I-O Psych Chapter 11

_______ use on the job has been found at all occupational levels.

Drug

Engineering psychologists suggest two general principles for the design of safety devices. What are they?

First, the machine should not function unless the safety device is engaged. Second, the safety device must not interfere with production or cause the employee to work harder to maintain the same output.

___________ asthma has now become the single most common work-related respiratory disorder.

Occupational

___________ workers are more affected than ___________ workers by climatic extremes and are more likely to have accidents at higher temperatures.

Older; younger

What are the workplace factors that can affect employee safety?

Type of industry, work schedules, lighting, temperature, and equipment design.

Another problem with accident statistics has to do with how researchers ________ their data.

collect

Temporary emotional states can ___________ to accidents.

contribute

After some months on the job, the accident rate usually drops and continues to decline as ___________ increases.

work experience

Studies of factory workers show that accident rates are lowest when the workplace temperature is maintained at ___________ degrees F.

68 to 70

______% of all truck drivers have a sleep disorder.

78%

More than 40 years after OSHA was established, it still has so few safety inspectors that on average a company can expect to be visited only once every _______ years.

84

Define carpal tunnel syndrome.

A repetitive motion disorder that may involve numbness, tingling, or pain in fingers, hands, and forearms.

___________ on the job has been linked to tardiness, absenteeism, low productivity, and emotional problems.

Alcoholism

A study of more than 380,000 general aviation pilots showed that pilots with DWI (driving while intoxicated) convictions were ______ times more likely to have alcohol-related problems while flying than those who had no DWI convictions (McFadden, 2002).

3.5

Up to ________ workers are exposed daily to chemicals for which safe thresholds have not been established. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has designated as toxic more than 16,000 chemical substances regularly used in the workplace. Some 150 of these are neurotoxins; they are capable of causing damage to the human brain and nervous system.

10 million

The American Academy of Asthma estimates that approximately _____% of the people with asthma in the United States acquired their disease from chemicals on the job such as latex, nickel, chrome, and mercury.

15

When was OSHA established?

1970

In the 10-hour workday in many heavy industries, a sharp rise in the accident rate has been reported during the last ____ hours of the shift, presumably because of fatigue.

2

What are the personal factors that contribute to accidents?

Alcohol and drug use, health, fatigue, work experience, job insecurity, age, job involvement, and personality variables such as conscientiousness.

Define employee assistance programs (EAPs).

Counseling and rehabilitative services for various employee problems, notably alcohol and drug abuse.

Describe safety devices.

Function to keep a worker's hand away from sharp moving parts or to automatically disconnect the power supply in an emergency, but they must not interfere with the operation of the machine.

____________ is the factor responsible for most accidents, whether they occur in the workplace, on the highway, or in the home.

Human error

What are factors that may stop someone from using safety equipment?

Interference with job performance or discomfort.

What factors are related to workplace violence?

Level of violence in the community, being a target or victim of workplace aggression, and the psychological trait of anger.

Based on studies what two characteristics from the OCEAN model seem to correlate to accident proneness?

Low agreeableness and low conscientiousness.

____________ conspire to conceal workplace injuries because they may represent negligence on their part as well.

Managers

Who are those most likely to commit acts of violence?

Men between the ages of 30 and 50 with a history of substance abuse, psychiatric disorders, or behavioral problems in childhood and adolescence.

What is the main problem with research on accidents?

Organizations distort accident data through incomplete reporting in an effort to maintain good safety records.

What type of equipment designs are often blamed for accidents?

Poor placement of switches and controls, inadequate warning lights for system malfunctions, and dials that are difficult to read.

What should organizations do to prevent accidents?

Practice complete reporting and analysis of accidents, consider the design of the job and work environments, provide managerial support for safe work practices, provide safety training and a strong safety climate, and sponsor safety publicity campaigns.

What are effective ways to reduce repetitive motion injuries?

Redesigning keyboards, providing chairs and armrests that support good posture, and allowing rest pauses.

Define accident proneness.

The idea that some people have personality traits that predispose them to have accidents, and that most accidents are caused by or involve these same few people. This theory is not supported by research.

Define protective exclusion.

The practice of barring certain groups of employees, such as women of childbearing age, from potentially hazardous jobs because of fear of lawsuits.

How to organizations try to assist alcoholic employees?

