The Core Values that Support Health, Safety, and Well-being at Work

Expanding the Focus of Occupational Safety and Health: Lessons from a Series of Linked Scientific Meetings

There is widespread recognition that the world of work is changing, and agreement is growing that the occupational safety and health (OSH) field must change to contribute to the protection of workers now and in the future. Discourse on the evolution of OSH has been active for many decades, but formalized support of an expanded focus for OSH has greatly increased over the past 20 years. Development of approaches such as the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)'s Total Worker Health® concept and the World Health Organization (WHO)'s Healthy Workplace Framework are concrete examples of how OSH can incorporate a new focus with a wider view. In 2019, NIOSH initiated a multi-year effort to explore an expanded focus for OSH. This paper is a report on the outputs of a three-year cooperative agreement between NIOSH and The University of Texas School of Public Health, which led to subject matter expert workshops in 2020 and an international conference of global interest groups in 2021. This article traces the background of these meetings and identifies and assesses the lessons learned. It also reviews ten thematic topics that emerged from the meetings: worker health inequalities; training new OSH professionals; future OSH research and practice; tools to measure well-being of workers; psychosocial hazards and adverse mental health effects; skilling, upskilling and improving job quality; socioeconomic influences; climate change; COVID-19 pandemic influences; and strategic foresight. Cross-cutting these themes is the need for systems and transdisciplinary thinking and operationalization of the concept of well-being to prepare the OSH field for the work of the future.

Corporate social responsibility and workplace health promotion: A systematic review

The complex situation that global society is facing as a result of COVID-19 has highlighted the importance of companies committing to the principles of social responsibility. Among the internal initiatives, those related to the health of workers are, obviously, highly topical. The objective of our research is to provide concise knowledge of the relationship between workplace health promotion (WHP) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) so that the relevant specialized research was gathered in a single document that lays the foundations of its applicability. A systematic review, following the PRISMA method, has been carried out. Twenty-seven articles have been selected from the main scientific databases. Their qualitative analysis concludes that CSR and WHP are linked, have beneficial reciprocal effects, need committed leadership respectful of autonomy and voluntariness, and require the establishment of specific goals within the framework of the organizations' sustainability policies. Future studies should establish the impact of the pandemic on these aspects.

Core Values at Work-Essential Elements of a Healthy Workplace

This paper explores core values at work-those values that give meaning to people's lives and their work, that allow each person to experience their work with passion, commitment, dignity, and respect. Though core values may appear to be simple and obvious, supporting them at work can be more complex and difficult than expected. These values are not only ethical and moral, but also social and cultural; they are intrinsically related to the same factors that promote health across the globe, including family, community, and work. Three seminars outlined the nature and importance of core values within occupational health and well-being; these sessions were held during the International Commission on Occupational Health (ICOH) conferences between 2015 and 2020. A non-exhaustive, literature review explored these findings further. Perspectives from international, national, and local occupational health programs have begun to demonstrate how core values underpin workers' well-being. These essential core values impact worker health positively when they are included and respected, and negatively when they are missing or corrupted. Within occupational safety and health (OSH), people's awareness of these values and their importance at work is now clearly emerging, offering opportunities to honor and protect each worker and help them to experience their core values through their work.

Occupational Safety and Health Staging Framework for Decent Work

The 2030 United Nations Goal 8 for sustainable development focuses on decent work. There is utility in identifying the occupational safety and health aspects of Goal 8, as they pertain to the four pillars of decent work: job creation, social protection, rights of workers, and social dialogue. A workgroup of the International Commission on Occupational Health and collaborators addressed the issue of decent work and occupational safety and health (OSH) with the objective of elaborating a framework for guidance for practitioners, researchers, employers, workers, and authorities. This article presents that framework, which is based on an examination of the literature and the perspectives of the workgroup. The framework encompasses the intersection of the pillars of decent (employment creation, social protection, rights of workers, and social dialogue) work with new and emerging hazards and risks related to various selected determinants: new technologies and new forms of work; demographics (aging and gender); globalization; informal work; migration; pandemics; and OSH policies and climate change. The OSH field will need an expanded focus to address the future of decent work. This focus should incorporate the needs of workers and workforces in terms of their well-being. The framework identifies a starting point for the OSH community to begin to promote decent work.

