Growing pains: work-life impacts in small-to-medium sized construction firms

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to compare the quality of work-life experiences of workers in construction firms of differing sizes and explored the work conditions and circumstances that impact upon the work-life experiences of workers in small-to-medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Australian construction industry. Design/methodology/approach - Data were collected in two stages. First, data from a sub-set of construction industry workers were extracted from a large scale survey of workers in Victoria, Australia (the VicWAL survey). The survey measured work-life interference using the Australian Work and Life Index (AWALI). Next a subset of survey respondents was identified and interviewed to gain more detailed explanatory information and insight into work-life experiences. Findings - The survey results indicated that respondents who reported working for a construction firm with between 16 and 99 employees reported significantly higher AWALI scores (indicating high work-life interference) than workers in organisations employing 15 or less or more than 100 workers. The follow-up interviews revealed that workers in small construction organisations were managed directly and personally by the business owner/manager and able to access informal work-life supports that were provided on an "as needs" basis. In comparison workers in medium-sized firms perceived higher levels of work pressure and an expectation that work would be prioritised over family life. Research limitations/implications - The research shows that the findings of work-life balance research undertaken in large construction organisations cannot be generalised to SMEs. Organisation size should also be treated as an important variable in work-life balance research in construction. Practical implications - The research suggests that a better understanding of how workers in SME construction firms experience work-life balance is important in the design and development of work-life balance programs

Elastohydrodynamic performance of unexcited electro-rheological fluids

Exploratory test results arc presented for a series of mixtures of unexcited electrorheological (ER) fluids under elastohydrodynamic lubrication (ehl) conditions These were obtained from direct observation of film formation in an optical interferometric apparatus. Results are presented as photographs of the fluid film and plots of film thickness versus speed for a range of ER fluid solid fractions Adequate film formation is limited by the tendency of the solid particles to evade the contact region. At very low contact speeds particles enter the ehl contact and generate a fluid film. At higher speeds the particulates do not become entrained in the contact; the film formation is then determined by the viscosity of the base fluid

Looking and learning: using participatory video to improve health and safety in the construction industry

Construction health and safety (H&S)is usually managed using a top-down approach of regulating workers' behaviour through the implementation and enforcement of prescriptive rules and procedures. This management approach privileges technical knowledge over knowledge based on workers' tacit and informal ways of knowing about H&S. The aim is to investigate the potential for participatory video to: (1) identify areas in which formal policies and procedures do not reflect as practised by workers; (2) encourage creative thinking and elicit workers' ideas for H&S improvements; and (3) provide an effective mechanism for capturing and sharing tacit H&S knowledge in construction organizations. Interviews were conducted in two case study organizations (CSOs) in the Australian construction industry. The results suggest reflexive participatory video enabled workers and managers to view their work practices from a different perspective. Workers identified new hazards, reflected about the practical difficulties in performing work in accordance with documented procedures and reframed their work practices and developed safer ways of working. Workers described how the participatory video capturing the way they work enabled them to have more meaningful input into H&S decision-making than they had previously experienced. Workers also expressed a strong preference for receiving H&S information in a visual format and commented that video was better suited to communicating H&S 'know how' than written documents. The research is significant in providing initial evidence that participatory video has the potential to improve H&S in construction

To stay or not to stay? a grounded theory study of residents\u27 postcall behaviors and their rationalizations for those behaviors

PURPOSE: Although policies to restrict residents\u27 duty hours are pervasive, resident adherence to restricted duty hours has proved challenging. The authors sought to describe residents\u27 postcall behaviors and understand the dominant rationalizations underpinning their decisions to stay or not to stay after a 24-hour shift. METHOD: Using constructivist grounded theory methodology, the authors conducted semistructured interviews with 24 residents across six surgical and nonsurgical specialty programs at one Canadian institution during 2012. They analyzed transcripts iteratively using a constant comparative method of identifying and refining key themes as the data set accrued, and theoretically sampling until theme saturation. RESULTS: Abiding by cultural norms was the dominant rationalization for both choosing to continue to work postcall or to go home. Cutting across this dominant theme were three subcategories (infrastructure, invoking values, and negotiating tension) with a pattern of residents invoking similar values of patient safety and education regardless of the cultural norms of their program, the infrastructure within which they worked, or the tensions they were navigating. CONCLUSIONS: Although central to residents\u27 rationalizations, values appear to be versatile, amenable to multiple, even conflicting, applications. Residents perceived that they were upholding the values of patient safety and education regardless of which postcall behavior they chose - staying or going. Based on this, for duty hours reform initiatives to be successful, a shift to emphasizing organizational changes will be required to reduce the circumstances in which postcall behavior is an individual, values-based decision

Perseverance, faith and stoicism: a qualitative study of medical student perspectives on managing fatigue

