Policy implications intervention research: Research on the social context for intervention

✍ Scribed by Charles Levenstein

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1996
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 323 KB
• Volume: 29
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0271-3586
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1097-0274(199604)29:4<358::aid-ajim15>3.0.co;2-0

✦ Synopsis

Intervention research is of significance because the ,failure or success of particular interventions may have influence on policy and practice. Poorly designed interventions may impede progress in health and sufety. Frequently, interventions are based on scientific/ technical definitions of occupational health and sqfety problems but involve intrusion into complex sociotechnical uork environments. Intervention research must be built on a solid foundation of social science research. An e.raniple of research useful to health and safe& intervention is the Gray Institute study of management practices in the chemical industry that M'US commissioned by OSHA a few years ugn. It focused on safev management in chemical manufucturitig firms and their contractors, including ci survey of managers and contractors and nine intensive case studies of particular plants. The study describes safety munagement practices in the bestjirms in the industry. Such research can provide the groundwork for effective safety interventions in the industr?;, including training arid training requirements, experimentation with redefined managerial responsibilities, regulation of contractors. and others. It also suggests the kinds of useful duta that might be collected by NIOSH in the normal course of health and sufety studies. Finally, it suggests [hut the interdisciplinary teams currently investigating occupational health and safeq should be expanded to include social scientists.