Values-in-action that support safe production

Game analysis of enterprise safety investment and employee safety behavior strategy evolution in high-risk industries

This paper aims to explore the influential relationship between the decision-making of investment of enterprise safety and employee safety behavior strategy selection, thus improve the effectiveness of decision-making. Based on traditional game theory, this paper establishes an evolutionary game model of enterprise safety investment and employee safety behavior strategy selection, and conducts numerical simulation analysis. The result shows:when the security investment cost is greater than the security investment benefit, the employee's security behavior strategy choice is significant for the enterprise security investment strategy decision; when the security investment benefit is greater than the security investment cost, the enterprise security investment decision is not affected by the employee safety behavior strategy; the choice of employee safety behavior strategy is not affected by the choice of enterprise safety investment strategy. The conclusion can provide a reference basis for enterprise safety production decision-making, which has certain theoretical and practical significance.

Patient safety value, safety attitude and safety competency among emergency nurses in China: A structural equation model analysis

AIMS

We aim to determine the levels of patient safety value, safety attitude and safety competency and to explore the associations among these variables in emergency nurses in China.

BACKGROUND

Studies have focused on the individual characteristics of nurses as influencing factors of patient safety but not on the factors that may affect patient safety competency in the context of Chinese culture, such as safety value and safety attitude.

METHOD

A cross-sectional survey was conducted among emergency nurses in 22 hospitals.

RESULTS

The final model had acceptable fit indices (χ² /df = 3.512 < 5; CFI = 0.955 > 0.9; TLI = 0.942 > 0.9; IFI = 0.955 > 0.9; RMSEA = 0.068 < 0.08 [90% CI, 0.059 to 0.077]). A fully adjusted model was also tested, and the effects among variables were consistent with the hypothesized model. The SEM results showed that patient safety values had a significant direct effect on safety competency (b = .407, p < .001) and safety attitude (b = .656, p < .001). Patient safety attitude had a significant direct effect on safety competency (b = .493, p < .001). Patient safety values had an indirect effect on safety competency through safety attitude, and the total effect of safety values on safety competency was 0.730.

CONCLUSIONS

Chinese nurses are at a moderate level of patient safety attitude and competency. Emergency nurses' safety value and safety attitude can be direct predictors of patient safety competency, and safety value can indirectly predict their patient safety competency through safety attitude.

IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT

Strengthening safety value is a critical step toward improving patient safety competency. Hospital administrators and educators should construct a patient safety culture that is guided and driven by appropriate values and ensure the development of necessary competencies in nurses.

The effect of an embargo, sanctions and culture on safety climate: A qualitative view from aviation maintenance in the MENA region

INTRODUCTION

Safety climate assessment is a key measure of organizational safety. A strong safety climate is integral to the high safety performance in aviation. Most survey instruments that purport to measure safety climate are derived from evidence obtained in developed countries in the west. It is rare for these studies to examine the influence of macro-environmental factors on safety climate, and rarer still in countries found in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

METHOD

The researchers conducted 28 semi-structured interviews with experienced aviation maintenance engineers from a national carrier in the region. The interview questions were derived from an extensive review of existing studies of safety climate. Data from interview transcripts were coded, creating a data structure using participant quotes for 1st order codes and arriving at three aggregate dimensions: organizational commitment to safety, organizational safety practices and social relationships and their consequences.

RESULTS

Commercial considerations influenced negatively organizational commitment to safety. Organizational safety practices were weak. There was a lack of safety training, a lack of resources to support safe working, poor safety communication, and a failure to report safety issues. Strong friendships were developed through working together in teams. This adversely influenced the reporting of errors and the punishment of violations.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

The apparently weak organizational safety climate reported here was attributed to financial constraints following the imposition of economic sanctions and embargos, and to the influence of Arabic cultural values that privilege family connections and the importance of maintaining harmony in social relationships that precludes punishment.

