Raidén, A B and Aboagye-Nimo, E (2019) Practising occupational health and safety using social practice theory. In: Gorse, C and Neilson, C J (eds.) Proceedings of 35th Annual ARCOM Conference, 2-4 September 2019, Leeds Beckett University, Leeds, UK.
Abstract
Occupational health and safety literature embodies two worlds: one that takes a hard, top-down approach with a view that legislation and organisational policy and procedures are essential to achieving an environment that mitigates risks to workers' health and/ or safety. This perspective is aligned with rational management and has tended to dominate research and practice in and about organisations, work, workers and the organisation-work-worker relationships, including literature on occupational health and safety. The other takes a social constructionist view and places the worker at the heart of mobilising health and safety at work. Understanding the impact of individual and group characteristics (such as worker behaviour, perception, and safety climate) on occupational health and safety are at the heart of this perspective. As workers are definitive key stakeholders in occupational health and safety, interest and research in this space is growing. However, despite advancements in research and practice in both spaces, accidents still happen at work and worker health and well-being feature at the forefront of management agenda. We employ social practice theory to bring together the discourse of the two worlds in occupational health and safety research and practice. Social practice theory offers a framework for analysis which attempts to synthesise the structural focus of systems, such as legislative frameworks and organisational policy and procedures on occupational health and safety, and the processual and cultural, the socially constructed, approaches. We argue that such integration holds the key to extending work in this important area.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | social practice theory, occupational health and safety, discourse, safety climate |
| Index terms: | legislation, health and safety, social practice theory, safety climate, health and wellbeing, occupational health and safety, integration, heart |
| Subjects: | legal systems, mental health and wellbeing, organizational analysis, occupational health and safety management, medical science and clinical practice, theoretical framing, health safety and environment |
| Topics: | Organizational Design, Legal Issues, Research Practice, Health and Safety |
| Descriptive scope: | 3 PCT |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here