From the coalface: a study of the response of a South African colliery to the threat of AIDS

South African exports of steam coal are the second-largest in the world and her collieries are the third-largest global exporters of coal per se. As such, the coal mining industry accounts for 34% percent of the total output of South Africa’s mining sector. (Survey of Trade and Industry, 1996). The industry is making a valuable direct and valuable contribution to the development of the South African economy, because it provides thousands of jobs and has many backward and forward linkages. The effects of HIV/AIDS in this labour-intensive minerals sector are therefore likely to be devastating. Sub-Saharan Africa has only 10% of the world’s population, yet 83% of world-wide AIDS deaths reported last year were from this region. AIDS is expected to cost 10 million South Africans their lives by 2015 (Mining Weekly, 14/12/2001). The gazette also quotes Southern Africa’s estimate in Mining, Minerals and Sustainable Development (MMSD) -that 27% of mineworkers will have died of AIDS by 2005. Gold Fields calculates that in its workforce, 26,4% of employees between the ages of 24 and 54 are infected. Platinum producer Lonmin reported a 26% infection rate, while Anglo Platinum test results showed an infection level of 18%- 22% (Mining Weekly, 14/12/2001). It is unclear how the mining houses derived these figures, as testing may be done only with informed consent, and mining unions have advised their members against it. These estimates have led to an admission by the Department of Minerals and Energy that ‘there is no clear indication of what the mineworker infection rate is at present…the infection rate cannot be determined on an empirical basis’ (Mining Weekly, 14/12/2001). Given that the average national infection rate for adults at that time stood at 24,5%, these estimates do not seem unlikely. (Statistic quoted by Chamber of Mines health advisor Lettie la Grange in Mining Weekly, 14/12/2001)

From Quality-I to Quality-II: cultivating an error culture to support lean thinking and rework mitigation in infrastructure projects

While lean thinking may help tackle waste, rework remains an ongoing problem during the construction of infrastructure projects. Often too much emphasis is placed on applying lean tools rather than harnessing the human factor and establishing a culture to mitigate rework. Thus, this paper proposes the need for construction organisations to transition from the prevailing error prevention culture (i.e. Quality-I) that pervades practice to one based on error management (i.e. Quality-II) if rework is to be contained and reduced. Accordingly, this paper asks: What type of error culture is required to manage errors that result in rework and to support lean thinking during the construction of infrastructure projects? We draw on the case of a program alliance of 129 water infrastructure projects and make sense of how it enacted, in addition to lean thinking, a change initiative to transition from error prevention to an error management culture to address its rework problem. We observed that leadership, psychological safety and coaching were pivotal for cultivating a culture where there was an acceptance that ‘errors happen’ and effort was directed at mitigating their adverse consequences. The contributions of this paper are twofold as we provide: (1) a new theoretical underpinning to mitigate rework and support the use of lean thinking during the construction of infrastructure projects grounded in Quality-II; and (2) practical suggestions, based on actual experiences, which can be readily employed to monitor and anticipate rework at the coalface of construction

Case For Consultation: A Managers Perspective

This research supports the hypothesis that consultation, team work and congruence is a strategy to reduce risk, and that effective consultation reduces the potential for outrage when things do not go to plan. The research sought the opinion of managers on these matters, and if they were aware of own-biases that undermine the effectiveness in which they engage, and of antidotes to such “hazardous thoughts”. To understand what influences consultation (“upwards listening” as such) we conducted 4 preliminary one-on-one interviews. We then surveyed a total of 20 senior managers and other stakeholders in the coal mining industry, in an on-line survey. 100% of respondents (17/17) believe that access to information improves chances of making a correct decision; 78% of respondents (13/17) believe that managers are conscious of a socially divide (class-stratification) from subordinates; 100% of respondents (17/17) believe that managers must consult with employees in order to reduce Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S) risk; 58% (11/19) believe that someone should be held to account for an OH&S disaster; 94% (15/16) believe that distributed decision making results in more resilient operations; 65% (11/17) agree that it is important for employees to have representatives to act as a channel of communication with management on safety and health matters; 71% (11/17) believe that elected safety and health representatives are likely to abuse their powers if they are a member of a union; 82% (14/17) believe that very close co-operation between mine managers, the Mines Inspectorate, and the workmen's inspectors reduces OH&S risk. The research demonstrated that managers are conscious of own-biases, and of behaviour that is capable of undermining consultation and system safety. Managers also understand why mismanagement of information can be promoted by others as prima-facie-evidence-of-neglect, or malfeasance, when disaster strikes. It is hypothesised that managers in safety system are akin to jurors in the judicial system; ethics apply, and both managers and jurors are expected to represent the interests of community, not themselves

