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Article
Publication date: 25 April 2024

Matthew D. Roberts, Matthew A. Douglas and Robert E. Overstreet

To investigate the influence of logistics and transportation workers’ perceptions of their management’s simultaneous safety and operations focus (or lack thereof) on related…

Abstract

Purpose

To investigate the influence of logistics and transportation workers’ perceptions of their management’s simultaneous safety and operations focus (or lack thereof) on related worker safety and operational perceptions and behaviors.

Design/methodology/approach

This multi-method research consisted of two studies. Study 1 aimed to establish correlational relationships by evaluating the impact of individual-level worker perceptions of operationally focused routines (as a moderator) on the relationship between worker perceptions of safety-related routines and workers’ self-reported safety and in-role operational behaviors using a survey. Study 2 aimed to establish causal relationships by evaluating the same conceptual relationships in a behavioral-type experiment utilizing vehicle simulators. After receiving one of four pre-task briefings, participants completed a driving task scenario in a driving simulator.

Findings

In Study 1, the relationship between perceived safety focus and safety behavior/in-role operational behavior was strengthened at higher levels of perceived operations focus. In Study 2, participants who received the balanced pre-task briefing committed significantly fewer safety violations than the other 3 treatment groups. However, in-role driving deviations were not impacted as hypothesized.

Originality/value

This research is conducted at the individual (worker) level of analysis to capture the little-known perspectives of logistics and transportation workers and explore the influence of balanced safety and operational routines from a more micro perspective, thus contributing to a deeper understanding of how balanced routines might influence worker behavior when conducting dynamic tasks to ensure safe, effective outcomes.

Details

International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, vol. 54 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0960-0035

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 25 May 2023

Russell Craig and Joel Amernic

This paper points to five features that CEO language should have to help enable a robust safety culture.

189

Abstract

Purpose

This paper points to five features that CEO language should have to help enable a robust safety culture.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper draws empirical support mainly from the CEO-speak of the CEO of Norfolk Southern Railway in the year prior to the major derailment of a company train and subsequent toxic chemical spill in East Palestine Ohio in February 2023.

Findings

CEOs should incorporate the following five features into their CEO-speak. They should actually use the word safety but “in doing so” avoid platitudes about safety. They should exude genuine commitment to safety “cite meaningful safety performance measures” and not ignore operating risks.

Originality/value

Safety is a critically important aspect of corporate endeavor. Yet discussion of it is grossly under-represented in the professional and academic literature. This paper offers sound suggestions that reinforce the need for CEOs to write and speak in a way that ensures their company’s commitments to a strong safety culture are not merely platitudinous buzzwords but are genuinely key strategic elements of their company’s business model.

Details

Strategy & Leadership, vol. 51 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1087-8572

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 27 March 2024

Ilija Djekic and Nada Smigic

The main purpose of this paper was to evaluate the validation process of food safety control measures.

Abstract

Purpose

The main purpose of this paper was to evaluate the validation process of food safety control measures.

Design/methodology/approach

The validation of control measures has been analyzed at 50 food companies in Serbia. The sample included companies that produce food of both plant and animal origin and have certified food safety management systems. A total of 156 control measures that combat physical hazards (41.6%), followed by microbial hazards (34.0%) and chemical hazards (24.4%), have been analyzed. To enable quantification of the validation protocols, each control measure was assigned a score.

Findings

The validation scores showed that the highest level of validation was observed in large companies, as opposed to small and medium-sized companies (p < 0.05). The type of food safety hazards and the food sector did not reveal any statistical differences in-between the scores. The main approach to validating control measures was referring to the technical documentation of equipment used (52.6%), followed by scientific and legal requirements (30.7%). Less than 20% of the analyzed control measures were validated with operational data collected on-site. No mathematical modeling was observed for the sampled food companies. Future steps should include the development of validation guides for different types of control measures and training modules.

Practical implications

This study can serve as an improvement guide for food safety consultants, food safety auditors, certification bodies, inspection services, food technologists and food managers.

