"Developing risk assessment competence in blue collar workers: an

approach focused on human factors”

By
Gloria Villalobos Fajardo
Colombia
villalobosfajard@hotmail.com

A final dissertation submitted

for the
Master in occupational safety and health

University of Turin
International Training Centre of the ILO (ITCILO)

October 2016

1
Table of contents

Abstract ............................................................................................................................. 4
Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................... 6
Permission to consult ........................................................................................................ 7
Abbreviations and acronyms ............................................................................................. 8
1. Introduction................................................................................................................ 9
2. Research question and objectives ............................................................................ 12
3. Method ..................................................................................................................... 14
4. Human factors and accident prevention................................................................... 15
5. The dynamics of hazards and the risk assessment process ...................................... 28
6. Commonly used methods for OSH competence development and a critical analysis
of their effectiveness. ...................................................................................................... 37
7. Training and competence development in OSH issues: a change of paradigm ....... 46
7.1 Training and competence .............................................................................................46
7.2 The learning process ....................................................................................................54
7.3 The learning objectives ................................................................................................57
7.4 Competency-based training..........................................................................................58
8. Designing the strategy to develop competencies to perform spontaneous risk
assessment. ...................................................................................................................... 60
8.1 Training strategy effectiveness criteria ........................................................................60
8.2 Overall learning outcome .............................................................................................61
8.3 Learning outcomes .......................................................................................................61
8.4 Methodology to develop training .................................................................................62
8.5 Target population .........................................................................................................62
8.6 Plan to develop training sessions .................................................................................62
8.7 Assessing competence development ............................................................................72
9. Discussion ................................................................................................................ 75
10. Annexes ................................................................................................................... 79
Annex 1. Terms used in the search for bibliographical material .............................................79
Annex 2. Emerging hazard recognition programs with application to construction ...............80
Annex 3. The Cognitive Processes .........................................................................................82

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 Annex 4. The knowledge dimension levels .............................................................................83
11. Bibliography ............................................................................................................ 84

List of figures
Figure 1. Human Factors in Occupational Health and Safety ......................................... 15
Figure 2. Locating the performance levels in the activity space ..................................... 19
Figure 3. The human factors SHEL model ..................................................................... 20
Figure 4. Integrating situational awareness definitions into a system approach ............. 22
Figure 5. Endsley’s model of situation awareness in dynamic decision making ............ 24
Figure 6. Hazard identification and management process .............................................. 32
Figure 7. Structure of the construction safety competency framework .......................... 48
Figure 8. Competence management cycle ...................................................................... 49
Figure 9. A conceptual model of workplace training interventions for primary
prevention in occupational safety and health. ................................................................. 53

List of tables
Table 1. Bloom's Taxonomy Knowledge and Cognitive Process Dimensions ............... 58
Table 2. Bloom's Taxonomy Knowledge and Cognitive Process Dimensions and their
relation to the objectives of the strategy to develop competencies in workers ............... 62
Table 3. Training sessions planning ................................................................................ 64
Table 4. Rubrics to evaluate development of cognitive component of the competencies
......................................................................................................................................... 73
Table 5. Rubrics to evaluate integral development of competencies. ............................. 74

3
Abstract

Incidence of accidents related to work both in Colombia and in other countries tends to
increase, while decrease is only shown in certain economic activities, a situation that
creates significant challenges to the results of actions on prevention and control carried
out by employers and also by Occupational Risk Management Companies (ARLs by their
acronym in Spanish) in their role as advisors, as well as to the effectiveness of
surveillance and control made by relevant state bodies.

Prevention often focuses on correcting unsafe conditions, and others on the developing
greater individual and collective capacity to identify and assess occupational risks in real
time, the latter being one aim of this research project regarding expansion of knowledge.

In addition, this research seeks for greater understanding of the most effective
mechanisms to develop self-care ability, particularly in workers with less training in
accident prevention, and it also opens new opportunities for applied research in the field
of development of strategies to improve safety standards at workplaces.

Its specific application to workers with low educational level in relation to accident
prevention at work stems from the importance that this group has for the social
development of the country, and from the need to have proper strategies to develop
workers' skills to take care of their own safety.

In short, the technical and social relevance attached to the project's development derives
from the need to expand knowledge on the influence of cognitive phenomena in
perceiving hazards and assessing risks, especially when considering that the lower the
risk perception, the greater the risk tolerance, and therefore the greater the risky
behaviour.

The research carried out allowed structuring a state of the art in relation to human factors
and accident prevention, the dynamics of hazards and the risk assessment process, and
from these first two chapters that laid the conceptual foundations, then moving on to
addressing identification and critical analysis of the most common methods to develop
OSH competence. Later on, scientific literature was consulted to establish current trends
showing a major paradigm shift, which involves structuring models for competence
management.

The last core chapter of the dissertation was devoted to designing a strategy to develop
competencies regarding spontaneous risk assessment. This result is a practical application
of the learning achieved with this research and it becomes a contribution for the benefit
of blue-collar workers.

The strategy designed describes the criteria for effectiveness, objectives, methodology for
its development, and the detailed plan of each session and criteria to evaluate results.

The paper's discussion briefly illustrates progress made and challenges ahead to undertake
new paths of research that will help generate explanations and knowledge to guide
prevention of accidents and injuries at the workplace.

4
This research leaves three major conclusions:

- Training programs themselves fail to generate the necessary impact on reducing

occupational morbidity; therefore, a comprehensive action is required both
regarding task conditions and the organization, reflecting the focus on human
factors.
- The development of non-technical competencies is a promising approach in order
to achieve improvement in practices and behaviours of people.
- The systematic design of training aimed at developing competencies and its
monitoring definitely add value to education as a preventive mechanism.

5
Acknowledgements

First of all I have to thank my family for their continuous encouragement during the
Master's studies and this research.

To my professors, Mr Felix Martin-Daza, Ms Daniela Trombetta, Ms Liza Zambernardi,

my feelings of gratitude for guiding and supporting me throughout the Master's
Programme, and to all my colleagues for the learning they always shared with me and
their special brotherhood and friendship.

My gratitude to my tutor in this dissertation, Dr Helena Bologna, for the academic

autonomy she entrusted in me and her guidance so that I could express my ideas and
dreams in this paper.

A special acknowledgement to the University of Turin and the International Training

Centre of the ILO (ITCILO) for their invaluable contribution to my process of human and
academic growth and for their continued input to the training of many people around the
world.

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Permission to consult

I authorize others to consult the content of this research and to cite it in academic and
scientific contexts, prior acknowledgement of copyright and permission to use its content.

