Leaving it up to the Workers: Sociological Perspective on the Management of Health and Safety in Small Workplaces

1992 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 689-704 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joan M. Eakin
Keyword(s):  
Occupational Health ◽  
Health Behavior ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Business Owners ◽  
Individual Autonomy ◽  
Small Business Owners ◽  
Workplace Health ◽  
Workplace Hazards ◽  
Management Intervention ◽  
The Social

Small workplaces present particular challenges for the promotion of occupational health and safety. However, little is known about the social organization of work in such settings and how it relates to matters of health and safety. The research on which this article is based relates patterns of occupational health behavior to the nature of social relationships within the workplace. From a qualitative analysts of interviews with 53 small business owners, the author describes the most common approach to managing workplace health and safety: leaving it up to the workers. This posture is explained in terms of the owners' perception of risk, particularly their understanding of workplace hazards, and their assessment of the social costs of ignoring or addressing such issues. Owners tended to discount or normalize health hazards, and to believe that management intervention in employee health behavior was paternalistic and inconsistent with prevailing patterns of labor relations and norms respecting individual autonomy. Many owners understood health and safety not as a bureaucratic function of management but as a personal moral enterprise in which they did not have legitimate authority. The conceptualization of the owners' responses in terms of “social rationality” has implications for addressing problems of health and safety in small workplaces.

scholarly journals Small business barriers to occupational health and safety compliance

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Elriza Esterhuyzen
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Occupational Health ◽  
Small Business ◽  
South African ◽  
Small Businesses ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Occupational Health And Safety ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Business Owners ◽  
Small Business Owners

Background: The Constitution of South Africa indicates that all people have the right to an environment that is not harmful to their health and well-being. This right is reiterated in the Occupational Health and Safety Act 83 of 1993. However, small business owners and/or managers experience specific barriers to occupational health and safety (OHS) compliance. The study was conducted in Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape provinces of South Africa, as these three provinces account for 82% of active businesses in South Africa.Objective: This article discusses barriers to OHS compliance as perceived by South African small business owners and/or managers.Method: A total of 350 small business owners and/or managers from the three above-mentioned provinces participated in a questionnaire survey, with one section focussing on barriers to OHS compliance. Participants rated 11 predetermined barriers to OHS compliance and could indicate and rate additional barriers. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to report on these perceived barriers.Results: Results indicated that the perceived barriers to OHS compliance can be categorised as human and resource barriers.Conclusion: South African small business owners and/or managers experience barriers to compliance that prevent them from full compliance with OHS directives, which can be costly. Small business owners and/or managers need to take cognisance of applicable OHS directives as well as identified barriers to compliance. These barriers need to be addressed to allow small businesses to comply with OHS directives and to enhance the sustainability of small businesses. The question is not whether small businesses can afford OHS compliance, but if they can afford not to overcome barriers and comply.

A Message to the Labor Movement: Stop and Think!

1996 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 595-609 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Sass
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Occupational Health ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Democratic Party ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Occupational Health And Safety ◽  
Government Policies ◽  
Workplace Health ◽  
The Social

Trade unions and workers in North America have been objectified and instrumentalized by all political regimes, including the social-democratic New Democratic Party in Canada. And it is means-end non-thinking that characterizes government policies. Liberal elites and policy-making have marginalized ordinary workers making them “superfluous” without any vision of an “ethical community” and demonstrating contempt for democratic initiatives. There are oppositionary voices to the dominant social structures that oppress and undermine community and solidarity. However, trade unions and occupational health and safety “activists” have yet to reassess their strategies on workplace health and safety reforms, but are on the defensive in North America. Further, they are complicit with the dominant ideology and the occupational health and safety establishment, including the various and diverse professionals, who shape how we think about work environment matters; and they accommodate government regulators in mediating worker experiences and expectations with employer interests. The author suggests the beginning of a strategy that does not succumb to present-day liberal public policy-making and the atrophy of alternative options. In part, this strategy calls for a rudimentary phenomenology of moral judgment and a reconstruction of labor “tradition.”

Identifying Health and Safety Risks for Childcare Workers

AAOHN Journal ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 55 (8) ◽  
pp. 321-325 ◽  
Author(s):  
Belinda J. McGrath
Keyword(s):  
Health Promotion ◽  
Occupational Health ◽  
Workplace Health Promotion ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Workplace Health ◽  
Safety Issues ◽  
Safety Risks ◽  
Health Promotion Programs ◽  
Childcare Workers ◽  
Health And Safety Risks

Childcare workers are exposed to several health and safety risks in their work environment, the most common being infectious diseases, musculoskeletal injuries, accidents, and occupational stress. Pregnant childcare workers have an additional risk of potential harm to the fetus. Occupational health nurses can work collaboratively with childcare workers to reduce these risks and provide workplace health promotion programs. This article explores the occupational health and safety issues for childcare workers and suggests health promotion strategies that could be implemented by occupational health nurses working in this arena.

