List of Titles

Effect of creative thinking on OHS committees

- Culvenor, John, Ayers, Gerard

Authors: Culvenor, John , Ayers, Gerard
Date: 2002
Type: Text , Journal article
Relation: Journal of Occupational Health and Safety, Australia and New Zealand Vol. 18, no. 3 (2002), p. 239-246
Full Text: false
Reviewed:
Description: An important principle of Australian OHS law is that workers participate in the management of health and safety via OHS committees and representatives. A further principle is that workplaces engage in problem solving processes according to a hierarchy of hazard control - rather than simply following prescriptive rules. The OHS committee is therefore a problem-solving forum. However, the benefits of problem- solving or creative thinking techniques within committees have not been widely explored. To test the effects, two OHS committees from two construction companies were trained in a combination of creative thinking and risk control concepts. Subjects were tested on their ability to generate solutions and to rank solutions. They were compared with untrained subjects from two further committees. The results showed that the trained subjects generated more solutions and, when ranking solutions, showed a greater preference for solutions which were higher on the hierarchy of controls. (author abstract)
Description: 2003003032

Meaningful and effective consultation and the construction industry of Victoria, Australia

- Ayers, Gerard, Culvenor, John, Sillitoe, Jim, Else, Dennis

Authors: Ayers, Gerard , Culvenor, John , Sillitoe, Jim , Else, Dennis
Date: 2013
Type: Text , Journal article
Relation: Construction Management and Economics Vol. 31, no. 6 (2013), p. 542-567
Full Text: false
Reviewed:
Description: Consultation between employers and employees is mandated under Australian occupational health and safety legislation. For consultation to be considered meaningful and effective, it is generally accepted that moral and ethical principles such as trust, honesty, commitment and respect need to be recognized and applied by individuals during consultation. It is also considered that an organization's level of cultural maturity is an important element in the ability of individuals to freely engage in meaningful and effective consultation. If the value of consultation is best reflected in the degree of input and control that workers have regarding the very decisions that affect them, and if the level of worker involvement is a reflection of an organization's level of cultural maturity, it is debateable whether the notion of applying moral and ethical principles during consultation, and the adoption of the paradigm of organizational and cultural maturity, have been successfully developed and embraced in the commercial and industrial sector of the construction industry of Victoria, Australia. © 2013 Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.
Description: C1

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Consultation and organisational maturity in the Victorian construction industry

- Ayers, Gerard

Authors: Ayers, Gerard
Date: 2012
Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
Full Text:
Description: Consultation is generally acknowledged both in Australia and internationally, as being essential if high levels of occupational health and safety (OHS) are to be achieved and maintained. In Victoria, such is the recognition of the important role that consultation plays in OHS, that it is mandated under the Victorian OHS regulatory framework. Indeed, all Australian OHS statutes now make provision, to varying degrees, for consultation to occur when dealing with OHS matters. This is principally conducted through OHS representatives and OHS committees. However, there is a growing body of opinion which raises concerns over whether such legislative provisions that provide for OHS consultation, is sufficiently adequate to ensure that the consultation is both meaningful and effective in terms of OHS outcomes. If this is the case, what might be missing or lacking from the consultation process, especially in hazardous and dangerous industries where OHS success would appear to be imperative? The Victorian construction industry, like the construction industry in general, is acknowledged for its dangerous and hazardous nature. It has a large transitory workforce with little permanent job security and often suffers from a multifarious and disjointed work organisation structure. Such features tend to work against an environment that openly recognises and encourages meaningful and effective consultation. These conditions also tend to confound the development of any kind of social and positive learning and communicative culture within the industry, leading to an underutilization of the knowledge and skill contained within the workforce. As well as failing to bring to fruition the full participation of workers in the management of OHS, the underutilization of knowledge and skill is potentially one of the largest hidden costs that an organisation may incur. The notion of organisational and cultural maturity is acknowledged both internationally and in Australia as a useful concept that can assist organisations in achieving higher standards and levels of OHS. This is especially so in high risk and hazardous industries such as the petrochemical, oil refinery and aviation industries. However, organisational and cultural maturity is arguably a relatively new and under-researched construct in the Victorian building and construction industry, while the concept of consultation within both the industry and the organisational maturity paradigm has not yet been sufficiently explored. The role that moral and ethical principles play in consultation is now beginning to emerge and gain wider recognition within the literature. This research project set out to examine how some of these principles were applied by senior site managers and OHS representatives of five Victorian construction companies during OHS consultation at five different constructions sites, and whether this consultation could be considered to be meaningful and effective. The companies who participated in this project were each allocated a level of organisational maturity, dependent upon how they managed various aspects of their business operations in terms of OHS. Senior managers and OHS representatives were chosen as participants in the research because they are generally acknowledged as the critical vectors in the sharing and transferring of knowledge and skill at the workplace. The data from this research suggest that regardless of the level of organisational maturity each organisation was deemed to have reached, and no matter how the individual participants applied the particular moral and ethical principles used during this research, the OHS consultation that took place on the different construction sites was limited to, and focused primarily on, everyday operational and execution aspects of the job, rather than more strategic and longer term OHS issues. The practical implications of this research are that if OHS consultation between senior managers and OHS representatives can be conducted in such a way as to openly and unambiguously recognise and apply particular moral and ethical principles, and if consultation is allowed to focus on more strategic and longer term OHS and organisational aspects of a construction project, this may yield more benefits, in terms of OHS outcomes, for all industry participants.

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