Author’s e-mail: villalobosfajard@hotmail.com; gvillalo@javeriana.edu.co

Copy right by: Gloria Villalobos Ph.D. All rights reserved. 2016

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Abbreviations and acronyms

ANTA Australian National Training Authority

Occupational Risk Management Companies (ARLs by their acronym
ARLs
in Spanish)
CBR Case-Based Reasoning
CMS Competence Management Systems
CPSI Canadian Patient Safety Institute
Fasecolda Federation of Insurers of Colombia
FMEA Failure Modes and Effects Analysis
FRR Facility Risk Review
FTA Fault Tree Analysis
HAZOP Hazard and Operability
HEPS Human Error Probabilities Estimation
HMRI HM Railway Inspectorate
HOFCOM Human and Organisational Factors Committee
HRA Human Reliability Assessment
HSE Health and Safety Executive
HTA Hierarchical Task Analysis
IASSO Ibero American Social Security Organization
Colombian Institute of Technical Standards (Instituto Colombiano de
Icontec
Normas Técnicas by their acronym in Spanish)
ILO International Labour Organization
ITCILO International Training Centre of the ILO
JHA Job Hazard Analysis
JSA Job Safety Analysis
LED Light-Emitting Diode
NHS National Health Service (The National NHS Staff Council)
OSH Occupational Safety and Health
OSHA Occupational Safety and Health Administration
OSH-MS Occupational Safety and Health Management System
PSA Probabilistic Safety Assessment
QRA Quantitative Risk Analysis
SA Situational Awareness
U.S. United States. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and
NIOSH Health
WHO World Health Organization

8
1. Introduction

Designing effective plans for prevention of accidents involves carrying out actions
involving multiple stakeholders, also involving control of hazardous conditions,
education and improving work systems, actions that must be mediated by a reciprocal
quality relationship, timeliness and effectiveness.

The current regulatory framework of the Colombian system of occupational hazards is

extensive and has evolved significantly in the last decade to set up technical obligations
and provisions on prevention. Decree 1072 of 2015 (Ministry of Labour, Colombia,
Section 2.2.4.6.8) reiterates the employer's obligation to protect the safety and health of
its workers through participatory activities for prevention of accidents and occupational
diseases, and for health promotion in the Occupational Safety and Health Management
System (OSH-MS).

It is also worth of mention the 2013 - 2021 National Plan for Safety and Health at Work,
designed by the Ministry of Labour of Colombia and the Ibero American Social Security
Organization (1-28, 2014), which establishes among others sets up the following
objectives, regarding which this research project can generate a contribution given its
direct relationship with several of the activities defined therein:

Specific objective “2.4.1 Consolidate Management Systems on Safety and Health at

Work in companies all over the country,” which comprises “developing training strategies
for effective participation of workers in activities related to Health and Safety at Work,
as one of its strategies.”

Specific objective “3.1.1 Define and implement activities to promote health and safety
and risk prevention in formal, informal and independent working populations,” which
comprises the activity “developing training programs on basic safety and health standards
applicable to their occupation, for independent and informal workers by economic
sector.”

Specific objective “3.2.1 Promote preventive actions aimed at reducing workplace

accidents,” aiming at achieving results through various actions, including “training and
implementing measures for prevention and control of hazards and priority risks.”

Morbidity related to occupational accidents is also an aspect to consider in the context of

this project. In this regard, even though Colombia has no recent official statistics on work
accidents, data published by Fasecolda (Federation of Insurers of Colombia, 1-2, 2016)
and the Ministry of Labour (1-18, 2014) estimated that by the end of 2014 almost nine
million workers were on the system of occupational risks (8,936,931) and 688,942
(7.70%) of them reported accidents, which means that close to 78, 6 work-related
accidents occurred every hour, i.e. more than one per second. 564 deaths were recorded
for the same year (1.5 deaths per day), as well as 10,474 payments of compensation for
permanent partial disability, and 501 workers were pensioned for the same reason; hence
the social importance and benefits of having effective prevention and training.

9
An analysis of the data published by Fasecolda shows that the incidence of accidents
during the period between 2008 and 2014 increased by 10.7%, reflecting the need to find
mechanisms with greater impact on prevention, some of them focusing on correcting
unsafe conditions, and others on the developing greater individual and collective capacity
to identify and assess occupational risks in real time, the latter being one aim of this
research project regarding expansion of knowledge.

Traditional risk assessment methodologies do not always include the synergistic effect of
the "dynamics of hazards"; therefore, some decisions stemming from this process may be
limited. The situation becomes more complex if we consider that human thought
processes influence the capacity and quality of response in situations of exposure to
hazards mediated by the “situational awareness”1 (Construction Industry's Leadership
and Worker Engagement Forum, 2012).

Moreover, training of workers in matters related to their safety and health at work
traditionally focuses on acquiring knowledge, with little emphasis on developing skills to
analyse hazardous situations. Similarly, training processes on occupational safety and
health give little importance to the inclusive approach of human factors.

Regarding the above, the Second National Survey on Health and Safety Conditions at
Work in the Colombian Labour Risks System, conducted by the Ministry of Labour and
the Latin American Organization of Social Security in 2013 (Ministry of Labour and
IASSO, 1-201), notes that during the period 2009 - 2010, the Companies Managing
Occupational Risks (ARLs) conducted numerous activities on health promotion and
prevention of occupational accidents and major illnesses. Actions related to prevention of
accidents added up to about 19.2% of the preventive activity; however, the same survey
claims these actions were insufficient in proportion to the number of companies and
workers affiliated.

Likewise, the analysis of causes of accidents does not always go far enough to find
alternatives for preventing human error. Data from the Second National Survey on Health
and Safety Conditions at Work in the System of Occupational Hazards (2013) account
for this. According to the survey, most accidents (36%) are related to sprain or dislocation,
followed by contusion, wound or superficial laceration (26%) and fracture (19.26%).
Regarding the mechanism of occurrence, 64% of workers attributed it to a blow or a chafe,
6.2% to overexertion, and 8.20% to entrapment caused mainly by living organisms (45%),
materials and products (20%) and engines or transmissions (11%).

The Second National Survey also researched for mechanisms for prevention of accidents,
and in this regard it was found that in 61.56% of cases this is done through safety
standards, but only 52.03% of workers reported having participated in their design. Also,
45.42% of workers said they receive training in their company as a prevention mechanism
in occupational safety and health, but regarding the question of the extent to which people
feel they are informed about the risks they face at their work, 84.93% of them said that

1 Situational awareness means being aware of what is happening around a person in terms of where the
person is, where that person is supposed to be, and whether anyone or anything around him/her is a threat
to his/her health and safety (Construction Industry’s Leadership and Worker Engagement Forum.
Leadership and worker involvement toolkit. Hosted by HSE 06/12).

