Veel bedrijven in de Eems-Dollard Regio (EDR) klagen over een gebrek aan de zogenaamde ‘blue collar workers’ of ‘blauwe boorden’: geschoolde arbeiders, werkzaam in de industriële sector. Ondanks het feit dat er al een groot aantal initiatieven zijn geweest om meer personeel te werven, lijkt het steeds moeilijker te worden om dit type personeel te vinden.
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Health interventions often do not reach blue-collar workers. Citizen science engages target groups in the design and execution of health interventions, but has not yet been applied in an occupational setting. This preliminary study determines barriers and facilitators and feasible elements for citizen science to improve the health of blue-collar workers. The study was conducted in a terminal and construction company by performing semi-structured interviews and focus groups with employees, company management and experts. Interviews and focus groups were analyzed using thematic content analysis and the elements were pilot tested. Workers considered work pressure, work location and several personal factors as barriers for citizen science at the worksite, and (lack of) social support and (negative) social culture both as barriers and facilitators. Citizen science to improve health at the worksite may include three elements: (1) knowledge and skills, (2) social support and social culture, and (3) awareness about lifestyle behaviors. Strategies to implement these elements may be company specific. This study provides relevant indications on feasible elements and strategies for citizen science to improve health at the worksite. Further studies on the feasibility of citizen science in other settings, including a larger and more heterogeneous sample of blue-collar workers, are necessary.
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Particulate matter (PM) exposure, amongst others caused by emissions and industrial processes, is an important source of respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. There are situations in which blue-collar workers in roadwork companies are at risk. This study investigated perceptions of risk and mitigation of employees in roadwork (construction and maintenance) companies concerning PM, as well as their views on methods to empower safety behavior, by means of a mental models approach. We held semi-structured interviews with twenty-two employees (three safety specialists, seven site managers and twelve blue-collar workers) in three different roadwork companies. We found that most workers are aware of the existence of PM and reduction methods, but that their knowledge about PM itself appears to be fragmented and incomplete. Moreover, road workers do not protect themselves consistently against PM. To improve safety instructions, we recommend focusing on health effects, reduction methods and the rationale behind them, and keeping workers’ mental models into account. We also recommend a healthy dialogue about work-related risk within the company hierarchy, to alleviate both information-related and motivation-related safety issues. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2019.06.043 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-bolte-0856134/
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Background: With increasing knowledge on the adverse health efects of certain constituents of PM (particulate matter), such as silica, metals, insoluble ions, and black carbon, PM has been under the attention of work safety experts. Previously, we investigated the perceptions of blue-collar workers in highly exposed areas of work. Subsequently, we developed an instruction folder highlighting the most important aspects of PM risk and mitigation, and tested this folder in a digital experiment. The digital experiment yielded positive results with regards to acquired knowledge about PM, but did not on risk perception or safety behavior. Methods: In this study, we investigate the efects of the folder when combined with a practical assignment involving a PM exposimeter, showing the amount of particulate matter in microgram per cubic meter in real time on its display for various activities. We tested this at six workplaces of four companies in the roadwork and construction branch. Results: The results indicate that the folder itself yields an increased knowledge base in employees about PM, but the efects of the practical assignment are more contentious. Nevertheless, there is an indication that using the assignment may lead to a higher threat appraisal among employees for high exposure activities. Conclusion: We recommend implementing our folder in companies with high PM exposure and focusing further research on appropriate methods of implementation.
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Recently, the Dutch government raised the retirement age of workers in the Netherlands. In this study we focused on the work values of low-skilled older workers, the extent to which their jobs fulfill these values, and the effect of work values on the willingness of these workers to extend their working life. This study is based on a literature review and a secondary analysis on a large database of persons aged 45 and older (STREAM). The study shows that extrinsic work values are more important for low-skilled older workers, and intrinsic work values more relevant for high-skilled older workers. The most important work values for low-skilled older workers are fulfilled slightly more often than those of high-skilled older workers. The extent to which important work values are fulfilled in the jobs of low-skilled older workers is positively correlated with job satisfaction and with their own assessment of whether or not to continue working for another 12 months. Based on this research, we formulated recommendations for HR practices on the employability of low-skilled older workers
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The annual publication (since 1995) of the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) by Transparency International (TI) Secretariat in Berlin, gives the scores of the perceptions which selected observers have of the prevalence of corruption in their countries. They do not report about facts. Moreover, these observers are not at random chosen from whatever universum of respondents. Those contributing are predominantly male, between 25 and 50 years of age, well-paid and expatriate, white collar workers, with diplomas of MBA and similar studies, anglophone. Perceptions of women, poor, locals, blue collar workers, francophone and lusophone, are predominantly missing. The automatic result is that rich countries rank in the top, are perceived as less corrupt, ‘clean’. Poor countries rank at the bottom end of the list. The result is unreliable, unscientific, and should not be used – as is generally done by governments and the media – as a yardstick for the level of corruption in particular countries. (TI-Berlin has announced that beginning with the CPI of December 2012, it will use another methodology with more reliable results. As soon as this is published such information and comments will become available on this website).
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Talk by members of executive hospital boards influences the organizational positioning of nurses. Talk is a relational leadership practice. Using a qualitative‐ interpretive design we organized focus group meetings wherein members of executive hospital boards (7), nurses (14), physicians (7), and managers (6), from 15 Dutch hospitals, discussed the organizational positioning of nursing during COVID crisis. We found that members of executive hospital boards consider the positioning of nursing in crisis a task of nurses themselves and not as a collective, interdependent, and/or specific board responsibility. Furthermore, members of executive hospital boards talk about the nursing profession as (1) more practical than strategic, (2) ambiguous in positioning, and (3) distinctive from the medical profession. Such talk seemingly contrasts with the notion of interdependence that highlights how actors depend on each other in interaction. Interdependence is central to collaboration in hospital crises. In this paper, therefore, we depart from the members of executive hospital boards as leader and “positioner,” and focus on talk— as a discursive leadership practice—to illuminate leadership and governance in hospitals in crisis, as social, interdependent processes.
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