Give Me Five: The Most Important Social Values for Well-Being at Work

Social values are very important for well-being at work. This study investigates which and how social values affect well-being at work and contributes to the growing interest that the issue of quality of life at work has aroused in the areas of human resources management (HRM). Semi-structured interviews were held with 21 active employees of a large Portuguese business group in the environmental sector. The study took place in two parts; first, in December 2018 and then two years after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, in January 2022. Theories and concepts emerged from the thematic analysis and the subsequent consideration of the literature and emerging conceptual understanding. This qualitative interview study examines what employees expect from work experience about the behavior of leaders and supervisors as representatives of the formal structure of the organization and the behavior of co-workers as an expression of an ethical and positive work environment. The findings show the five social values most important for employee well-being: respect, trust, equity with no discrimination, help and gratitude. The knowledge of the social values with more impact on employee well-being constitutes very important information for human resource management and for the employees, themselves.

Toward the Extension of Antecedents of Compulsive Buying: The Influence of Personal Values Theory

Although a great deal of research has been conducted on compulsive buying, little if any, research has explored compulsive buying from a wider theoretical perspective, encompassing all types of values as potential drivers of compulsive buying. In particular, no comprehensive research has been conducted in the diagnosis of mechanisms that direct the development of compulsive buying from the perspective of personal values theory. Thus, the objective of the current research was to explore compulsive buying within Schwartz's value model, as well as examining the role particular values play as predictors of compulsive buying. Data were obtained from randomly selected students (young adults), whose ages ranged from 17 to 25 years-old, enrolled at professional and high schools, and at universities in Poland. Personal values were measured by the Polish version of Personal Values Questionnaire, while compulsive buying propensity was assessed by the Polish version of the Richmond Compulsive Buying Scale. Generally, the study's hypotheses were supported by SEM analysis. That is, those who held values comprising "Self-Enhancement" and "Openness to Change" were more likely to be compulsive buyers. In contrast, those who held values comprising "Self-Transcendence" and "Conservation" were more likely to be non-compulsive buyers. Compulsive buyers were more self-focused, hedonistic, power- and achievement-oriented than non-compulsive buyers. Finally, values that emphasized importance of communal rather than individualistic goals appeared to prevent compulsive buying.

Exploring patterns of multiple climates and their effects on safety performance at the department level

INTRODUCTION

This paper represents a first attempt to fill a gap in research about different specific climates and safety outcomes, by empirically identifying patterns of climates and exploring the possible effect of different climates at the department level on some specific safety outcomes. The first objective was to explore how different specific climates (safety, communication, diversity and inclusion) can be associated to each other, considering the department level of analysis. The second objective was to examine the relationships between those patterns of climates with safety performance (compliance and participation behaviors).

METHOD

A total of 429 blue-collar workers in 35 departments answered a questionnaire covering safety, diversity, inclusion, and communication climate measures. Cluster analysis was performed to identify clusters of departments with different climate patterns and their impact on safety compliance and safety participation behaviors. Subsequently, a hierarchical multiple linear regression was conducted at the individual-level to test the effect of climate patterns, by controlling for some sociodemographic variables.

RESULTS

Results showed the existence of four differentiated clusters of departments. Three of those clusters showed homogenous patterns (coherent association among perceptions of low, medium and high climates) and one heterogeneous (low and medium perceptions). The findings also revealed that the higher the climates perceptions, the higher the levels of safety participation and safety compliance, with safety participation being more affected than compliance.

CONCLUSIONS

The present research showed the associated effects of some organizational climate factors, such as fair treatment, inclusion, safety and communication within the organization, which had not been previously studied in their combined relationships, on safety behaviors. Practical applications: Several other organizational climate factors, such as fair treatment, inclusiveness and communication, may play an important role in safety, showing the importance of broadening the focus on safety climate as one of the main predictors of safety behaviors.

