Chapter 14

Question 1

Who belong to the risk groups for accidents at work?

Answer 1

Male workers, younger workers and those working in agriculture, forestry, manufacturing and construction

Question 2

How did the perspectives on workplace safety change over the last century?

Answer 2

It changed from an emphasis on technical measures (making sure the machine is okay), to individual-based measures (e.g. personnel selection and training), to a focus on the application of general management principles

Question 3

What is accident exposure?

Answer 3

Refers to the number of opportunities for accidents of a certain type in a given time in a given area -> delivery biker has a higher accident exposure than someone working in the office

Question 4

What is accident propensity?

Answer 4

The conditional probability that an accident occurs, given the opportunity for one -> e.g., the biker being tired, weather conditions being bad

Question 5

What is an unintended error?

Answer 5

The action does not match the intention

Question 6

What are the two categories of unintended errors?

Answer 6

• Slips: simple action is not carried out as intended or planned (e.g. a spelling mistake)
• Lapses: omit to perform a required action; short-term memory lapse (e.g. forgetting to tighten the wheel nuts after changing a tyre)

Question 7

What is an intended error?

Answer 7

One’s action matches one’s intention, but the desired result is not achieved

Question 8

What are the two categories of intended errors?

Answer 8

• Mistakes: deficiencies or failures in the judgmental and/or inferential processes involved in the selection of an objective
• Violations: action is performed as intended, it deliberately flouts safety rules and procedures thus it is not an error

Question 9

What are the two types of mistakes?

Answer 9

• Rule-based errors: incorrect application of a rule

- Knowledge-based errors: the situation is wrongly understood

Question 10

What are the three types of violations?

Answer 10

• Routine violations -> taking a path of least effort
• Optimizing violations -> involve optimizing non-functional goals ahead of safety
• Situational violations -> occur when workers see violations essential to get the job done

Question 11

What are the three different types of work-related actions?

Answer 11

• Skill-based actions -> routine actions in a highly familiar operating environment
• Knowledge-based actions -> required in novel situations which demand problem-solving and reasoning to work out a course of action
• Rule-based actions -> the situation has been encountered before, meaning that the action is governed by the selection and use of stored rules

Question 12

What are active failures?

Answer 12

Unsafe acts; cognitive errors or violations of safety rules

Question 13

What are latent failures?

Answer 13

1. Fallible managerial decisions
2. Line management deficiencies
3. Psychological precursors to unsafe acts
4. Inadequate defences against unsafe acts

Question 14

Explain the accident causation scenario of Wagenaar et al. (1990)

Answer 14

An accident is the endpoint of a series of events that starts with bad management decisions -> latent failures -> affect psychological processes determining the actual behaviour at work -> workers invited to commint unsafe acts -> potential accidents

Question 15

The general failure types (GFT’s) are divided into 4 categories, what are these categories?

Answer 15

1. Physical environment -> design failures, missing defences
2. Human behaviour -> poor procedures and defective training
3. Management -> organizational failures and lack of communication
4. Failures in maintenance -> bad maintenance of machinery and tools

Question 16

A number of factors is associated with the occurrence of accidents. What are these 5 factors?

Answer 16

1. Management practices: how organizations are managed affects accident rates (e.g., rewards for reporting safety hazards, safety training, management commitment to safety)
2. Job-related factors: the type of work conducted may entail risks for the safety and health of workers (e.g., high work pressure, long working hours)
3. Physical environment: e.g., noise, temperature
4. Support from co-workers and supervisors: the social environment determines work behaviour
5. Safety climate

Question 17

How can safety climate be defined?

Answer 17

The shared perceptions of employees about the task behaviours that are appropriate and adaptive in their work environments. The shared perceptions act as a frame of reference against which employees evaluate their own safety behaviours.

Question 18

How do safety climate and accident rate mutually influence each other?

Answer 18

The presence of a positive safety climate is an antecedent of lower accident rates in organizations. In contrast, high accident rates may motivate organizations to work on their safety climate.

Question 19

What is the definition of safety management?

Answer 19

An organization’s system of procedures for the identification of workplace hazards and the reduction of accidents

Question 20

What is the idea behind safety management?

Answer 20

Organizations should use errors and accidents to their advantage. Furthermore, the five safety guidelines will help organizations in establishing a climate that allows them to learn from such events.

Question 21

What are the five guidelines for creating a positive safety climate?

Answer 21

1. Make people believe in safety, start at the top
2. Send appropriate signals that safety matters
3. Encourage discussion and documentation of errors
4. Examine all levels when searching for solutions
5. Prepare people through training

Question 22

What is the definition of safety citizenship behaviour?

Answer 22

Discretionary behaviours that go beyond an employee’s usual job role and promote the safety in the organization

Question 23

What are the six dimensions of safety citizenship behaviour (SCB)?

Answer 23

1. Helping others to work more safely (helping)
2. Speaking out on safety matters (voice)
3. Protecing others from risk (stewardship)
4. Reporting safety violation (Whistleblowing)
5. Attending safety meetings (Civic virtue)
6. Trying to improve safety procedures (Initiating safety-related change)