10
information is very bad or bad and only 4.34% believe to be well or very well informed,
which poses important questions on the effectiveness of training.

Second, the research seeks for greater understanding of the most effective mechanisms to
develop self-care ability, particularly in workers with less training in accident prevention,
and it also opens new opportunities for applied research in the field of development of
strategies to improve safety standards at workplaces.

Its specific application to workers with low educational level in relation to accident
prevention at work stems from the importance that this group has for the social
development of the country, and from the need to have proper strategies to develop
workers' skills to take care of their own safety.

In short, the technical and social relevance attached to the project's development derives
from the need to expand knowledge on the influence of cognitive phenomena in
perceiving hazards and assessing risks, especially when considering that the lower the
risk perception, the greater the risk tolerance, and therefore the greater the risky
behaviour.

The content of this document is structured in three parts starting with formulating the
research question and then presenting the methodology to answer it. The second part
explores progress related to understanding the accident in the context of human factors,
and continues with an understanding of the dynamics of hazards and risk assessment
process, and then raises the importance of skills development in workers, which ends with
the third part, consisting of formulating a proposal for their development. The study
concludes with a discussion of progress in literature and lessons learned with the research
process.

11
2. Research question and objectives

Arising from the aspects of interest that triggered this research, the question to be
answered with the project is: In the light of human factors, which ones would be the best
methods to develop blue collar workers’ competence for performing risk assessment as a
spontaneous cognitive process to prevent accidents at work?

Spontaneous cognitive process means analysis and decision making in real time (not
deferred over time) at the work place.

In order to clarify a little more the technical terms referred to in the research question
above, here are the basic definitions that facilitate their understanding, without attempting
to use them to limit its analysis and the various explanatory approaches that will be dealt
with when developing the research.

Human factors refer to “environmental, organisational and job factors, and human and
individual characteristics which influence behaviour at work in a way which can affect
health and safety” (Health and Safety Executive, Health and Safety Executive 5-8, 1999).

Competence is the ability to undertake responsibilities and to perform activities to a

recognized standard on a regular basis. “Competence is a combination of practical and
thinking skills, experience and knowledge”. (HMRI and Hoddinott, 1-9, 2007)

Cognitive process refers to the mental process of knowing, including aspects such as
awareness, perception, reasoning, and judgment.

Risk assessment is the “process of assessing the risk (s) arising from a hazard (s), taking
into account the suitability of existing controls, and of deciding whether (the ) risk (s) is
acceptable or not.” (NTC-OHSAS-18001:2007, Icontec and Colombian Safety Council
1-40).

“Hazard: A source, situation or act with a potential for harm in terms of injury or illness,
or a combination thereof.” (NTC OHSAS-18001: 2007, Icontec and Colombian Safety
Council 1-40).

Risk: “Combining probability of occurrence of a hazardous event (s) exposure (s) and the
severity of the injury or illness that can be caused by (the) event (s) or exposure (s)”.
(NTC OHSAS-18001: 2007, Icontec and Colombian Safety Council 1-40).

Hazard Identification: “The process for recognizing that a hazard exists and defining its
characteristics”. (NTC OHSAS-18001: 2007, Icontec and Colombian Safety Council 1-
40).

Acceptable Risk: “A risk that has been reduced to a level that the organization can
tolerate, taking into account their legal obligations and their own policy.” (NTC OHSAS-
18001: 2007, Icontec and Colombian Safety Council 1-40).

12
The hazards on which the research will focus are mechanical and chemical, given their
importance in accident presentation among blue collar workers in the industrial sector.

Derived from the research question, the objectives of this dissertation are as follows:

Increase understanding on how the perception of hazards occurs and how it affects risk
analysis and decision making, as a key element to the situational awareness required to
make the right decision to prevent an accident at work.

Identify and propose the most effective strategy for developing the required competence
that will allow blue collar workers perform spontaneous risk assessment and consequently
behave in a safe way.

13
3. Method

Project development focuses on building state of the art or documentary research aimed
at allowing a critical reading of the developments related to the project objective and the
approach of the various concepts and practices involved in strategies for developing skills
required by workers to prevent accidents at work.

The development of state of the art means searching for, selecting and organizing
information for a logical and consistent treatment to allow content analysis in order to
generate a broad vision that drives integration of concepts and approaches related to the
object of study.

It is worth mentioning that the scope of this investigation is not to conduct a systematic
review of the literature, since the time required for its development would be longer than
expected; however, for research purposes, the main guidelines commonly used to carry
conduct a systematic review of literature were considered (Khan, et al, 118-121, 2003)2,
except that given the aforementioned reason, the evidence to be collected may not be
exhaustive.

In searching for necessary information during the development of the research, keywords
were used to consult databases by using Boolean operators (AND, OR). Articles and
documents selected mainly from the last 15 years were analysed and synthesized to
achieve the objectives. Similarly, some documents and articles previously published were
consulted given their relevance to understanding and describing the object of study.

The terms used in the search strategy and their respective combinations are found in
Annex 1, and databases consulted for information gathering were basically the following:
Science Direct; Ebscohost on all platforms including Psychology and Behavioural
Sciences Collection; Proquest across all its platforms; Ebrary books and Scopus.

Additionally, specialized documents related to human factors, safety and health at work
were consulted.

2
Step 1: Framing questions for a review; Step 2: Identifying relevant work; Step 3: Assessing the quality
of studies; Step 4: Summarizing the evidence and Step 5: Interpreting the findings.
14
4. Human factors and accident prevention

The approach to human factors focuses on understanding how humans interact with the
environment at work; thus it seeks to answer the question of why decisions or actions of
individuals make sense in a given context, place and time. In this regard, prevention of
accidents involves understanding the social, organizational phenomena and the task, as
well as individual cognitive processes, which are not only a challenge but also an
innovative opportunity given the comprehensive approach that transcends models
traditionally used in the field of safety.

The Health and Safety Executive defines human factors as “environmental, organisational
and job factors, and human and individual characteristics which influence behaviour at
work in a way which can affect health and safety” (Health and Safety Executive, 5-8,
1999) Figure 1 illustrates the above definition.

Framework:
Figure 1. Human Human
Factors in Occupational Health andFactors
Safety

Competencies, abilities,
attitudes, risk perception…..

Individual

Work Organisation

Tasks, workload, environment, Culture, leadership, resources,

procedures….. processes, communication…..