Health Promotion in the Workplace – The Merging of the Paradigms

2005 ◽  
Vol 44 (02) ◽  
pp. 278-284 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Yassi
Keyword(s):  
Health Promotion ◽  
Occupational Health ◽  
Healthy Lifestyle ◽  
Workplace Health Promotion ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Holistic Approach ◽  
Occupational Health And Safety ◽  
Healthcare Sector ◽  
Workplace Health ◽  
The Individual

Summary Purpose: To synthesize the lessons from both occupational health and health promotion, to improve workplace health. Approach: This article briefly outlines the evolution in defining and understanding health promotion as well as current thinking in occupational health and safety.It also discusses an approach taken in the healthcare sector in British Columbia, Canada, where evidence-based practices and collaboration became the cornerstones to bringing about change and achieve impressive cost-beneficial results in healthcare workforce health. Conclusion: Traditionally, workplace health promotion and occupational health and safety have been two solitudes. Workplace health promotion is rooted in ‘wellness’ and healthy lifestyle choices, while occupational health is heavily dictated by workplace health and safety requirements and legislation. Recently however, there has been increasing recognition of the need for a more holistic approach that focusses on workplace culture, addressing both primary and secondary prevention [1], as well as interventions aimed both at the individual as well as the organisation [2].

A Strategic Response to the Occupational Health Establishment

1996 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 355-370 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Sass
Keyword(s):  
Occupational Health ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Occupational Health And Safety ◽  
Workplace Hazards ◽  
Strategic Response ◽  
The Awakening ◽  
Positive Side ◽  
Union Activists ◽  
The Way

The experiences of occupational health and safety “activists” in Canada reveal the limits of achieving reform in working conditions by technical efforts in combination with rank-and-file activation. The author argues that the way union “activists” approach occupational health and safety limits workers in dealing with their actual experiences and understanding about workplace hazards and risk, then discusses the conditions for the awakening of their critical consciousness as a basis of acting on hazardous working conditions. The first movement in the way the worker apprehends the work environment is a movement of negation and is the prior condition to a critical and disclosive discourse about workplace hazards. It is the positive side of “No!” and the taking seriously of workers' rights. It is this negation of the negative that holds out the greatest hope for solidarity and a liberatory community in workplaces, since legislated workers' rights as the basis of protection have become a facade. Workers can respond with the power of saying “No!” in solidarity with suffering workers, and then work through appropriate principles, ends, or strategies avoiding entrapment by a “telos” in the first instance. By laying out these “ends” or a strategic paradigm, one introduces a “conversation stopper” for workers and atrophies their activation.

scholarly journals Drafting a Health and Safety Guide for Construction Forensics Practitloners

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 71-73
Author(s):  
A. E. Fomenko
Keyword(s):  
Occupational Health ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Occupational Health And Safety ◽  
Workplace Health ◽  
Workplace Health And Safety ◽  
Expert Community

Presented is a draft occupational health and safety manual for construction forensics practitioners. The draft guide was developed with the purpose of improving the reliability of workplace health and safety arrangements in construction forensics units within the system of the Russian Ministry of Justice. The expert community is invited to consider the proposed draft document.

scholarly journals Social Networks And Entrepreneurial Growth

2011 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 65 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sherry Robinson ◽  
Hans Anton Stubberud
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Training Programs ◽  
Business Owners ◽  
Small Business Owners ◽  
Start Up ◽  
The Social ◽  
European Business ◽  
Access Information ◽  
Entrepreneurial Growth ◽  
And Training

Social networks are important to new entrepreneurs and small business owners because the ability to access information, advice, and necessary resources is vital to the success of new firms. This study examines the social networks of European business owners according to employment size after approximately three years of survival as a business. The results show that the sources of advice used at start-up varied by the size of business with employers of ten or more people more likely to report having received advice from professional acquaintances, financial institutions and training programs, and less likely to have received advice from family and friends or professional consultants. Although these people were more likely to report that they did not need advice, they were also the least likely to report that they had no access to advice. Those with between one and nine employees were the most likely to report using professional consultants (a formal source), suggesting their informal social networks were not as well­­-developed.

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