Reporting within the Corridor of Conformance: Managerial Perspectives on Work Environment Disclosures in Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting

This paper examines managerial perspectives on work environment (WE) disclosures in corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports. WE encompasses all aspects of the design and management of the work system that affect the employees’ interactions with the workplace. The data are drawn from interviews with 20 CSR managers in large companies that are recognized as high performers in CSR. Managers reported that WE disclosures were an important part of CSR reporting and had several benefits—for example, it helped to maintain companies’ reputations as good places to work, which were of interest to both investors and potential employees. However, WE reporting was at a low level, focusing predominantly on occupational health and safety performance indicators, such as the number of employee injuries per year. We suggest that organizations derive legitimacy by reporting WE disclosures within a corridor of conformance that permits a low level of reporting and a great deal of latitude regarding what topics and how topics are disclosed, provided organizations meet institutional expectations. The corridor is maintained by an institutional environment in which, from participants’ perspectives, few external stakeholders were interested in WE disclosures representing employee well-being (e.g., psychological health) and the prevailing CSR reporting standards and guidelines provide scant information about employee health.

Nursing Home Employee and Resident Satisfaction and Resident Care Outcomes

BACKGROUND

Nursing home resident care is an ongoing topic of public discussion, and there is great interest in improving the quality of resident care. This study investigated the association between nursing home employees' job satisfaction and residents' satisfaction with care and medical outcomes.

METHODS

Employee and resident satisfaction were measured by questionnaire in 175 skilled nursing facilities in the eastern United States from 2005 to 2009. Facility-level data on residents' pressure ulcers, medically unexplained weight loss, and falls were obtained from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Long-Term Care Minimum Data Set. The association between employee satisfaction and resident satisfaction was examined with multiple and multilevel linear regression. Associations between employee satisfaction and the rates of pressure ulcers, weight loss, and falls were examined with simple and multilevel Poisson regression.

RESULTS

A 1-point increase in overall employee satisfaction was associated with an increase of 17.4 points (scale 0-100) in the satisfaction of residents and family members (p < 0.0001) and a 19% decrease in the incidence of resident falls, weight loss, and pressure ulcers combined (p < 0.0001), after adjusting for staffing ratio and percentage of resident-days paid by Medicaid.

CONCLUSION

Job satisfaction of nursing home employees is associated with lower rates of resident injuries and higher resident satisfaction with care. A supportive work environment may help increase quality of care in the nation's nursing homes.

Working Conditions, Job Strain, and Traffic Safety among Three Groups of Public Transport Drivers

Background

Working conditions and psychosocial work factors have acquired an important role explaining the well-being and performance of professional drivers, including those working in the field of public transport. This study aimed to examine the association between job strain and the operational performance of public transport drivers and to compare the expositions with psychosocial risk at work of three different types of transport workers: taxi drivers, city bus drivers, and interurban bus drivers.

Method

A sample of 780 professional drivers was drawn from three transport companies in Bogota (Colombia). The participants answered the Job Content Questionnaire and a set of sociodemographic and driving performance questions, including age, professional driving experience, work schedules, and accidents and penalties suffered in the last 2 years.

Results

Analyses showed significant associations between measures of socio-labor variables and key performance indicators such road traffic accidents and penalties. Furthermore, multiple linear regression analysis contributed to explain significantly suffered accidents from key variables of the Job Demand-Control model, essentially from job strain. In addition, throughout post-hoc analyses, significant differences were found in terms of perceived social support, job strain, and job insecurity.

Conclusion

Work stress is an issue that compromises the safety of professional drivers. This research provides evidence supporting a significant effect of job strain on the professional driver's performance. Moreover, the statistically significant differences between taxi drivers, city bus drivers, and interurban bus drivers in their expositions to work-related stress suggest the need for tailored occupational safety interventions on each occupational group.