Paula L. Grubb

A systematic review of the effectiveness of occupational health and safety training

OBJECTIVES Training is regarded as an important component of occupational health and safety (OHS) programs. This paper primarily addresses whether OHS training has a beneficial effect on workers. The paper also examines whether higher engagement OHS training has a greater effect than lower engagement training. METHODS Ten bibliographic databases were searched for pre-post randomized trial studies published in journals between 1996 and November 2007. Training interventions were included if they were delivered to workers and were concerned with primary prevention of occupational illness or injury. The methodological quality of each relevant study was assessed and data was extracted. The impacts of OHS training in each study were summarized by calculating the standardized mean differences. The strength of the evidence on trainings effectiveness was assessed for (i) knowledge, (ii) attitudes and beliefs, (iIi) behaviors, and (iv) health using the US Centers for Disease Control and Preventions Guide to Community Preventive Services, a qualitative evidence synthesis method. RESULTS Twenty-two studies met the relevance criteria of the review. They involved a variety of study populations, occupational hazards, and types of training. Strong evidence was found for the effectiveness of training on worker OHS behaviors, but insufficient evidence was found of its effectiveness on health (ie, symptoms, injuries, illnesses). CONCLUSIONS The review team recommends that workplaces continue to deliver OHS training to employees because training positively affects worker practices. However, large impacts of training on health cannot be expected, based on research evidence.

WORKPLACE AGGRESSION AND VIOLENCE AGAINST INDIVIDUALS AND ORGANIZATIONS: CAUSES, CONSEQUENCES, AND INTERVENTIONS

This chapter examines aggression at work perpetrated by individual insiders by bringing together streams of research that have often been examined separately. A comparison of the similarities and differences of aggression toward individuals, such as verbal abuse or physical attack, and aggression toward organizations, such as embezzlement or work slowdowns, is shown to provide important insights about the causes and consequences of workplace aggression. We propose a comprehensive model based on the integration of prior theoretical treatments and empirical findings. The model attempts to offer a framework to systematically examine psychological and organizational mechanisms underlying workplace aggression, and to explain the reasons why workplace violence policies and procedures sometimes fail. A set of research propositions is also suggested to assist in achieving this end in future research.

23 Healthy Workplaces

Creating a healthy and safe work environment for employees is a major concern of organizations. This concern has also served as the basis for a great deal of research in a number of disciplines, including psychology. The purpose of this chapter is to review the psychologically based literature related to occupational health and safety, and perhaps more importantly explain how this is used to facilitate healthy and safe work in organizational settings. We do this by first describing the recent development of the field of occupational health psychology (OHP) as a framework for examining occupational health and safety. We then forge into the major topics in the chapter, which will include: (a) conditions within organizations which psychologists have shown to adversely impact employee health, (b) employee safety, (c) “at-risk” groups or those groups of individuals who might be most likely impacted by conditions which negative impact health and safety, and (d) interventions that are designed to improve employee health. The chapter will conclude with a number of suggestions for future research. Keywords: safety; role stress; workload; occupational health; workplace violence; job insecurity

The Effects of Cognitive Demand on Performance, Mood, and Ratings of Discomfort in Keyboard Work

The present study examined the role of cognitive demand in the production of musculoskeletal discomfort in keyboard work. Four laboratory tasks were devised to tap into different types of cognitive demands that might be encountered in keyboard work: (1) short-term memory: (2) longterm memory; (3) divided attention; and (4) focused attention. Difficulty level (easy, difficult) was varied within each task type. Outcome measures included performance indicators and subjective assessments of musculoskeletal discomfort, visual discomfort, cognitive demand, and mood. The results indicated that the easy and diffiwlt versions of tasks differed significantly only for the longterm memory task. The difficult version of the long-term memory task was associated with lower levels of performance and higher ratings of cognitive demand, musculoskeletal discomfort, fatigue, and boredom. These findings suggest that musculoskeletal discomfort can be influenced by the cognitive demands imposed by a given task.