PRACTICAL APPLICATION

Financial constraints inevitably limit resources for safety and encourage prioritization of production. Arabic cultural values inhibit the development of a 'just' culture and a 'reporting' culture and challenge the universal adoption of approaches for promoting organizational safety developed in the West.

Testing and Improving an ISO 14119-Inspired Tool to Prevent Bypassing Safeguards on Industrial Machines

Various safety-related standards associated with the machinery design phase, such as ISO 14119:2013, emphasize the appropriate design and selection of protective devices to prevent bypassing. Despite such standards, bypassing safeguards is a common issue at the machinery use phase. ISO 12100:2010 indicates, “experience has shown that even well-designed safeguarding can fail or be violated”. This unsafe practice can cause serious injuries or fatalities. This paper presents an improved version of a bypassing-related assessment tool initially inspired by ISO 14119. The improvement results from testing its performance through industrial case studies to explore how the tool works in reality. Five occupational health and safety (OHS) practitioners apply this tool in four plants in Quebec to 18 machines and 37 activities. Afterwards, the OHS practitioners provide feedback using a questionnaire. The findings reveal that the tool is appropriate for the machine usage phase to prevent bypassing with an overall 82% satisfaction score. The probability levels of bypassing given by the tool enable a safety improvement prioritization method for the machines and safeguards. The tool was improved, redefining some incentives to bypass and its layout. The findings explain how practitioners could influence decision-making to minimize incentives to bypass and the probability of bypassing to prevent accidents.

The Role of the Unitary Prevention Delegates in the Participative Management of Occupational Risk Prevention and Its Impact on Occupational Accidents in the Spanish Working Environment

The aim of this research was to study the impact of the unitary prevention delegates (UPDs) on the Spanish working environment. To this end, a cross-sectional study was carried out using microdata from the National Survey on Health and Safety Management in Companies (ENGE-2009) with a sample of 5147 work centres. To measure the relationship between the presence of UPD in workplaces with preventive management indicators and damage to health, individual and multiple logistic regression models were carried out, calculating the crude (cOR) and adjusted (aOR) odds ratios by sociodemographic covariates, with their corresponding 95% confidence intervals (95% CI). Ambivalent results were obtained. On the one hand, a positive impact of the UPDs was found, in the management of prevention showing a higher probability of prevention plans being carried out (aOR = 3.97; 95% CI: 3.26-4.83), risk assessments (aOR = 5.96; 95% CI: 4.44-8.01) and preventive actions were planned (aOR = 3.01; 95% CI: 2.55-3.56), as well as 1.56 times less likely to register minor occupational accidents (aOR = 0.64; 95% CI: 0.53-0.76). On the other hand, the presence of the UPDs did not promote the activation of a participatory culture and did not reduce the probability of suffering serious and fatal accidents at work. In conclusion, UPDs need to activate workers' participation to improve results.

The Impact of the Direct Participation of Workers on the Rates of Absenteeism in the Spanish Labor Environment

The aim of this research was to study the relationship between the different levels of direct participation of workers (passive, consultative or active-delegated) in risk prevention management with the levels of absenteeism in Spain. To this end, a transversal study was carried out using microdata from the Second European Survey of Companies on New and Emerging Risks (ESENER-2-Spain, 2014) with a master population of 3162 work centres. A multinomial logistic regression model was carried out, with the dependent variable being the levels of absenteeism and the independent variables, the participation indicators and preventive management, calculating the adjusted odds ratio (aOR) between all the independent and control variables, with their corresponding 95% confidence intervals (95% IC). The results obtained showed how the active-delegative participation of workers in the design and adoption of psychosocial risk prevention measures reported 2.33 less probabilities of having a very high or fairly high level of absenteeism (aOR = 0.43; 95%IC:0.27-0.69). However, having documented aspects of preventive management (plan, risk assessment, planning measures) did not have any impact on absenteeism levels, which shows that we can fall into an unrealistic institutional mirage of security with active policies of co-education or co-management being necessary to reduce absenteeism.