Originality/value

This study is one of the first to provide an insight into how food companies validate their control measures to combat microbial, chemical and physical food safety hazards.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 126 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 5 April 2024

Wenwei Huang, Deyu Zhong and Yanlin Chen

Construction enterprises are achieving the goal of production safety by increasingly focusing on the critical factor of “human” and the impact of individual characteristics on…

Abstract

Purpose

Construction enterprises are achieving the goal of production safety by increasingly focusing on the critical factor of “human” and the impact of individual characteristics on safety performance. Emotional intelligence is categorized into three models: skill-based, trait-based and emotional learning systems. However, the mechanism of action and the internal relationship between emotional intelligence and safety performance must be further studied. This study intends to examine the internal mechanism of emotional intelligence on safety performance in construction projects, which would contribute to the safety management of construction enterprises.

Design/methodology/approach

A structural equation model exploring the relationship between emotional intelligence and safety performance is developed, with political skill introduced as an independent dimension, situational awareness presented as a mediator, and management safety commitment introduced as a moderator. Data were collected by a random questionnaire and analyzed by SPSS 24.0 and AMOS 26.0. The structural equation model tested the mediation hypothesis, and the PROCESS macro program tested the moderated mediation hypothesis.

Findings

The results showed that construction workers' emotional intelligence directly correlates with safety performance, and situational awareness plays a mediating role in the relationship between emotional intelligence and the safety performance of construction workers. Management safety commitment weakens the positive predictive relationships between emotional intelligence and situational awareness and between emotional intelligence and safety performance.

Originality/value

This research reveals a possible impact of emotional intelligence on safety performance. Adding political skills to the skill-based model of emotional intelligence received a test pass. Political skill measures the sincere and cooperative skills of construction workers. Using people as a critical element plays a role in the benign mechanism of “Emotional Intelligence – Situational Awareness – Safety Performance.” Improving emotional intelligence skills through training, enhancing situational awareness, understanding, anticipation and coordination and activating management environment factors can improve safety performance. Construction enterprises should evaluate and train workers' emotional intelligence to improve workers' situational awareness and safety performance.

Details

Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, vol. 31 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0969-9988

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 20 March 2024

Ayse KUCUK YILMAZ, Konstantinos N. MALAGAS and Triant G. FLOURIS

This study aims to develop an inclusive, multidisciplinary, flexible and organizationally adaptable safety risk management framework, including diversity management, that will be…

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to develop an inclusive, multidisciplinary, flexible and organizationally adaptable safety risk management framework, including diversity management, that will be implemented to ensure safety is and remains at the desired level. If the number of incidents and potential incidents that could lead to accidents and their impact rates are to be reduced operationally and administratively, aviation safety risks and sources of risk must be better understood, sources of risk identified, and the safety risk management framework designed in an organization-specific and organization-wide sustainable way. At this point, it is necessary to draw the conceptual framework well and to define the boundaries of the concepts well. In this study, a framework model that can be adapted to the organization is proposed to optimize the management of risks and provide both efficient and effective resource allocation and organizational structure design in its operations and management functions.

Design/methodology/approach

The qualitative research method – triple techniques – was deemed appropriate for this study, which aims to identify, examine, interpret and develop the situations of safety management models. In this context, document analysis, business process modeling technique and Delphi techniques from qualitative research methods were used via integration as the methodology of this research.

Findings

To manage dynamic civil aviation management activities and business processes effectively and efficiently, the risk management process is the building block of the “Proposed Process Model” that supports the decision-making processes of aviation organizations and managers. This “Framework Conceptual Model” building block also helps build capacity and resilience by enabling continuous development, organizational learning, and flexible structuring.

Research limitations/implications

This research is limited to air transportation and aviation safety management issues. This research is limited specifically to a safety-based risk management framework for the aviation industry. This research may have social implications as source saving, optimum resource use and capacity building will make a contribution to society and add value besides operational and practical implementation.

Social implications

This research may contribute to more safe operations and functions in the aviation industry.

