Odd Einar Olsen

Job characteristics and computer anxiety in the production industry

Abstract The present study was part of a larger Norwegian research effort termed “Learning in computer based industrial information networks,” which is funded by the Norwegian Research Council. This action research based investigation was aimed at developing and implementing computer technology for improving profitability, employee well being, and work environment. The present study was conducted to investigate antecedents of computer anxiety, and was based upon a postal survey conducted in 1999. The sample included 336 employees. Data analyses were performed with structural equation modeling (LISREL). In addition to gender, age and education, the data analyses revealed that the job characteristics of decision authority and training were the most important determinants of computer anxiety. Job demands did not relate significantly to computer anxiety. Managers had less computer anxiety than non-managers. The practical implications of these findings corresponded with findings in a number of other Norwegian action research studies, and suggested that clear and specific goals should be expressed for any continuous improvement activity. New technology introductions should be accompanied by user involvement, training and active practical use. Special attention should be paid to women, lower educated, and older employees.

Societal safety, archaeology and the investigation of contemporary mass graves

This paper focuses on the aftermath of conflicts in which state authorities or rebels have directly ordered, induced, sanctioned or “institutionalized” massive human rights abuses by deaths and mass killings of “unwanted elements,” and the subsequent concealment by disposal of the dead in mass graves. To describe all unlawful killings by government in the twentieth century, R. J. Rummel introduced the term democide to comprise genocide, politicide and mass murder (1994, Chapter 2). Rummel used the legal definition of genocide, which applies to the intended destruction of national, ethnical, racial or religious groups, but restricted his interest to genocidal killing. To define the premeditated killing or murder of any person or people by a government because of their politics or for political purposes, he introduced the term politicide. Mass murder was defined as the indiscriminate murder of any person or people by government. Rummel presents a figure of 170 million victims of democide in the period 1900–1987 (1994, Chapter 1, Table 1.2, 1997). Of these, 38.5 million became victims of genocide, equalling the total number of battle-dead in the same period. Aftermath societal rebuilding processes are often designated as reconciliation processes. Reconciliation, originally a religious concept, cannot be enforced—it is for individuals to find and grant, but may be facilitated by political, humanitarian and judicial means. Over the past three decades, officially instituted reconciliation processes have become typical of the transition into democracy of former authoritarian or totalitarian societies. Truth commissions have become a popular strategy in this respect. Legal proceedings have on occasion been conducted parallel to truth investigations, but very often, perpetrators have been granted amnesty and, in many instances, even retained office. However, since the ad hoc International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and Rwanda (ICTR) started working in the 1990s, the struggle against impunity seems to have grown stronger both internationally and within individual states. Journal of Genocide Research (2006), 8(4), December, 411–435

Reliability-seeking networks in complex emergencies

The purpose of this article is to identify major coordination challenges during complex emergencies, and discuss some theoretical implications of these challenges. The huge increase in non-governmental humanitarian organisations and also military forces involved in emergencies during the last 15 years has put professional coordination on top of the international humanitarian agenda. The main coordination challenge highlighted in recent literature is that lack of authority to coordinate or command hampers decision making. Furthermore, the large number of actors hampers coordination due to competition, different mandates and reluctance to share information. Seeking reliability in coordination within the high-hazard and rapidly changing environment in a complex emergency should rely on resiliency (flexibility and diversity). Flexibility and especially diversity is hard to obtain for one single multi-purpose organisation in the hostile environment of a complex emergency. Thus, a network structure is preferable for humanitarian relief operations.

Rape in refugee camps as organisational failures

Gender-based violence (GBV) in refugee camps is analysed by using mainstream theories of risk and safety management derived from studies of accidents in technological production systems. We use theory of organisational accidents and man-made disasters to explain the mutual linkages between latent conditions for GBV embedded in the structures of humanitarian organisations, and assaults occurring in the camps. Furthermore, safety management theory is applied to explain how organisational preconditions for GBV may develop unnoticed in humanitarian organisations and ultimately contribute to the perpetuated vulnerability of refugee women. The analysis is based on a study undertaken in Sierra Leone. The authors wish to state that the following article has been written on an equal footing.

