Work-related road safety risk assessment: utilisation of self-report surveys to predict organisational risk

Work-related driving safety is an emerging concern for Australian and overseas organisations. Research has shown that road crashes are the most common cause of work-related fatalities, injuries and absences from work. This study's objectives were to identify driver characteristics which pose potential risks to work-related driving safety within the organisation, as well as determining the value of such self-reported data to predict crash involvement and general aberrant driving behaviours. This paper reports on a study examining the predictive utility of predominant self-report questionnaires to identify individuals involved in work-related crashes within an Australian organisational fleet setting (N = 4195). Survey questionnaires included the Manchester Driver Behaviour Questionnaire (DBQ), Driver Attitude Questionnaire (DAQ), Safety Climate Questionnaire – Modified for Drivers (SCQ-MD) and Risk Taking. The tools were distributed through the company’s internal mail system to employees who volunteered to participate in the study. An important finding to emerge was that a potential fleet "speeding culture" was identified from univariate analyses. For example, drivers were most likely to report engaging in speeding behaviours and also believed that speeding was more acceptable compared to drink driving, following too closely or engaging in risky overtaking manoeuvres. However, multivariate analysis determining factors associated with self-reported crash involvement revealed that increased work pressure and driving errors were predictive of crash risk, even after controlling for exposure on the road. This paper highlights the major findings of the study and discusses the implications and difficulties associated with utilising driver behaviour measurement tools within contemporary organisational fleet settings

Perceptions of Work-Related Road Safety - Safety Versus Savings

In Douglas Adam’s "The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy", published in the 1970s, a computer is confronted with the intriguing question: "What is the meaning of life?" After elaborate and tedious number crunching, the computer returns: "The answer to your question is 42". It is obvious, that the monetary valuation of road safety is not an easy task either. In fact, it implies answering an equally difficult and intriguing question – What is the statistical value of a human life? Although various methods and approaches have been put forward to estimate the statistical cost of a road fatality, some scholars argue that valuing fatal injuries and hence human life is virtually impossible. They maintain that people do not nearly have sufficiently accurate preferences to make a sensible trade-off between road safety and money. The (perceptions of) changes in risk levels are so small that making the trade-off is very difficult, if not impossible (Hauer, 1994). However, other road safety costs can be statistically determined and initiatives developed to reduce the burden to both organisations and individuals. Therefore, the topic of this paper is to determine what factors contribute to work-related road incidents and how economic costs to industry organisations could be reduced

The Influence of Occupational Driver Stress on Work-related Road Safety: An Exploratory Review

Research has identified a number of stressors that could impact on the occupational driver by increasing stress levels and, for some individuals, causing adverse behaviour and effects, for example, aggressive behaviour, fatigue, inattention/distraction, and substance abuse. For safety professionals and employers, one way to reduce the effects of occupational driver stress is to change perceptions so that management and drivers recognise that work-related driving is as important as other work-related tasks. This article explores relevant literature in relation to driver stress and suggests additions to risk management processes and safety procedures/policies, including assigning sufficient basic resources to target occupational stress (particularly occupational driver stress)

Sensemaking In Honors Scheduling

Honors courses offer students unique opportunities such as smaller class sizes, applied application of knowledge, and a closer mentorship with the faculty member. Through observation, there are some cases where courses have regularly been cancelled every term due to low enrollment. When these courses are often canceled, it can impact the honors program ability to continue to offer courses to the students. Using Weick\u27s work on Sensemaking and principles of analyzing organizational culture, the study addressed how honors students are impacted by course cancellations and how they communicate about the impact. Through two focus groups with a total of eleven participants, information was gathered on how they constructed and communicated about their identity as honors students; their individual campus environments, and how those environments help to shape the communication culture they were part of; how they make scheduling decisions by extracting plausible cues from the communication they receive about course scheduling; and the impact of course cancellations on their honors experience. In defining honors and its incorporation into their identity, the students described how being in honors was a challenge to make themselves the best that they can be which included being part of an engaging community of scholars and of use to the community around. The two focus groups noted differences on how each campus provided a slightly different organizational culture: one more familiar and inviting, the other massive and resource filled, and with diversity in the type of students encountered. Course scheduling messages often were extracted from the course scheduling website, with little communication about what would be offered into the future beyond the immediate term. Students had to gather additional data from their fellow students, faculty, and the honors office. Students often searched for cues regarding time and location of the class, the impact to the degree program, and if the class will push the student in new and innovative ways to provide a deeper engagement with the material. Students were often impacted by course cancellations and the added stress of having to find replacement courses to avoid extending the time to complete the degree or risk financial repercussions with the loss of financial aid. These stressors do provide cues that can influence the degree of challenge a student is willing to accept or even degree completion