Originality/value

Management and academia may gain considerable support from this research to manage their safety risks via a corporate-tailored risk management framework, both improving resilience and developing corporate capacity. With this model presented, decision-makers will have a guiding structure that can optimally manage the main risk types that may be encountered in the safety risk in the fields of suppliers, manufacturers, demand changes, logistics, information management, environmental, legal and regulatory. Existing studies in the literature are generally in the form of algorithms and cannot be used as a decision-making support tool. This model aims to fill the gap in the literature. In addition, added value may be created by applying this model to optimum management safety risks in the real aviation industry and its related sectors.

Details

Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, vol. 96 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1748-8842

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 19 March 2024

Weiyi Cong, Shoujian Zhang, Huakang Liang and Qingting Xiang

Job stressors have a considerable influence on workplace safety behaviors. However, the findings from previous studies regarding the effect of different types of job stressors…

Abstract

Purpose

Job stressors have a considerable influence on workplace safety behaviors. However, the findings from previous studies regarding the effect of different types of job stressors have been contradictory. This is attributable to, among other factors, the effectiveness of job stressors varying with occupations and contexts. This study examines the effects of challenge and hindrance stressors on construction workers' informal safety communication at different levels of coworker relationships.

Design/methodology/approach

A three-dimensional framework of informal safety communication is adopted, including self-needed, citizenship and participatory safety communication. Stepwise regression analysis is then performed using questionnaire survey data collected from 293 construction workers in the Chinese construction industry.

Findings

The results demonstrate that both challenge and hindrance stressors are negatively associated with self-needed and citizenship safety communication, whereas their relationships with participatory safety communication are not significant. Meanwhile, the mitigation effects of the coworker relationship (represented by trustworthiness and accessibility) on the above negative impacts vary with the communication forms. Higher trustworthiness and accessibility enable workers faced with challenge stressors to actively manage these challenges and engage in self-needed safety communication. Similarly, trustworthiness promotes workers' involvement in self-needed and citizenship safety communication in the face of hindrance stressors, but accessibility is only effective in facilitating self-needed safety communication.

Originality/value

By introducing the job demands-resources theory and distinguishing informal safety communication into three categories, this study explains the negative effects of challenge and hindrance job stressors in complex and variable construction contexts and provides additional clues to the current inconsistent findings regarding this framework. The diverse roles of challenge and hindrance job stressors also present strong evidence for the need to differentiate between the types of informal safe communication.

Details

Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, vol. 31 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0969-9988

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 9 April 2024

Shuai Zhan and Zhilan Wan

The credit of agricultural product quality and safety reflects the ability of the main actors involved in the supply chain to provide reliable agricultural products to consumers…

Abstract

Purpose

The credit of agricultural product quality and safety reflects the ability of the main actors involved in the supply chain to provide reliable agricultural products to consumers. To fundamentally solve the problem of agricultural product quality and safety, it is worth studying how to make the credit awareness and integrity self-discipline of the supply chain agriculture-related subjects strengthened and the role and value of credit supervision given full play. Starting from the application of blockchain in the agricultural product supply chain, this paper aims to investigate the main factors affecting the credit regulation of agricultural product quality.

Design/methodology/approach

Using the DEMATEL-ISM (decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory–interpretative structural modeling) method, we analyze the credit influencing factors of agricultural quality and safety empowered by blockchain technology, find the causal relationship between the crucial influencing factors and deeply explore the hierarchical transmission relationship between the influencing factors. Then, the path analysis in structural equation modeling is utilized to verify and measure the significance and effect value of the transmission relationship among the crucial influencing factors of credit regulation.

Findings

The results show that the quality and safety credit regulation of agricultural products is influenced by a combination of direct and deep influencing factors. Long-term stable cooperative relationship, Quality and safety credit evaluation, Supply chain risk control ability, Quality and safety testing, Constraints of the smart contract are the main influence path of blockchain embedded in agricultural product supply chain quality and safety credit supervision.

Originality/value

Credit supervision is an important means to improve the ability and level of social governance and standardize the market order. From the perspective of blockchain embedded in the agricultural supply chain, the regulatory body is transformed from the product body to the supply chain body. Take the credit supervision of supply chain subjects as the basis of agricultural product quality supervision. With the help of blockchain technology to improve the effectiveness of agricultural product quality and safety credit supervision, credit supervision is used to constrain and incentivize the behavior of agricultural subjects.