CONTEXT: Fatigue risk management (FRM) strategies offer a potential solution to the widespread problem of fatigued trainees in the clinical workplace. These strategies assume a shared perception that fatigue is hazardous. Despite the growing body of evidence suggesting that fatigue leads to burnout and medical errors, previous research suggests that residents perceive fatigue as a personal, surmountable burden rather than an occupational hazard. Before we can implement FRM, we need a better understanding of when and how such problematic notions of fatigue are adopted by medical trainees. Thus, we sought to explore how third-year medical students understand and manage the workplace fatigue they experience during their first year of clinical rotations. METHODS: A total of 22 third-year medical students participated in semi-structured interviews exploring their perspectives of workplace fatigue. Data collection and analysis occurred iteratively in keeping with constructivist grounded theory methodology and were informed by theoretical sampling to sufficiency. RESULTS: Our participants described unprecedented levels of sleep deprivation combined with uncertainty and confusion that led to significant fatigue during training. Drawing on their workplace experience, trainees believed that fatigue posed three distinct threats, which evoked different coping strategies: (i) threat to personal health, managed by perseverance; (ii) threat to patients, managed by faith in the system, and (iii) threat to professional reputation, managed by stoicism. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings highlight how senior medical students grapple with fatigue, as they understand it, within a training context in which they are expected to deny the impact of their fatigue on patients and themselves. Despite empirical evidence to the contrary, the prevailing assumption amongst our participants is that an ability to withstand sleep deprivation without impairment will develop naturally over time. Efforts to implement FRM strategies will need to address this assumption if these strategies are to be successfully taken up and effective

Checking the healthiness of commitment profile from its prediction of burnout

Abstract no. 443This paper examines the commitment profiles of Hong Kong Chinese architecture students with the 3-factor model of professional commitment and its impact on burnout. The Chinese version of Maslach Burnout Inventory – Student Survey and adapted version of Occupational Commitment Questionnaire are administered to measure burnout and commitment profile. Multiple regression models are performed with burnout dimensions as dependent variables, the three facets of commitment, namely affective, continuance and normative commitment, as independent variables, and demographic variables as controlling variables. The findings are consistent across different models that continuance commitment is positively, affective and normative commitment negatively, associated with burnout. The study suggests, from its relationship with burnout, a healthy commitment profile is composed of more affective and normative commitments and less continuance commitment in the population of architecture students. Architectural schools are advised to be more aware of the types of commitments encouraged in their curriculum and pedagogy.postprintThe 18th CIB World Building Congress 2010 on Building a Better World, Salford, U.K., 10-13 May 2010. In Proceedings of the CIB 2010, 2010, p. 276-28

International large-scale assessments, affective worlds and policy impacts in education

© 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This paper examines the impact of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) in two national policy contexts: Canada and Australia. Drawing on theories of globalisation and affect, the paper explores ‘catalyst data’ and its effects in these contexts to show how affective responses to mediations of PISA performance have become important levers for policy change. Two empirical cases of the role of data in the globalisation of schooling are discussed. The first case examines responses in Canada to the PISA 2012 results, which generated senses of anxiety among parents that coalesced into a view that Albertan schools faced a mathematics crisis. The second case interrogates how, since PISA 2009, a narrative about the declining quality of Australian schooling has become dominant in political discourse and in media representations. The paper compares and contrasts the affective effects of data across both contexts

Eddy covariance measurements of sea spray particles over the Atlantic Ocean

International audienceMost estimates of sea spray aerosol source functions have used indirect means to infer the rate of production as a function of wind speed. Only recently has the technology become available to make high frequency measurements of aerosol concentration suitable for direct eddy correlation determination of the particle flux. This was accomplished in this study by combining a newly developed fast aerosol particle counter with an ultrasonic anemometer which allowed for eddy covariance measurements of size-segregated particle fluxes. The aerosol instrument is the Compact Lightweight Aerosol Spectrometer Probe (CLASP) ? capable of measuring 8-channel size spectra for mean radii between 0.15 and 0.35 ?m at 10 Hz. The first successful measurements were made during the WASFAB (Waves, Air Sea Fluxes, Aerosol and Bubbles) field campaign in October 2005 in Duck (NC, USA). The method and results are presented and comparisons are made with recent sea spray source functions from the literature

Interprofessional communication with hospitalist and consultant physicians in general internal medicine : a qualitative study

This study helps to improve our understanding of the collaborative environment in GIM, comparing the communication styles and strategies of hospitalist and consultant physicians, as well as the experiences of providers working with them. The implications of this research are globally important for understanding how to create opportunities for physicians and their colleagues to meaningfully and consistently participate in interprofessional communication which has been shown to improve patient, provider, and organizational outcomes