Source: Adaptation from Health and Safety Executive, p. 5, 1999

Reducing error and influencing behaviour (HSG48), HSE Books 1999

From the above definition, it should be noted the need of applying ergonomics in the
design of tasks and workstations, as well as the availability of information and interfaces
for its transmission, so as to facilitate decision-making.

Potential sources of error in the context of human factors arise when there are
discrepancies between job requirements and skills of operators. Regarding the individual,
it should be noted that their personal characteristics influence the behaviour in a complex
way, even though some of these characteristics can be modified with training and
experience. Finally, all organizational factors have a major influence on individual and
collective behaviour and cannot be ignored when an accident or incident is investigated.

15
According to Professor E. Edwards, “Human Factors is concerned to optimize the
relationship between people and their activities, by the systematic application of human
sciences, integrated within the framework of systems engineering”. In summary, “Human
Factors is essentially concerned with solving practical problems in the real world. Human
Factors is practical in nature; it is problem-oriented rather than discipline-centred (Civil
Aviation Authority 38, 2002) 3.

The application of human factors approach has paid off not only in protecting workers,
but also other members of society, as stated in the review by Xie and Carayon (2015). In
this systematic review, the authors examine the quality and safety of patient care in health
services. Their findings showed the existence of evidence of the effectiveness of
redesigning health care systems based on the human factors principles as a mechanism to
increase patient safety (Xie and Carayon 33-49, 2015).

In order to prevent accidents in an effective way it is necessary to identify and correct

latent conditions of the organization (i.e. cultural factors that usually take longer to
change) and factors related to management (i.e. management decisions), and then
implement improvements to overcome those system conditions that tend to cause
accidents given their influence on efficiency and reliability of human performance
(Maurino et al. 166-1-29, 1995). On the other hand, risky working conditions combined
with organizational aspects, can lead to risky acts and vice versa; thus, preventive action
must be comprehensive; for example, a particular safety training is required to work in
adverse environmental conditions, which become cause of accidents if that safety training
is not carried out (Chi et al. 826-838, 2012).

Organizational conditions are usually analysed in different categories according to

relevance for each activity; for example, in the field of military aviation, categories such
as: organizational resource management, organizational climate and organizational
processes are considered (The Canadian Forces 68, 2009.); this same organization
reinforces the importance of effective teamwork, in which members share their
knowledge and skills to achieve work goals.

Among the working system conditions, we have the particular aspects of the task (i.e.
changes in routine, inadequate procedures), of the environment (i.e. communications
problems, poor hygiene and safety conditions of tools and equipment), and individual
conditions (physical and mental).

On the other hand, defences and protections available to the organization are very diverse.
Some of them serve to warn against hazards and risks, and some other help to regain
safety in a system. According to the mode of application of defences, there are, among
others, engineering devices, standard practices and procedures and control systems as
well as personal protective equipment.

In terms of human involvement in risk control, accident investigation can be understood

of as the process opposite to risk analysis. While risk analysis involves hazard
identification and evaluation of the controls set out to keep a firm hold on them, accident

3
Available at:
http://www.atlasaviation.com/AviationLibrary/FundamentalHumanFactorsConcepts/FundamentalHuman
FactorsConcepts5.htm
16
investigation derives from situations denoting loss of control over risks, and identifies the
flaws and the mechanisms necessary to prevent recurrence.

James Reason's accident causation model (1990) linearly describes failures in work
system barriers that trigger the events ending up in the accident. However, according to
Hurst (1998), the theories explaining accident causation have migrated from linear and
simple models to more complex models that consider both the assessment of hazards to
which people are exposed, and human error, including failures in health and safety4
management systems and in production management. On the other hand, accidents are
also explained by hardware failures (equipment), by shortcomings in organizational
systems, by cultural aspects, and also by improper risk assessment (14-37 Hurst, 1998).

The organizational culture understood as “what the organization is” is another variable
affecting occurrence of accidents. We often talk about safety culture, considered by some
as a specific scenario in which organizational culture is expressed, and by others as a
concept with its own identity (Diaz-Cabrera et al, 83-91, 2008). While definitions of
safety culture are very similar and keep a close relationship with the concept of
organizational culture, one of the most commonly used definitions is that issued by the
British Advisory Committee on Safety of Nuclear Installations (1993): “The safety
culture of an organization is the product of personal and group values, attitudes,
perceptions, competencies, and patterns of behaviour that determine the commitment to,
and the style and proficiency of, an organization's health and safety management” (quoted
by Wilpert 4-18 , 2001). Safety culture is supported by two important aspects: beliefs and
attitudes towards safety on the one hand, and tangible manifestations of the organization's
management systems on the other.

Accidents occur more often in situations where safety culture is poor, and on the contrary,
they tend to decrease when resources are available, participation is encouraged, hazards
are identified and improvements are implemented in an environment in which
commitment of management is visible. Ultimately, leadership and safety culture are
predictive of safety performance. (Martinez-Oropesa, 179-192, 2012).

Finally, literature talks about the safety climate as an element that also affects occurrence
of accidents, being understood as “shared perceptions with regard to safety policies,
procedures, and practices” (Dov 376-387, 2008).

Understanding the phenomenon of accidents under the human factors approach has
promoted the study of the concept known as human error, widely developed by James
Reason (Reason 296-53-96, 1990), adopted by other authors as a source of study of causes
of accidents, even in military aviation (Wiegmann and Shappell 1006-1016, 2001).
Significantly, however, many of the causes attributable to human error are actually related
to structural problems that must be dealt with if we want to perform effective prevention
(Rasmussen 449-462, 1990).

In his book “Human Error,” Reason classified errors or failures into two broad classes:
active and latent. Active failures have an immediate and direct effect, while hidden or
latent failures can remain dormant for long periods of time before combining with active
4
Safety management is described in terms of definition of policies, organisation and implementation of
plans, performance assessment and review, and audit of progress.
17
faults and triggering factors characteristic of defence systems (296-53-96 Reason, 1990).
Latent failures are deficiencies in the system of defences and barriers that have the
potential to act as predecessors of an accident, though they often remain without causing
adverse effects. Active failures are classified into three broad categories derived from the
levels at which people carry out actions. These levels are: skills, rules and knowledge
(Rasmussen 257-266, 1983).