On being a doctor in an acute NHS hospital trust: a classic grounded theory

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Johannesburg, November 2015The aim of this study was to give an account of what it means to be a hospital consultant in a national health service that has been undergoing change for almost three decades. Classic grounded theory was used to identify the main concern of hospital consultants sampled for the study and how they resolved this concern on a routine basis. Data were obtained from three sources: interviews, observation and document analyses. Classic grounded theory procedures of constant comparison and theoretical sampling were used and Rolling with the Punches emerged as the pattern of behaviour through which the hospital consultants dealt with their main concern, which was managerialism. Rolling with the Punches involves four modes: Stabilising Temporarily, Resisting, Limiting the Impact and Adjusting to/Living with. The mode of behaviour was contingent on a central and on-going Weighing-up process, in which the hospital consultants used their personal narratives, beliefs and commitment structures to make sense of what was happening and what they could possibly do about it. Hence, the mode of behaviour was contingent, historicised and in flux. The Weighing-up process can set off triggers that can lead to a change of mode that need not be linear. Key words: doctors, managers, grounded theory, weighing up, stabilising temporarily, resisting, subverting, quibbling, limiting the impact, lying low, faking it, living with, adjusting to, going with the flow, complying, waiting it out.MB201

Aesthetics of Law and Literary License: an anatomy of the legal imagination

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.As a normative discipline, law defines its territory according to simple categories which establish absolute principles purporting to offer a single truth as to what is just and unjust, right and wrong, good and bad. In addition, linguistic and extrasemantic devices such as synecdoche, metonymy, rhythm and metaphor serve a referential function with which to penetrate the collective consciousness. The core assumptions derived from the implementation of socio-linguistic mechanisms transform the nature of legal analysis and are embedded within a diverse interplay of meanings. Aesthetic imaginings are evidenced to underpin and sustain ‘law’s symbolic processes and doctrines, institutions and ideas; that is, a realm of limitless fantasy, of free-flowing nomological desire, fixed around, and fixated upon controlling images that condense its central juridical concepts’; as the ‘jurists follow their own poetic and aesthetic criteria, their own spectral laws’ (MacNeil in Novel judgments: legal theory as fiction. Routledge, Oxford, p 9, 2012; Goodrich in Legal emblems and the art of law: obiter depicta as the vision of governance. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, p 155, 2013). Yet still, founded on the negation of its own history, legal practice maintains that juridical arguments comprise only dialectical reasoning about objectively determined concepts: ‘law is a literature which denies its literary qualities. It is a play of words which asserts an absolute seriousness; it is a genre of rhetoric which represses its moments of invention or fiction… it is procedure based upon analogy, metaphor and repetition [that] lays claim to being a cold or disembodied prose’ (Goodrich in Law in the courts of love: literature and other minor jurisprudences. Routledge, Oxford, p 112, 1996). This article will explore the continuing commitment of modern legal practice to particular aesthetic values and how these are crucially implicated in a variety of legal competencies including the formation of key legal concepts and general intellectual activity

