Administering Danger In The Workplace

Working in a stressful environment not only increases the risk of physical illness or distress, but also increases the likelihood of workplace accidents. While legislation provides some guidelines for risk assessment of physical hazards, there remains limited guidance on the risks of psychosocial hazards, such as occupational stress. This book takes the risk management approach to stress evaluation in the workplace, offering practical guidelines for the audit, assessment and mitigation of workplace stressors. Based on research and case studies, this book provides a comprehensive source of theoretical and practical information for students and practitioners alike. It includes chapters on: * environmental stress factors * psychological stress factors * work-related accidents * job stress evaluation methods With its up-to-date approach to a fascinating area of study, this is key reading for all students of organizational psychology and those responsible for workplace safety.

Based on original research findings, it provides a comprehensive source of theoretical and practical information for students and practitioners alike.

Today’s evolving world of work makes it imperative for employers to manage psychosocial hazards (PSH) and risks leading to work-related stress. This book contains essential, general, and country-specific information and templates for the successful management of hazards to prevent psychological harm in the workplace. Acknowledged as global issues affecting all workers and industries, PSH are work factors that have the potential to lead to physical or psychological injury and stress, relating to how work is designed, organized, and managed, and to work relationships and interactions. This book advances the idea that management of PSH, and psychological health and safety, is part of the duty of care of today’s responsible and ethical employers to employees, and that U.S. employers should recognize this responsibility. Clear and easy to follow, this guide presents comprehensive information on addressing PSH, discussing measures taken internationally (laws, guidance, and resources from Europe, Canada, Mexico, Australia, and Japan), and a new global standard on psychological health and safety at work. (Note: At times within this book, and Part II in particular, punctuation may be added to quoted provisions for ease of reading and for consistency.) Practitioners and students in the fields of management, occupational health and safety, human resource management, ethics and compliance, occupational health psychology, and organizational psychology will come away with a deeper understanding of the importance of PSH and their management.

First published in 1999, this second edition has been revised and updated, taking into account new information, research and policy debates. The amount of international information has been increased and a chapter on New Zealand has been added. Takes a holistic and multidisciplinary approach to managing occupational health and safety. Includes references, a bibliography and an index. Bohle is professor in the School of Industrial Relations and Organisational Behaviour and Quinlan is professor of industrial relations at the University of NSW. Both authors have published widely on occupational health and safety.

With a focus on five major regions globally (UK, US, Europe, Canada, and Australia) Identifying and Managing Risk at Work outlines key regional factors affecting risk and its management. This volume looks at the social production and social construction of risk as well as taking a labour-process approach and socio-political perspective to investigate the nature and causes of work-related risk. In addition, there are several issues included that contribute to identifying risk at work such as climate change, the "gig" economy and the "Me Too" movement. Readers will gain a picture of some of the major current issues that are affecting risk under globalisation. Drawing on these key aspects of risk, students, academics, practitioners, and policy-makers will gain a better understanding of how risk is conceptualised and identified, and of the roles of management and employees in dealing with risk. This book will be of interest to researchers and practitioners to help gain an understanding of risk for a number of regions, and how several current issues in globalisation can be seen in their risk context.

Critical Steps happen every day at work and at home, purposefully. Work does not happen otherwise. If an operation has the capacity to do work, then it has the capacity to do harm. Work is energy directed by human beings to create value. But people are imperfect—we make mistakes, and sometimes we lose control of the work. Therefore, work is the use of force under conditions of uncertainty. A Critical Step is a human action that will trigger immediate, irreversible, and intolerable harm to an asset, if that action or a preceding action is performed improperly. Whether the human action involves clicking on a link attached to an e-mail message, walking down a flight of stairs with a newborn baby in arms, engaging the clutch on a gasoline-driven chain saw, or administering a medication to a patient in a hospital, these all satisfy the definition of what constitutes critical risks in our daily lives, professionally or personally. The overarching goal of managing Critical Steps is to maximize the success (safety, reliability, productivity, quality, profitability, etc.) of people’s performance in the workplace, to create value for the organization without losing control of built-in hazards necessary to create that value.

Focusing on risky interactions, the book centres on those interactions that threaten identities and relationships and sometimes careers such as: practising dissent; repairing broken relationships; managing privacy; responding to harassment; offering criticism and communicating emotion. In doing so the text helps students understand types of work situations that are both ethically challenging and personally risky while presenting a theoretical model to help them: integrate existing research, analyze situations, and generate new questions.