Human error is seen from a dual perspective: the person's approach and the system's
approach. The personal perspective focuses on understanding the error as the result of an
undue mental process that Reason (2000) calls “aberrant mental processes” derived from
fatigue, carelessness or negligence. On the other hand, the system's approach considers
error as a consequence and not as a cause, and it also deems errors as proper to human
nature and therefore their control focuses on improving the conditions under which people
work. In this regard, highly reliable organizations acknowledge human variability and
deal with designing work systems robust enough to reduce possibility of failure in terms
of the hazards inherent to operation and human failures. Reliable organizations are not
immune to error, but have learned to turn errors into opportunities for improvement and
thereby increase the system's resilience (Reason 768-770, 2000).

Maurino et al. (1999) provide a comprehensive approach to human performance, which

is driven by the type of situations to be addressed -from routine to new ones- and by a
dominant cognitive control mechanism -from automatic to conscious- (figure 2) . At the
performance level based on skills, decisions are made automatically, except those in
which worker must consciously check the progress of the activity. Performance is based
on standards when situations or problems must be addressed through pre-programmed
standards or solutions. Finally, knowledge-based performance is usually conscious and is
applied to solve or address new situations.

Performance in each of these three levels may be wrong, either because even though the
plan is successful, the actions taken are diverted, resulting in slips and lapses occurring
with little or no conscious thought (skill errors). On the other hand, it may happen that
the actions are carried out according to plan, but this is not the proper one to achieve the
results, leading to mistakes or decision errors (poorly implemented procedures, improper
choices, or misinterpretation or misuse of relevant information).

Finally, violations, whether deliberate or wrong, are deviations from safe operation.
Typically, errors arise from information problems, while violations arise from
motivational problems heavily regulated by social context.

18
Figure 2. Locating the performance levels in the activity space

Control modes
Situations Errors and violations
Mainly Conscious Mainly
conscious And automatic automatic type

Routine
Expected Skill-based
•Slips and lapses
performance
•Routine violations
Familiar or
Trained-for
problems Rule-based
performance •Rule-based mistakes
•Situational violations
Novel
Difficult or Knowledge-
Dangerous based •knowledge-based mistakes
problems
performance •Exceptional violations

Source: Adapted from Maurino et al., 1999

In general, slips and lapses are associated with executive faults related to attention,
perception or memory failures (i.e. rudder movements without thinking, inadvertent
activation/deactivation of switches). Rule-based errors can result from lack of application
thereof or from applying undue rules. Regarding knowledge-based errors there are
underlying difficulties with working memory, lack of information or training or misuse
of mental models or patterns to solve a problematic situation.

Decision and skill-based errors are very common in accidents; nevertheless, perceptual
errors have received less attention. These types of errors are also determined by
environmental conditions that can induce, for instance in the case of aircrews, to a wrong
assessment of distance, altitude, and descent rates, or to incorrect responses when facing
a variety of visual or vestibular illusions (Wiegmann and Shappell 1006-1016, 2001).

Errors can also occur in the presence of stressors, whether environmental (i.e. extreme
temperatures, vibration, low light), organizational (i.e. shortage of resources, inflexible
schedules, conflicts with co-workers, high workload), or individual (i.e. inadequate
training, health problems, lack of experience and fatigue, among others), and finally due
to equipment problems (i.e. poor design, lack of maintenance, etc.) (Health and Safety
Executive HSE 31-41, 2009).

Usually errors are unintentional, but they constitute a breach that takes place in an attempt
to solve problems. The Energy Institute provides comprehensive guidelines to handle
errors according to their nature; however, it insists on three basic aspects: (i) personnel
are highly competent in all tasks; (ii) systems can tolerate human failures - are resistant
to failure or allow recovery; and (iii) problems can be freely reported and discussed.
(Energy Institute. Human and Organisational Factors Committee -. HOFCOM (c) 1-4
2011).

19
In general, it can be concluded that mechanisms for intervention of human errors will be
effective only if the organizational culture provides the necessary support, if workers and
their employers communicate in a trusted environment and if the aspects that directly
affect breach of rules are controlled.

The aerospace industry is perhaps one of the industries attaining the greatest progress in
formulating a conceptual model for understanding human factors. The SHEL concept (the
name being derived from the initial letters of its components, Software, Hardware,
Environment, Liveware) was first developed by Edwards in 1972, with a modified
diagram to illustrate the model, developed by Hawkins in 1975 (Figure 3). In addition to
the traditional system man - machine, the author adds the environment, which in its core
has the liveware that corresponds to a person, which is the most critical and the most
flexible component in the system. To achieve a balance among the parts of the model, it
is necessary to design work in line with the physical characteristics and the needs
(physical and cognitive) of the person who does the job and the people making up the
work teams (Civil Aviation Authority 1-5, 2002).

The main advantage of the model is that it illustrates the importance of the relationship
between the parts of a larger system, which helps to understand the relationship of human
factors with accident rates, away from the approaches of linear causality presented by
other conceptual approaches.

Figure 3. The human factors SHEL model

The SHEL model as modifed by Hawikns

S L E

S= Software (procedures, In this model the match or mismatch

Symbology, etc.) L of the blocks (interface) is just as
H= Hardware (machine) important as the characteristics of
E= Environment the blocks themselves. A mismatch
L= Liveware (human) can be a source of human error.
Source: Civil Aviation Authority (2002)

Situational awareness, a specific element of the individual component of human factors,

is the sense of “alert” of what is happening around, in terms of where the individual is,
where he/she is supposed to be, and in identifying whether or not someone or something
around poses threat to their health and safety (the Construction Industry's Leadership and
Worker Engagement Forum 1-2, 2012).

Endsley defines situational awareness as “the perception of the elements in the

environment within a volume of time and space, the comprehension of their meaning, and
20
the projection of their status in the near future” (Endsley 97-101, 1988). Ensdley's
approach allows for understanding various categories of consciousness (space and time)
and also states that situational awareness is increased to the extent that information is
processed at higher cognitive levels, and conversely, its loss relates to a poorer
performance of work systems, since their failures are detected more slowly and thus
decisions may also be wrong. Therefore, understanding the situation involves integrating
external data with individual skills and work goals, which allows having information
regarding the status of the situation.

Smith and Hancock (1995) specify some limits to situational awareness (SA): first they
consider it as directed towards a task environment, and although it is a facet of
consciousness, it is not the whole consciousness. On the other hand, SA refers to goals
and demands imposed on the individual by the task and the context. Finally, the authors
claim that SA is an adaptive cycle that leads behaviour and is made up by knowledge,
action and information. In this cycle, knowledge leads to adaptive behaviour, which in
turn modifies the environment and then feeds back knowledge (Smith, and Hancock 137-
148, 1995).