Details

Industrial Management & Data Systems, vol. 124 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0263-5577

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 3 May 2011

Ari Mwachofi, Stephen L. Walston and Badran A. Al‐Omar

Nurses heavily influence patient care quality and safety. This paper aims to examine socioeconomic and organizational/system factors affecting patient safety and quality…

3798

Abstract

Purpose

Nurses heavily influence patient care quality and safety. This paper aims to examine socioeconomic and organizational/system factors affecting patient safety and quality perceptions.

Design/methodology/approach

A questionnaire was constructed to gather demographic, managerial support, information technology implementation and integration information. Data were collected from nurses in five Riyadh hospitals, Saudi Arabia. Registered nurses working in hospital departments participated in the survey. A total of 566 completed questionnaires were returned. Subsequent data were analyzed through binary logistic regression.

Findings

Factors that improve patient safety and the likelihood that nurses use their own facility include: fewer visible errors; ability to communicate suggestions; information technology support and training; and a confidential error reporting system.

Research limitations/implications

The survey was a cross‐sectional study. Consequently, it is difficult to establish causation. Furthermore, nursing in these hospitals is dominated by foreign nationals. Also, as with all surveys, this research may be subject to response bias. Although the questionnaire was randomly distributed, there were no mechanisms to assure privacy and minimize peer influence. The high positive patient safety perceptions may be influenced by either individual or peer biases.

Practical implications

Nurses are important communicators; especially about hospital safety and quality. The research informs leaders about areas that need considering and improving. Findings indicate that system factors, including functional feedback, suggestions, and error reporting significantly affect patient safety improvements. Likewise, nurse education to operate their information systems has positive effects. Healthcare leaders need to understand factors that affect patient safety perceptions when creating a patient safety culture.

Originality/value

Few international articles examine the factors that influence nurses' patient safety perceptions or examine those factors that affect these perceptions. This paper adds value by researching what influences patient safety perceptions among Riyadh nurses.

Details

International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, vol. 24 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0952-6862

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 February 1982

P.B. Beaumont, J.W. Leopold and J.R. Coyle

The safety officer is a person who has been around in industry for a not inconsiderable period of time, but about whom relatively little is known. Some indication of the…

Abstract

The safety officer is a person who has been around in industry for a not inconsiderable period of time, but about whom relatively little is known. Some indication of the historical nature of the safety officer function can be obtained by an examination of the aims and membership of the Institution of Industrial Safety Officers (now called the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health). This institution, which was formed in 1953, had a membership of some 2,000 at the time of the Robens Committee Report (1970–72) and aimed to raise safety officers' standards of professional competence, to exchange information and to develop accident prevention methods and techniques. Some further historical evidence is provided by a Factory Inspectorate Survey in 1968 which revealed that less than 25 per cent of plants with more than 50 employees had safety officers, with considerable inter‐industry variation being apparent—from less than ten per cent of plants in some industries to over 70 per cent in gas, electricity and water. The vast majority of these safety officers were part time.

Details

Personnel Review, vol. 11 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0048-3486

Article
Publication date: 1 November 1982

Bob Crew

Fifteen years ago the problem for industrial safety in British industry was how to upgrade gum‐booted and untrained safety officers to the status of fully trained professionals…

Abstract

Fifteen years ago the problem for industrial safety in British industry was how to upgrade gum‐booted and untrained safety officers to the status of fully trained professionals. To this end the British Safety Council introduced a Diploma in Safety Management as the minimum qualification for the control of health and safety at work. The first task was to get companies to professionalise their safety management and, today, the best have done this, but many more have not. According to the British Safety Council in London, the first problem for companies intent on upgrading their safety managers is to ensure that they are trained in the basics of safety management and thereafter to encourage their graduation to risk management because, unlike the men from insurance backgrounds who have been traditionally responsible for risk management, those trained in safety are better qualified to assess and prevent risk rather than to transfer it to the insurers. For post‐diploma safety managers, the British Safety Council runs the only Risk Management Certification Course in Europe.

Details

Industrial Management & Data Systems, vol. 82 no. 11/12
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0263-5577

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