Through employee assistance programs (EAPs) and by training managers to detect signs of alcoholism in their workers.

What is the goal of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration?

To enforce federal industrial safety standards to protect workers from accidents and health problems on the job.

What is OSHA's purpose?

To ensure safe working conditions by developing and enforcing federal safety standards and by sponsoring research on the causes and prevention of accidents and diseases in the workplace.

The theory of ______________ has little research support.

accident proneness

Behaviors expressing incivility, anger, bullying, and hostility threaten workers at _____ levels.

all

A popular belief is that people who have a great many accidents have some unique set of personality traits that distinguish them from people who rarely have accidents. Research ________ support this contention, although some studies have found that people who have a high number of accidents manifest characteristics such as neuroticism, hostility, anxiety, social maladjustment, and a sense of fatalism.

does not

The decrease in accidents among experienced workers can be explained by the fact that those who had more accidents ___________.

dropped out

In general, people who have good eyesight have _______ accidents than do people who have poor eyesight.

fewer

____________ accidents occur during the night shift than during the day shift, although when accidents do occur during the night shift, they are usually __________ serious.

fewer; more

A large-scale analysis of accidents in the aircraft and nuclear industries concluded that at least ______ of all accidents were attributable to poor design of features of the work environment (Kinnersley & Roelen, 2007).

half

Employees who are in poor health or who are frequently ill tend to be ___________ susceptible to accidents.

highly

Research was conducted on 237 food-processing plant employees in an organization that had already laid off some of its workers. The results showed that the workers who reported feeling ___________ about their jobs and their future with the company had less motivation to adhere to safe working practices and to comply with safety policies. This lack of diligence, in turn, contributed to an increase in workplace accidents and injuries among these insecure employees (Probst & Brubaker, 2001).

insecure

By concentrating only on __________ accidents, the data provide an inaccurate picture of overall safety patterns.

lost-time

Engineering psychologists strive to _______ equipment requirements with the capabilities of the human operators.

match

In general, organizations treat employees who use drugs _________ than they do alcoholic employees.

more severely

An employee with a drinking or drug problem is _______________ likely to be involved in an accident than is an employee without such a problem.

much more

The insurance industry estimates that poor lighting is a causal factor in __________ of all industrial accidents.

one fourth

When older workers do have accidents, however, they are likely to be more costly in terms of _________ consequences and time lost from work.

physical

These researchers also reported a __________ relationship between high job satisfaction and safety awareness. Thus, they concluded that high job involvement leads to a lower accident rate (Barling, Kelloway, & Iverson, 2003).

positive

Although most accidents are caused by human error, conditions in the physical work environment are ______ sources of accidents.

potential

Research with 531 workers in 24 work groups within a chemical company showed that groups whose workers felt more empowered (who had greater _____________ over their work) had significantly better safety records than groups whose workers did not feel so empowered. The empowered groups performed safety checks and other safety-related behaviors more frequently than did the nonempowered groups (Hechanova-Alampay & Beehr, 2001).

power and authority

Accidents can be caused by the __________ to maintain a production schedule or adhere to a timetable.

pressure

Some studies have found that cognitive ability is related to accident-free behavior only in certain jobs, such as those requiring judgment and decision making as opposed to those involving ___________________________.

repetitive manual labor

Effects of prolonged computer use, such as carpal tunnel syndrome and other _________________ injuries, can be reduced by scheduling rest breaks.

repetitive strain

All accidents, regardless of the consequences, ________ be investigated and described in detail.

should

Accident proneness may be _______ to the work situation and not a _________ tendency over all situations, which limits the theory's predictive value.

specific; general

Studies of coal miners show that minor accidents are ____________ more frequent under high temperatures (approaching 85 degrees F) than under low temperatures (approaching 62 degrees F).

three times

Statistics on railroad accidents investigated by a Washington-based journalist contradicted official government reports. Where Amtrak cited 494 injuries in 25 train wrecks, the independent journalist found 1,338 injuries. This failure to record all job-related injuries, not just those that keep workers off the job, led the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics to conclude that accidents are significantly ____________.

underreported

A person's past accident record is not a ___________ of future accidents.

valid predictor

The use of drug testing in employee selection is ___________, although the tests may not be accurate and may violate privacy rights.

widespread