In short, Endsley's (1988) definition highlights perception and understanding of the world
as a requirement for future projection. Bedney and Meister, exponents of the “Activity
theory”5 (Bedny, G; Meister, D. 63-72, 1999) consider that situational awareness is part
of the dynamic cognitive activity. Moreover, Smith and Hancock define situational
awareness through interaction between two systems made up by the agent and the
environment that generates the momentary knowledge and behaviour required to attain
the goals of performance (Smith, K., Hancock, PA 137- 148, 1995).

Another view on situational awareness considers that it lies in the interaction of the person
with the environment (Smith and Hancock, 1995). In this regard, to the extent that
interaction with the environment occurs, information allows to update and change the
cognitive schema of the world, which in turn directs perceptual exploration.

Figure 4 summarizes the fundamental principles of the different definitions of situational

awareness through five main elements that interact in a system made up by the person
and their environment (Stanton et al. 189-204, 2001).

5
Activity theory, describes an activity as being composed of subject, object, actions, and operations.
21
Figure 4. Integrating situational awareness definitions into a system approach

Reflection and future

projection

Knowledge and mental

models

Perception and
representation

Things in the real world

Source: Stanton, N.A.; Chambers, P.R.G. and Piggott, J. (2001)

Approaches to situational awareness differ because some authors focus more on the
process of acquiring situational awareness and others on the product itself. In summary,
there are three theoretical approaches to understanding situational awareness: information
processing approach (cognitive model), the activity approach, and the ecological
approach (perceptual cycle).

Endsley's model is established in a cognitive model of human activity, immersed in a

dynamic system in which situational awareness is influenced by factors of the task and of
the individual. The author considers three levels of SA, which will be described in more
detail later, given their practicality for the purposes developing the objectives of this
research. These levels are, in order: (i) Perception of the elements in the current situation;
(Ii) Understanding the current situation; and (iii) projection of the future status of the
situation.

The activity approach introduced by Bedney and Meister (1999) is based on a functional
model of the cognitive activity, with eight major functional blocks: (i) Meaning of input
(interpretation of information from the world); (ii) Image goal (conceptual image of
information-task-goal); (iii) Subjectively relevant task condition (dynamic reflection of
situation and task or situational awareness); (iv) Evaluative and inducing components of
motivation (comparing motivation and performance); (v) Making a decision and
performance (interacting with the world to answer the question of what kind of activity
is required); (vi) Criteria of evaluation (Determining relevant criteria for evaluation); (vii)
Past experience (Modify experience to interpret new information); and (viii) Conceptual
model (modify world model to interpret new information).

Decision-making as an aim of situational awareness is a process that must be based on

accurate and timely information that may be taken by different means, including real-time
video, particularly because it provides non-filtered situation information; however,
oversaturation of information may occur, which becomes unhelpful if it is not analysed
in the light of clearly established criteria (Leppänen 198-203, 2015).

Processing and control of information usually occurs in two ways: “automatic” and
“controlled”. Automatic control refers to activities that are performed without awareness
(e.g. walking), and also includes those actions initiated without any reflection (e.g.
passing a sip of water down the throat), as well as directing attention automatically to a

22
stimulus (e.g. looking to the side if a signal is perceived in the environment); automatic
attention also occurs when a task is performed without any other stimuli that compete
with the attentional resource. On the other hand, controlled processing is conscious and
deliberate, and therefore can deal with only a limited amount of information at once.
While conscious control requires attention, automatic control does not. In everyday life,
practice of certain actions induces the development of skills, which in turn facilitate
implementing an action with less use of attentional resources. (Styles, 122-141, 2005).

The approach to situational awareness as an individual phenomenon is also enriched with

the optics of group phenomenon. In this regard Salmon, 2008, estimates that more
research is needed both in development of theoretical perspectives, and in training
guidelines and strategies for designing complex work systems (Salmon 22-34, 2008).

One could conclude that situational awareness can answer the questions: What
happened?, Where am I?, What is happening?, What could happen?, considering various
influences (environment, organization, information and staff) to influence individual and
collective behaviour.

Considering the three levels of situational awareness raised by Endsley, the first of them
is perception, which means actively scanning the environment for information with which
to build up a mental model made up the important aspects of the environment and
knowledge stored in the memory. The worker must then learn the proper way to search
for information by devoting the necessary time to it, and this means having clear: What
to search for - driven by the need for the information (what is important and why, since
having more data does not mean having more information); When to look at specific
information; Where the information can be found, its source and reliability, and Why the
information is relevant to the circumstances.

The second level of situational awareness involves understanding the information and
comparing it to mental patterns formed by the combination of information perceived in
the real world (environment), knowledge and previous experience. To improve
understanding, the worker must compare the situation with previous situations and with
the plan for implementing the activity.

The third level of situational awareness involves thinking about the future statuses of the
situation to make timely decisions in a repeated cycle of collecting data, analysing them,
comparing them to mental models, decision making, behaviour (action) and feedback. As
a support in the process of projecting future statuses, it is useful to consider possible
contingencies, in which case the question “What if?” helps visualizing various
alternatives on the future status of an activity. Figure 5 illustrates Endsley model
described above (Endsley and Garland 3-32, 2000).

When an individual has a well-developed mental model6 about the behaviour of a

particular system or domain, the model allows attention to be directed to critical cues; it
orients expectations regarding future statuses of the environment based on projection
mechanisms of the model (what to expect, what not to expect), and helps to establish the

6
Mental models held in long term memory and are relatively static.
23
link between the classification of familiar situations and typical actions (Endsley, 32-64,
1995).

Figure 5. Endsley’s model of situation awareness in dynamic decision making

• System Capability
• Interface Design
• Stress & Workload
• Complexity
• Automation

Task/system Factors

Feedback

SITUATION AWARENESS
Projection Performance
Perception Comprehension
State of the
Environment Of element In Of Current Of future Decision Of
current Situation Status Actions
Situation
Level 1 Level 2 Level 3

Individual Factors
Information Processing
• Goals & Mechanisms
Objectives
• Preconceptions
(Expectations) Long-term Automaticity
Memory Stores

• Abilities
• Experience
• Training

Source: Endsley and Garland, 2000

Situational awareness can be affected in periods of high workload, multiple tasks, stress,
inadequate system feedback and other people at work. Accordingly, it is required that
work systems are designed so that they facilitate maintaining situational awareness
through aids such as transferring fatiguing tasks to work systems, progressive
presentation of information in ways that facilitate understanding and projection of future
statuses, consistent with the objectives of the task; provision of indicators and signs
allowing identification of the system's status. (Endsley 32-64, 1995).