Universal and contextual tools as a double strategy in emergency planning

Emergency planning is normally focused on larger unexpected events. A basic planning tool is the risk and vulnerability analysis (RAV) based on a top-down rational planning process. In this paper, we discuss a concept of mini-risk analysis (MRA) as an additional strategy to cope with accidents and disasters in the local community. MRAs focus on daily risks and small incidents. The MRA argument claims that if the employees are accustomed to cope with daily incidents, this competence will enhance their capacity to mitigate disasters. Findings from two small Norwegian municipalities indicate that the MRA strategy is a complementary tool in emergency planning, taking care of aspects poorly dealt with in a top-down rational planning process like the RAVs. The main challenge is to combine the two approaches in emergency planning.

Implementing Quality and Health/Safety Systems in the Hospitality Industry. A Comparison with the Aluminium Industry in Norway

This paper discusses mechanisms facilitating the implementation and merging of Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) management and Quality Management Systems (QMS) in the hospitality industry in Norway. An earlier study concluded that combining a quality system of food control with regulation of OHS seems to be a healthy recipe for the hospitality industry in Norway (Lindøe & Lie, 2002). This study goes a step further by addressing issues regarding the industrial context, industrial relations and active participation from all stakeholders. By comparing the implementation of QMS and OHS-management with the process in the aluminium industry what seems to be lacking in the hospitality industry is an implementation process rooted in the workforce where workers and safety representatives act as constructive and critical stakeholders. In booth industries issues concerning quality will to a large extent be managed through market signals, whereas health and safety issues still need to be regulated and supported by the authorities due to lack of market influence. If the OHS-management is not to be institutionalized among the stakeholders in the hospitality sector there is a risk of degenerating from a healthy and dynamic participatory process to a bureaucratic management tool.

Conflicting goals and mixed roles in risk regulation: a case study of the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate

This paper discusses the challenge of a regulator being on a position of preventing organisational accidents in high‐technology domains when causes are complex, often poorly understood and with an open or hidden expectation of adding values to society. The purpose of the paper is to assess the combination of mixed roles when a regulator combines the task of facilitating resources management along with controlling the accompanied risks – multiple goals that may be in opposition to each other and mixed roles that may serve opposite interests. The roles and goals of Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD), divided after 30 years of successful operation, are used as a case study. The analysis shows that separating the mixed roles of NPD seems reasonable. However, multiple goals embedded in the resource development create dilemmas facing institutions in the market as well as the regulating authorities in their effort to realise their purpose. That cannot be suspended by a shortcut redesign or new division of labour in ministries, directorates or agencies. The Janus face is a reminder of risks as essential human and social phenomena, being particularly true in sectors and arenas where economic, social and technological risks being at stake.

Gaining access to a research site and participants in medical and nursing research: a synthesis of accounts.

The literature contains few accounts of how access to a research site and participants in medical and nursing research is gained, and few efforts to synthesise the existing accounts. Therefore, this article has two main goals: (i) to synthesise our own account of access with others in the medical and nursing literature, and (ii) to derive from this synthesis considerations of access and implications for health professions education.

Planning theory in a paradigm perspective

The objective of this article is to investigate the development of planning theory in a paradigm perspective. After a long period of time when the rational planning philosophy was more or less universal in the Western cultures, a great number of objections against this paradigm has been raised during the last 30 years. Today, less value is attached to the rational planning paradigm than ever before, while no substitute has been established. Moreover, it may prove very difficult indeed to establish an alternative paradigm to one so deeply rooted in Western understanding of society.

Learning engineers to reflect: obstacles and remedies in an engineering community

The article reports results from a research facilitated learning project carried out in an engineering department in an oil and gas company. The objective of the project was to enhance an awareness of and the ability to use, dialogue and reflection-based learning approaches. The results document that the project-based engineering setting induces structural, organisational, and cultural obstacles to learning. Obstacles may come in the forms of a discipline-based organisation, employee turnover, time pressure, insufficient management involvement, lack of commitment, conflicting reifications, and an overstated belief in codification. Remedies for some of these obstacles have been to create spaces in the engineering setting for multi-disciplinary discussions, for reflection and common understanding of procedures and cases, in facilitated learning sessions and case study sessions.