Occupational health and safety

• The International Labour Organization (ILO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) define occupational health as ‘the promotion and maintenance of the highest degree of physical, mental and social well-being of workers in all occupations by preventing departures from health, controlling risks, and adapting work to people (physiologically and psychologically) and people to their jobs’.
• Occupational health


  is concerned with avoiding diseases and disorders that are indudec by exposure, usually over a period of time, to materials or condituons in the workplace (long term events)
• Occupational safety


  is concerned with the avoidance of industrial accidents and in particular accidents that cause injury or fatality. The accidents are one-time events
• • Human factors that impact health and safety:
  • The term human factors refer to environmental, organisational and job factors, and human and individual characteristics which influence behaviour at work in a way which can affect health and safety
  • all the factors that can influence occupational health and safety at work
• Organisational/ managerial

  • safety culture
  • manager's leadership
  • communication
• Workgroup/Team

  • teamwork-structure/processes
• workgroup/team

  • teamwork- structure and processes(dynamics)
  • team leadership
• Individual workers(individual differences)

  • situation awareness
  • decision making
  • stress
  • fatigue
• work environment

  • work environment factors
  • work environment( workplace hazards)
• Any safety intervention should follow a safety culture assessment
• Safety culture


  • Individual factors, they'd look out for each other and make sure everyone is following the safe culture/rules
• safety culture

  • product of individual and group values, attitudes, perceptions, competencies that determine the commitment to, and the style and proficiency of, an organisation’s health and safety management.
  • safety climate
  • safety intervention should follow a safety culture assessment.
• managers leadership

  • styles of leadership are associated with better safety behaviours by workers and more favourable organisational safety performance such as decreased accident rates and increased safety compliance.
  • Most recommended managers’ safety leadership model is the transactional/ transformational model (Bass 1998).
• Communication

  • Essential to workplace efficiency and for the delivery of high-quality and safe work.
  • problems (system, message or reception failures) can lead to errors occur as individuals fail to receive or to pass on information or communicate incorrect information)
• Types of message failures(communication)

  • SYSTEM: communication channel not working or not being used
  • MESSAGE: try to send a message but it doesn’t deliver clearly, sending correct message but other person can’t hear it
  • RECEPTION: somone gets the message but doesn’t understand it correctly, misinterpretation
• • Teamwork - structure/ processes (dynamics)
  • teamwork, communication and leadership are all critical to a safe environment
  • Good teamwork can help to reduce safety problems and it can improve team members’ morale and well being, as well as team viability
• • Team leadership (Supervisors)
  • decrease the number of minor accidents, encourage good safety climate
  • Transformational =fewer accidents
  • safety practices tend to slip when there are high-pressure environments
  • supervisors model good safety practices
  • supervisors=high skill level, not necessarily good leaders
• situation awareness

  • perception(attention) of the elements in the environment within the volume of time and space, the comprehension of their meaning, and the projection of their status in the near future
  • involves continuously monitoring what is in order to understand what is going on or hours.
  • diminished by fatigue and stress
  • affected by interruptions and distractions.
• decision-making

  • a critical component of workplace safety in relation to minimising errors
  • mainly related to safety violations-intentional =TPB
  • influenced by situational(design), individual(stress) and work environment(leadership)
  • unintentional(errors/mistakes) or intentional( intentional violation of safety measures)
  • affected by fatigue and stress.
• Stress:

  • adverse reaction people have to excessive pressure or other types of demand placed upon them
  • determined by the balance between perceptions of the demands of job against and perception of ability to handle them
  • linked to workplace safety, such as rates of accidents
  • acute (intense and sudden)
  • chronic (long-term)
• Fatigue

  • the state of tiredness tassociated with long hours of work, prolonged periods without sleep, or requirements to work at times that are “out of synch” with the body’s biological or circadian rhythm’ (Caldwell & Caldwell, 2003).
  • Sleep is essential for our wellbeing and lack of sleep is a prime cause of the experience of tiredness or fatigue.
  • Most humans require an average of about eight hours sleep per night to function effectively.
  • Fatigue can have consequences for both the safety and productivity of workers.
• fatigue

  • associated with long hours of work, prolonged periods without sleep, or requirements to work at times that are “out of synch” with the body’s circadian rhythm
  • require an average of about eight hours sleep per night to function effectively.
  • consequences for both the safety and productivity of workers.