It is convenient to do some clarifications regarding Endsley model (1995): first, the three
levels of situational awareness represent ascending levels of SA, not linear stages, because
higher levels of awareness situational can guide the search for data and provide default
values when information is not available; second, the model represents a dynamic
process, with objectives, mental models and representations of the current situation,
which guide the active search for information in which people are actively involved for
making decisions.

Interest in the concept of situational awareness has been important since the early 90's,
not only in the aerospace industry, but also in others such as air traffic control, military
operations, transportation, power systems, emergency management, health care, mining,
and oil and gas. (Endsley, 4-32, 2015).

24
Endsley's model of situational awareness (1995) is perhaps one of the most complete and
comprehensive and includes key elements such as (Endsley, 4-32, 2015):
 Integration of three cognitive processes: perception, comprehension, and
projection, which generate information to form a situational model that resides in
working memory.
 The role of goals and expectations to direct attention and interpret perceived
information.
 Addressing objectives and data when processing information.
 Restriction of requests for information on the working memory, which restrict
situational awareness in new situations, as well as the huge advantages of mental
models and pattern matching to prototypical schema.
 Use of mental models to draw attention to relevant information so as to achieve
the objectives and also to project future statuses of the situation.
 A pattern of adjustment to the scheme and to the prototypical statuses of the mind
model, which allows understanding, projecting and implementing appropriate
responses to certain situations.
 People as active participants in their own situational awareness, based on the way
they draw attention, communicate with peers and manipulate tools to find out the
desired information.
 A continuous dynamic process to obtain information and interpret it in order to
update the situation model and use it to search for information until decisions can
be made.
 The relationship between the objectives and the mental models that guide the
selection and development of action plans, as well as using the activated mental
model to direct attention to the environment, thus allowing constantly updating of
the model of the situation and the mental model that must be activated to act
consistently.
 The role of environment, task and factors of the work system7 regarding
situational awareness.
 The taxonomy of errors based on this model that characterizes the underlying
factors that may acknowledge errors in perception, understanding and projection.

Human-Factors Engineering is a discipline that contributes to the technical development

of work systems designed with a focus on human factors, approaching five elements in
an interdisciplinary way: people, work, organization, equipment and environment. The
intervention to improve work systems passes through successive phases involving
screening or initial review of the risks associated with an activity; design of control
systems conformant to technical standards, design validation, and feedback and solution
improvement (Robb and Miller 752-762, 2012).

As a result of the statements above, actions to prevent accidents will be more efficient if
they define specific goals that are socially acknowledged, and if they are periodically
evaluated and fed back.

7
The aspects of the work system comprise complexity, effectiveness of interfaces to provide the necessary
information, comprehensibility (understandability) of information, and the role of stressors, workload and
fatigue.

25
It can be said that the four aspects on which action should be focused to properly manage
human factors are: (i) assessment of risks associated with human factors, (ii) analysis of
incidents and accidents in the light of the approach to human factors, (iii) inclusion of
human factors in designing work and supplies, (iv) considering human factors in issues
related to health and management at work (Health and Safety Executive HSE 42-47,
2009).

At work, it is worth to consider designing procedures with a focus on human factors, so

that they are adapted to the task, are complete, current, and written on the basis of task
analysis and risk assessment, after which they should be field-tested, so as to ensure
they are realistic and easy to use (Energy Institute. Human and Organisational Factors
Committee -. HOFCOM (a) 1-4, 2011).
Since situational awareness as an explanatory construct affects the decision-making
process, it is useful to explore much further how people make decisions, which has led to
the development of a conceptual approach called naturalistic decision making (NDM),
particularly useful when investigating complex systems8 in which certain errors can
cause accidents. Accurate situation awareness is the first and most critical step in the
process of making the right decisions. For example, some airline pilots and other workers
continue moving forward in a particular course of action in dynamic situations, despite
having information suggesting that they should have taken a different action. This type
of error may be related to the repeated experience of facing risky situations without
having had accidents so far, thus driving worker to disregard the probability of an
accident. Changing a decision involves cognitive effort to recognize (i) that the situation
has changed since the time the first action was taken; and (ii) that a different course of
action is required, because their situational awareness becomes inaccurate. (Strauch 281-
290, 2016).

Significantly, the characteristics of technology and design contribute in different ways to

keep proper situational awareness (SA), but its effectiveness depends on the extent to
which information systems provide the necessary support. Some mechanisms that help
assess this support are: (i) analysis of accident reports; (ii) evaluation of situational
awareness in simulated environments; (iii) observational research to assess SA in the
context of a real-life operation; and (iv) cognitive task analysis9 to define operators'
required situational awareness. (Van Doorn, 1717-1721, 2015).

As a conclusion to this section of the research, it can be said that understanding the
process of occurrence of accidents can minimize them; in this sense, a holistic approach
considers both organizational and managerial aspects, such as conditions at the workplace
and characteristics of the task, and situational factors that lead to errors or breaches. Even
though causes of accidents are varied and large in number, in many cases it is necessary
to focus on those causes that are inside the organization, as well as on the closest social
factors, because at that level it is possible to set up controls to prevent further events;
likewise, many of the unsafe actions preceding an accident are not intentional security

8
Typically, work in these systems is performed with limited time, uncertainty, organisational constraints
and unstable processes.
9 Cognitive task analysis (CTA) is a set of methods aimed at supporting researchers in the identification
and understanding of cognitive activities involved in performing a task.
26
breaches, but rather the result of poor recognition of hazards and poor perception of risks
(Tixier et al. 04014052-1-10, 2014), which leads to making incorrect decisions because
the process of situational awareness is not effective in prevention.

27
5. The dynamics of hazards and the risk assessment process

Recognition of hazards and proper and accurate perception of risk are fundamental to the
success of any safety program. When hazards remain unrecognized, or the associated risk
is underestimated, the probability of unwanted and unexpected events increases
dramatically. As mentioned earlier, risk perception and acceptability are conditioned also
by political, economic, cultural and social aspects around which individuals live and
think, which in turn influence their decisions.

In any situation there are three important aspects that affect safety, namely: (i) being
aware of hazards and of personal feeling towards risk; (ii) believing that risks are
controlled through available actions and mechanisms; and (iii) behaving safely.
Consequently, risk is perceived as being greater depending on the severity of its
assessment and the level of vulnerability experienced. Preventive actions are taken if the
individual believes they are effective, if their cost (time, productivity and discomfort) and
efforts are low, and even if others carry them out too. Therefore, to increase risk
appreciation is necessary to have information about the hazards, exposure modes and
control measures available. (Health and Safety Executive HSE 31-41, 2009).

