Developing a worker engagement maturity model for improving occupational safety and health (OSH) in construction

Research on worker engagement (WE) has identified the increased importance of meaningful discussion, communication, knowledge sharing, and shared decision-making regarding occupational safety and health (OSH) practices within the construction industry. This paper reports on initial findings on the development of a meaningful discussion framework for improving OSH and engagement of the construction workforce. The main purpose of the framework is to rank levels of discussion amongst construction operatives and supervisors related to positive performance at work and enhancement of OSH. This reflects the legal and ethical requirements for management to collaborate with the construction workforce for the improvement of OSH. For effective WE in OSH to become the norm, the effectiveness of corporate OSH engagement programmes needs to be assessed using a valid and reliable tool. Also, there is a need for a practice-driven and -validated worker engagement maturity model (meaningful discussion framework) that not only identifies and aligns with existing organisational capabilities, as shown in the HSE leadership and worker involvement research, but also addresses a set of dimensions specifically targeted at construction workers. The methods used to develop the framework discussed here involved qualitative interviews to gain accounts of episodes of worker engagement, which were categorised using NVivo and ranked based on feedback from expert focus groups. The meaningful discussion framework highlights the link that higher levels of worker and organisational maturity can have with higher levels of construction OSH performance. This is based on a number of logically progressive worker maturity levels, where higher levels build on the requirements of already existing levels, from discussing issues affecting individual workers to issues that affect other workers, and ultimately to issues “beyond the site gate”, such as design processes. Final validation testing of the model will be reported on at a later date

Bridge number, Heegaard genus and non-integral Dehn surgery

We show there exists a linear function w: N->N with the following property. Let K be a hyperbolic knot in a hyperbolic 3-manifold M admitting a non-longitudinal S^3 surgery. If K is put into thin position with respect to a strongly irreducible, genus g Heegaard splitting of M then K intersects a thick level at most 2w(g) times. Typically, this shows that the bridge number of K with respect to this Heegaard splitting is at most w(g), and the tunnel number of K is at most w(g) + g-1.Comment: 76 page, 48 figures; referee comments incorporated and typos fixed; accepted at TAM

The formation of mixed germanium–cobalt carbonyl clusters: an electrospray mass spectrometric study, and the structure of a high-nuclearity [Ge₂Co₁₀(CO)₂₄]²⁻ anion

The reaction of [µ₄-Ge{Co₂(CO)₇}₂] with [Co(CO)₄]⁻ has been monitored by electrospray mass spectrometry to detect the cluster anions generated. Conditions giving known mixed Ge–Co carbonyl clusters were established, and a new high nuclearity cluster anion, [Ge₂Co₁₀(CO)₂₄]²⁻ was detected. Conditions for its formation were optimised and it was subsequently isolated as its [Et₄N]⁺ salt and characterised by single-crystal X-ray crystallography. The Ge₂Co₁₀ cluster core has a novel geometry with the two germanium atoms in semi-encapsulated positions, forming seven formal Ge–Co bonds. There are also eighteen formal Co–Co bonds. Corresponding reactions of [µ₄-Si{Co₂(CO)₇}₂] with [Co(CO)₄]⁻ were also investigated