for the automotive assembly industries and result in adverse human and system effects. Ergonomics has already been integrated inthe production systems of such factories to eliminate work related musculoskeletal disorders (WR-MSDs). The issue is whether the current ergonomic approach of car industries, based on corporate standards and observational methods, can provide a shared knowledge of ergonomic factors for various stakeholders and facilitate ergonomic improvement. This study focuses on the positioning of the different assessment methods (used by various stakeholders), agreement between their results in evaluation of physical risk factors and the influence of intervention and improvement following ergonomic assessment. This thesis proposes that the current procedure of risk factor assessment can not provide ashared knowledge and representation of risks between stakeholders in manufacturing industries. It was found that the operators’ assessments of risk factors (self-reported questionnaire) were significantly different from those assessed by observational methods (ergonomist) and direct measurement. However, the operators’ opinions and judgments of ergonomic factors of a job are of particular importance to the success of an ergonomic approach. A structured interview based on objective data (video-observation or direct measurement) linked the activities and strategies of atrisk operators might be an appropriate procedure to advance ergonomics.The knowledge gained from this study emphasizes that the variable nature of tasks in manufacturing industries needs an ergonomic approach which shares knowledge and representation of risks between stakeholders. In such an approach, attitudes and behaviors of operators are taken into consideration in developing new intervention processes, organizational and technical remedies. Moreover, involvement of stakeholders should be integrated and this should result in improving production ergonomics.

La presente tesi si focalizza sullo studio delle determinanti e delle conseguenze del rischio sul lavoro e degli incidenti occupazionali nel mercato del lavoro. Il primo contributo (Capitolo 1) fornisce una rassegna critica all'interno di un quadro di analisi armonizzato allo scopo di evidenziare le debolezze della letteratura teorica ed empirica, che si occupa di rischio sul lavoro e dei incidenti occupazionali. Nell’ indagare le determinanti degli incidenti sul lavoro (Capitolo 2), si analizza il ruolo delle condizioni di lavoro e della sicurezza sul posto di lavoro nel ridurre la probabilità di un infortunio e la durata della relativa assenza, tema inesplorato nella limitata letteratura empirica. I nostri risultati forniscono evidenze cross-country che una maggiore sicurezza contribuisce a ridurre la probabilità che un incidente si verifichi e le corrispondenti conseguenze, in termini di giorni di assenza per infortunio. Particolare attenzione viene posta nel considerare il ruolo delle regolamentazioni sulla sicurezza e delle pratiche di organizzazione del lavoro. Il Capitolo 3 studia le conseguenze degli infortuni. Ci si concentra a determinare come un incidente possa influenzare i costi sostenuti dal lavoratori, vale a dire una riduzione delle probabilità di occupazione e perdite salariali, sia nel breve sia lungo periodo. Utilizzando i dati BHPS, si trova che, nel breve periodo, uno stato di infortunio, in seguito ad un incidente occupazionale, porta ad una maggiore probabilità di perdere il lavoro; nel lungo periodo, i lavoratori infortunati possono subire consistenti perdite salariali che possono essere evitate se il lavoratore è occupato nel settore pubblico o in imprese sindacalizzate. / This dissertation focuses on investigating the determinants and the consequences of risk at work and occupational accidents in the labour market. The first contribution (Chapter 1) provides a critical survey within an harmonized framework of analysis to highlight the weaknesses of the theoretical and empirical literature. In investigating the determinants of accidents at work (Chapter 2), we analyze the role of working conditions and safety at work in reducing the probability of accidents at work and the corresponding duration of absence, which is an unexplored issue in the limited empirically literature on risk at work and occupational accidents. Our findings provide cross-country evidence that more safety at work contributes to reduce the probability that an accident occurs and its consequences, in terms of days off from work. Particular attention is used in considering the role of safety at work regulations and of work organization practices. Chapter 3 studies the consequences of occupational injuries. We focus in determining how an accident may affect workers’ costs, namely a decline of employment probabilities and earning losses, either in the short or in the long term. Using the BHPS data, we find that, in the short term, a state of injury, following an occupational accident, leads to a higher probability of losing job; in the long term, injured workers may support significant earning losses that may vanish if they are employed in the public sector or in unionized firms.