Changing the way we think about change: shifting boundaries changing lives

The 2012 Australian and New Zealand Critical Criminology Conference was held in Hobart over two days from 12 - 13 July.   This conference was organised around the theme of ‘Changing the Way We Think about Change – Shifting Boundaries, Changing Lives’. There were five general plenaries, including speakers from Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, France and the United States, and the conference featured early career as well as experienced researchers. The plenaries included sessions on gender and imprisonment; the pursuit of truth and justice; Indigenous legal needs and justice reinvestment; policing and vulnerability; and migration and global security issues. This publication provides a sample of some of the presentations delivered at the 2012 Critical Criminology Conference

Case study: changing perceptions of the value of driver safety

With the continuing growth of online shopping in the UK, there has been an equivalent rise in the numbers of van fleets to complement demand. This steady increase has led to an acknowledged need in the industry sector to evaluate and improve the effectiveness of at-work road safety initiatives. Key to the design, implementation and evaluation of such initiatives, and to creating a workplace culture of driver safety, is a greater understanding of the behaviours and attitudes to risk of professional van drivers and how to monitor, assess and consider ways of influencing these proactively and effectively. The current study sought to investigate driver attitudes and behaviours to risk within a major retail online delivery service in which I am employed, Tesco Dot.com, as part of a wider set of interventions designed to inform the company workforce of developments, policy and practice in this area. Researching from an insider practitioner-manager perspective, I used a longitudinal case study approach to explore the role of innovative technologies for driver safety, allied with concurrent workforce development and training programmes. Using a mixed methods approach to data collection and analysis, I combined qualitative data from staff interviews and quantitative data from internal data sources, together with reflections on my changing role and developing influence within the team, to build up a rich picture of the challenges of fostering innovation and change from the inside, particularly in a discrete part of a complex, rapidly changing retail industry. As a result of ongoing evaluations, I formulated a number of medium and longer-term recommendations about the early implementation of company strategies, including recruitment and retention for drivers, strategies for addressing barriers and enablers to the rollout of proposed technologies, and formulated proposals for organisational reconfiguration to embed a culture of driver safety more securely within the company workforce

The role of primary care mental health nurse practitioners in Australia

The Tristar Medical Group use Mental Health Nurse Practitioners (MHNPs) to both provide and co-ordinate care. Completion rates of entire 90-day cycles of care and review of GPMHCPs sits at approximately 70%, which is significantly better than the National average of 42% since the introduction of the MBS 2712 billing item. This item itself is integral in demonstrating effectiveness in reviewing planned care. The role of the MHNP has been vital to achieving excellent patient care outcomes in this domain. MHNPs value add into Primary Care and General Practice by: • Advanced assessment and diagnosis of Mental Health Issues • Monitoring physical health, • Ordering and analysing tests • Prescribing medications, • Providing psychoeducation for medication adherence • Psychotherapy / Psychological Interventions • Monitoring and reporting all aspects of care to the Treating Team Participants in this evaluation believe that Mental Health Nurse Practitioners (MHNP) provide the maximum value for clinical care across the entire biopsychosocial Model. Clients receiving treatment and support by MHNPs experienced improved outcomes through increased continuity of care- including through home visits, follow up and care co-ordination, access to support and greater compliance with their treatment plans. Care provided by MHNPs demonstrated evidence of an overall reduction in hospital admission rates and lengths of stay in hospital where admission occurred; increased levels of employment; improved family and community connections; and positive impacts on GP workloads. Evidence of effectiveness of the MHNP model of service delivery whereby MHNs were actively providing clinical interventions and co-ordinating care for patients is well supported by the results of this evaluation. If the business model and funding changed, more MHNPs could be recruited, especially given the scarcity of other mental health clinical discipline in rural communities. Current funding for MHNPs has been restricted to those who receive PHN subsidy under the stepped care model. This limits the opportunity to provide the full range of care that MHNPs are capable of delivering compared to other clinical disciplines. Submissions to government to facilitate greater access to MBS items for their services is recommended