TY - JOUR
T1 - A sociotechnical systems approach to enhance safety climate in the trucking industry
T2 - Results of an in-depth investigation
AU - Murphy, Lauren A.
AU - Huang, Yueng hsiang
AU - Robertson, Michelle M.
AU - Jeffries, Susan
AU - Dainoff, Marvin J.
N1 - Funding Information:
This study was completed as part of the first author's postdoctoral fellowship at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety from 2011 to 2014. The authors wish to thank both institutions for the support given during this study. The authors also wish to thank Dr. Jin Lee for his assistance in the item response theory analysis and Drs. Lawrence Hettinger and Maurizio Trippolini for reviewing this manuscript and offering their comments. This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2018/1
Y1 - 2018/1
N2 - The purpose of this study was to develop a methodology that extends safety climate beyond an overall score by using the framework of macroergonomics to examine the entire system in a more comprehensive manner. The study is discussed in two papers: one paper describes the study methodology in detail (Murphy, Robertson, Huang, Jeffries, & Dainoff, in press), and the current paper describes the results of the study. Multiple methods were combined to create a systems approach, and those methods include the critical incident technique, contextual inquiries with functional role diagrams, and affinity mapping. Key informants in the trucking industry identified 19 themes that affect safety. The themes ranged from balancing work and family/personal time, the company's policy vs. practice, respecting the job of the driver, and active listening and meaningful feedback. The most prominent themes were related to the workers and their activities; the internal environment, including psychosocial job design elements; and organizational design. Such information can be used to design interventions to change the safety climate of an organization in order to reduce negative safety outcomes.
AB - The purpose of this study was to develop a methodology that extends safety climate beyond an overall score by using the framework of macroergonomics to examine the entire system in a more comprehensive manner. The study is discussed in two papers: one paper describes the study methodology in detail (Murphy, Robertson, Huang, Jeffries, & Dainoff, in press), and the current paper describes the results of the study. Multiple methods were combined to create a systems approach, and those methods include the critical incident technique, contextual inquiries with functional role diagrams, and affinity mapping. Key informants in the trucking industry identified 19 themes that affect safety. The themes ranged from balancing work and family/personal time, the company's policy vs. practice, respecting the job of the driver, and active listening and meaningful feedback. The most prominent themes were related to the workers and their activities; the internal environment, including psychosocial job design elements; and organizational design. Such information can be used to design interventions to change the safety climate of an organization in order to reduce negative safety outcomes.
KW - Macroergonomics
KW - Safety climate
KW - Sociotechnical systems theory
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U2 - 10.1016/j.apergo.2017.08.002
DO - 10.1016/j.apergo.2017.08.002
M3 - Article
C2 - 28958432
AN - SCOPUS:85027874831
SN - 0003-6870
VL - 66
SP - 70
EP - 81
JO - Applied Ergonomics
JF - Applied Ergonomics
ER -