Making the “new American workplace” safe and healthy: A joint labor-management-researcher approach
✍ Scribed by Susan J. Schurman
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1996
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 524 KB
- Volume
- 29
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0271-3586
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
The American workplace is now in the midst qf the most .signifcant change since the advent o f mass production. Whether these changes will lead to improvements in worker health and safety is not clear. This puper describes an approach to intervention and research-participatop action research (PAR)-that has the potential to redesign work orgrrnizations to improve per-wmance while also improving health arid safety. In the PAR method, researchers, managers, workers, and unions collaborate in N process of data-guided problem solving intended both to improve the system's perj3rinnnce and to contribute to general scientific knowledge. A case study example illustrates the use of a PAR approach in an automobile parts facility where labor. management, and researchers joiritlji conducted a longitudinal project aimed at reducing the tnajor sources of .stress and enhancing employee well-being. Results from the 6 year project suggest that, properly implemented, PAR has the potential to both lead to improved intervention mid contribute to theoretical advances in occupational safety and health. The PAR approach to intervention research is contrusted with the total quality approach (TQA). and some suggestions are made for improving PAR research designs.