Transatlantic Perceptions of Reform: The Impact of America on the Second Reform Act

This PhD thesis explores the influence of America on British debates about franchise reform leading up to the passage of the Second Reform Act in 1867. It explores British public discourse surrounding reform between 1832 and 1867 through analysis of travel literature, newspapers, periodicals, quarterlies, political texts by public intellectuals, election speeches, speeches from working-class reform demonstrations, and records of parliamentary debates. The thesis sets out to understand the ways in which British perceptions of America after 1832 shaped British debates over political reform that culminated in 1867 with the Second Reform Act. Throughout, it considers how British political commentators adapted the ways in which they utilised the example of the United States to suit different target audiences, with different elements of American democracy featuring in their analysis depending on where these debates took place. Examining how the United States featured in these different facets of British reform discourse, the thesis offers insights into British political ideas and political culture in the 1860s generally, and into the Reform Act of 1867 more specifically, including how Conservative fears about Americanisation in the 1860s represented an early opportunity for the Conservative Party to wrest control of the language of patriotism from the Liberal party, as well as how Liberal divisions over the political relevance of America foreshadowed debates about the caucusization of liberal politics that came to prominence in the late 1870s. Unlike other modern European democracies and the ancient democratic republics of Greece and Rome, America was understood by many to share the same Anglo-Saxon heritage as Britain. British political commentators believed that the earliest interpreters of the U.S. Constitution had been guided by British precedents and political traditions. American politics were seen to have inherited broadly similar understandings as those in Britain. However, the reform debates of the 1860s took place in the light of a brutal Civil War, a Presidential assassination, the suspension of civil liberties and a shift towards economic protectionism. In taking account of these significant developments, this thesis concludes that America played an important role in shaping the public debate over political reform during the 1860s and that references to the United States formed a key – and hitherto underappreciated – element of the language of public discourse about reform in this period

History and trend of the teaching of physics in the secondary schools of the United States

Thesis (M.A.)--Boston University, 1931. This item was digitized by the Internet Archive

The development of an environmental ethics undergraduate curriculum for California

This study included an environmental ethics syllabi research project, an environmental ethics curriculum development survey of all colleges in California, and the subsequent development of tables to compare the results. The curriculum development survey of California colleges includes a listing of all course descriptions of environmental ethics and related courses

The status of the music curriculum in the Christian college.

Thesis (M.M.)--Boston Universit

The Biological Effects of Novel Synthetic Retinoids

Naturally occurring Retinoids are known to play a role in many developmental processes in the early embryo as well as being a potent tool for in vitro differentiation of stem cells. The exogenous application of these naturally occurring retinoids as well as some of their synthetic analogs has been shown to yield digit duplication phenotypes and facial phenotypes in the model system of chick. It is not however always appreciated that these naturally occurring retinoids are highly susceptible to isomerisation and that these isomers have different biological activity. Due to this EC23 and EC19, synthetic analogs of these retinoids which are not able to be isomerised, have been synthesized. These two compounds until now have not been tested in vivo. We showed that both EC23 and EC19 are able to yield retinoid phenotypes in the model system of chick. We also showed that EC23 is far more toxic than EC19 or ATRA, while being far more able to create retinoid limb phenotypes at lower concentrations. EC19 in this investigation is shown to produce very few retinoid limb phenotypes in comparison, but is able to yield a far higher frequency of retinoid facial phenotypes. In conclusion this investigation shows the ability of EC23 to emulate known ATRA limb phenotypes at much lower concentrations. EC19 is shown to yield less limb phenotypes possibly due to its similarities in structure to 13-cis RA, EC19 is also shown to yield facial phenotypes more frequently than EC23 or ATRA