Search results for " human factor"
showing 10 items of 251 documents
Early-design improvement of human reliability in an experimental facility: A combined approach and application on SPES
2019
Abstract SPES (Selective Production of Exotic Species) is a second-generation Isotope Separation On-Line (ISOL) facility for advanced nuclear physics applications, currently under construction at INFN (National Institute of Nuclear Physics) of Legnaro, Italy. Despite the potentially important safety implications of human errors for ISOL facilities, only a limited number of studies addressing this issue have been performed worldwide. This paper tries to address this need by means of an integrated approach of Hierarchical Task Analysis (HTA) and three human error quantification methods: HEART (in an enhanced version), SPAR-H, and CREAM. The application of multiple Human Reliability Analysis (…
Re-Infrastructuring for eHealth: Dealing with Turns in Infrastructure Development
2017
In this paper, we examine infrastructuring in the context of developing national, public eHealth services in Norway. Specifically, we analyze the work of a project team engaged in the design and development of new web-based capabilities for communication between citizens and primary healthcare practitioners. We frame the case as a study of re-infrastructuring to signify a particular occasion of infrastructuring that entails facilitating a new logic within established social and technological networks. To make sense of the particularities of re-infrastructuring, we draw from research in infrastructure studies which considers embeddedness as a resource in infrastructure evolution. We analyze …
From common operational picture to common situational understanding: An analysis based on practitioner perspectives
2021
Abstract The concepts of Situational Awareness (SA) and Common Operational Picture (COP) are closely related and well-acknowledged to be crucial factors for effective emergency management. In multi-agency operations, such as extreme weather events, the involved first responders manage the event with different mandates, objectives, and tools which can make it challenging to build a COP. Effective collaboration requires a common situational understanding, based on knowledge about each other’s responsibilities and tasks, mutual respect and trust, as well as common communication tools for emergency communication and information sharing. This paper argues that the COP serves as a basis for decid…
Employee shirking and overworking: modelling the unintended consequences of work organisation
2020
Underworking (i.e. shirking) and overworking of employees can have detrimental effects for the individual and the organisation. We develop a computational model to investigate how work structure, specifically the way in which managers distribute work tasks amongst employees, impacts work intensity and working time. The model draws on theories from economics, psychology and management, and on empirical observations. The simulations show that when managers correctly estimate task difficulty, but undervalue the employee’s competence, opportunities for shirking are provided due to longer deadlines. Similarly, if managers overvalue the employee’s competence, they set tighter deadlines leading to…
Empowering leadership, mindful organizing and safety performance in a nuclear power plant: A multilevel structural equation model
2020
Abstract The aim of this paper is to develop and test a model in which empowering leadership is expected to contribute to developing mindful organizing, which in turn should contribute to safety compliance and safety participation. Empowering leadership was measured at Time 1, and the rest of the variables were measured two years later (Time 2). The sample used for the analyses in this study included 49 teams and 200 employees from a company in the nuclear generation industry with three different sites. The multilevel structural equation analysis performed to test the proposed model revealed an acceptable fit, and most of the paths were statistically significant and presented the expected s…
USE OF GAMIFICATION IN HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT: IMPACT ON ENGAGEMENT AND SATISFACTION
2018
The use of games, also called gamification, is innovative an approach in contemporary human resource management. The aim of this research is to assess whether gamification, if used in HR processes, can increase engagement and job satisfaction among employees, as well as to identify which HR processes respond better to gamification. Using data from CAWI interviews (n = 620) and Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) method with smartPLS software, the researchers found a significant positive impact of gamification on employee job satisfaction, however, no impact on engagement. Teambuilding and internal communication were identified as HR processes which better respond to gamification and rec…
The power of empowering team leadership over time: A multi-wave longitudinal study in nuclear power plants
2021
Abstract Team attitudes in critical infrastructures are essential to achieving reliable operations despite internal and external challenges, and empowering team leadership (ETL) may be an important precursor of these attitudes. The present study aimed to test whether ETL was related to teams’ satisfaction trajectories, measured as changes in job satisfaction and safety satisfaction at three time points. Hypotheses were tested in a sample of 48 teams from two Spanish nuclear facilities in three different waves (2008, 2011, and 2014). Growth Modeling using hierarchical linear models with SPSS 20.0 revealed that ETL was positively related to initial levels of teams’ job and safety satisfaction…
Analysis of elite swimmers' activity during an instrumented protocol
2009
The aim of this study was to examine swimmers' activity-technical device coupling during an experimental protocol (MADsystem). The study was conducted within a course-of-action theoretical and methodological framework. Two types of data were collected: (a) video recordings and (b) verbalizations during post-protocol interviews. The data were processed in two steps: (a) reconstruction of each swimmer's course of action and (b) comparison of the courses of action. Analysis from the actors' point of view allowed a description of swimmer-technical device coupling. The results showed that the technical device modified the athletes' range of perceptions and repertoire of actions. They also indica…
Under-reporting bicycle accidents to police in the COST TU1101 international survey: Cross-country comparisons and associated factors
2018
Police crash reports are often the main source for official data in many countries. However, with the exception of fatal crashes, crashes are often underreported in a biased manner. Consequently, the countermeasures adopted according to them may be inefficient. In the case of bicycle crashes, this bias is most acute and it probably varies across countries, with some of them being more prone to reporting accidents to police than others. Assessing if this bias occurs and the size of it can be of great importance for evaluating the risks associated with bicycling.This study utilized data collected in the COST TU1101 action "Towards safer bicycling through optimization of bicycle helmets and us…
Influence of sexual appeal in roadside advertising on drivers' attention and driving behavior.
2019
Sexual appeals are widely used in advertising to attract consumers' attention. It has already been proved that they influence the addressee's cognitive processing, which in turn raises the question if sexual appeals may pose a serious threat for road safety when used in roadside advertising. Three studies were designed to answer this question. Study I was a nationwide survey (N = 1095) which revealed that drivers subjectively perceive sexual contents in roadside advertising as distracting and dangerous. Study II was a modified version of the Attentional Network Test (N = 1063) which proved that in cognitive tasks reaction time increases in line with the sexual content of advertisements. Stu…