Frequent mismatches between perceived risk and actual probability of it becoming true,
suggest the need to clarify the conditions that influence how people understand and
respond to risk, so that communication strategies take into account “not rational” aspects
that explain the differences in risk perception between experts and the general population.
Innovative schemes on risk communication should understand that they relate to a social
construction, so it is necessary to evaluate the different knowledge and promote public
participation considering the aspects mentioned below: (Botterill, and Mazur 1- 20,
2004).

- Risk characteristics cause different reactions, for example in voluntary activities, risk
is perceived as being smaller than in mandatory activities, and this also happens with
known risks versus new risks.
- Psychological aspects of decision-making also affect risk perception; for example,
activities that generate benefits to individuals induce greater risk tolerance.
- People use speculative approaches to making sense of the world and use a selective
judgment to respond to risks, and focus more on the negative consequences of risks
without even considering that they may have a low probability of occurrence.
- Risk perception takes place in a social context; thus, some risks are exaggerated or
underrated according to their cultural acceptance or rejection (beliefs, knowledge and
values), and by the degree of remembrance (memorable events). Risk perception is
influenced by agile judgment mechanisms also known as heuristics, which allocate
greater weight to consequences than to probability.
- People have a level of risk at which they feel “comfortable” and adjust their behaviour
in presence of safety measures.
- The technical approach to risk refers to the combination of probability of occurrence
(frequency) and magnitude of the consequences; however, assessing the probability of
risk occurrence is an activity influenced by subjective judgments.

28
Other psychosocial and cultural aspects influencing risk perception are: (Puy 263-270,
1995).
- Fear to and severity of certain exposures are associated with increased risk perception.
- With regard to demographic variables, the author refers the consistent results of several
studies in which older subjects stand out more strongly risks related to the domestic
sphere, while young people highlight risks related to technology. Both groups
emphasize the risks from natural events. On the other hand, there seems to be a
tendency in women to give higher marks than men to certain risks.
- Risks perceived as higher are those in which people experience a greater concern or
personal threat (severity).

One of the most influential elements in risk perception is the fact that workers do not
always experience accidents while performing a risky behaviour, so their perceived level
of risk is lower.

In addition to the above issues, risk-taking behaviour is also related to cognitive

interaction between emotions and perception of risk; in this regard, a controlled
experiment with 69 subjects was conducted in order to test the relationship between
emotions (positive, negative and neutral) and risk perception. The experiment started by
subjecting people to various emotions conveyed through videos, and after measuring their
reactions through a questionnaire, they were exposed in a virtual environment to different
hazards inherent to construction activities and then their risk perception was measured.
The results showed that the group with mild negative emotions and the intense negative
group perceived risk significantly higher in statistical terms than the positive emotions
group. In addition, it was also found that the two negative groups perceived more risk
than the neutral group. No statistically significant differences in the perception of risks
between the positive and neutral groups or between the two negative groups were found.

The explanations to this finding are related to the bidirectional influence of emotions and
decision-making; however, research on the subject still provides wrong results, so more
research is needed in this area (Tixier et al. 04014052- 1-10, 2014).

Socio-demographic characteristics are a factor influencing risk perception; in a study on

the influence of age and ability in classifying hazardous traffic scenes, the authors
concluded that experience improves responsiveness to possible hazards; likewise, more
experienced drivers relied more on traffic environment characteristics in their
classification; however, older age decreases the ability of drivers to perceive potential
hazards (Borowski et al. 277-287, 2009; and Borowski et al. 1240-1249, 2010.).

The length of time in which people have been acquiring experience allows them to acquire
two basic skills: hazard awareness, i.e. the ability to read the situation and identify
potentially hazardous conditions (i.e. road condition, in the case of a driver), and risk
perception, which is a subjective assessment experience allowing workers to judge their
own capacity to handle risk and make decisions regarding the action they believe is the
most appropriate (Borowski et al. 19-32, 2013).

Proper identification of hazards at work requires educational methodologies that stimulate

this ability, since it is necessary to overcome barriers of knowledge and information
arising from lack of resources, from trusting a tacit knowledge that not always matches

29
reality, and in the somewhat subjective nature of hazard identification and risk
assessment. A second type of barriers are those related to process and procedures,
stemming from lack of standardization and lack of definition of tasks and their associated
hazards. In this sense, knowledge management practices help visualize the knowledge
available to the organization as a support tool in decision-making. A second practice is
task-based risk assessment, which implies examining aspects of work that may affect
people and regarding which actions for control are required (Carter and Smith 197-205,
2006).

The impact of risk communication mechanisms is mediated by “trust,” defined as “a

person's expectation that other individuals and institutions in a social relationship can be
relied on in ways that are competent, caring and predictable” (Beckwith et al 1999 54,
cited by Botterill, and Mazur 1-20, 2004). In addition to the trust generated by whoever
communicates information regarding risks, it is also required to provide information and
develop critical thinking in the community, as an element to facilitate the decision-making
process (Trettin, L; Musham, C. 410-426, 2000).

Risk communication is a key component of the management process and should stimulate
the interest of various groups in the light of their socio-demographic characteristics
(gender, race, education, occupation, etc.) and knowledge.

Risk is a transactional phenomenon, since it assumes situational interrelationships

between psychological characteristics and patterns of who responds to it. Even experts
may have biases derived from their training and methodologies used for risk evaluation
(Puy 14-37, 1995). Subjectivity of risk assessment judgements also derives from its
multidimensionality, a phenomenon partly explained by the very nature of the risks and
also by factors such as previous experiences, motivations, and cultural and social aspects
that affect perception (Puy 263-270, 1995).

While it is true that each risk assessment has a strong human component that provides
some subjectivity, there are, however, several methodologies under the engineering
approach for qualified risk assessment10, which mainly focus on the analysis of possible
failures of hardware or environmental conditions; nevertheless, progress is being made in
human reliability assessment, which helps estimate the chances of human error in
complex work systems. It is worth mentioning that the debate between subjectivity and
objectivity evolves around the concept of risk, not on the hazard, because the latter is
objective. Risk identification involves human judgment, partly by estimating the
consequences and also because probability is determined by the way hazards are
managed. Therefore, a risk assessment that only considers possible hardware failures or
environmental conditions but ignores safety management systems, culture and human
errors, will be incomplete (48-51 Hurst, 1998).

Among the various methods to identify hazards and assess risks, we can mention those
focusing on analysis of process hazards, among them HAZOP, Fault Tree Analysis

10
The common engineering approach to risk assessment considers identification of hazards, consequence
analysis and quantification of probabilities to make the final estimate of risks. Hurst (2008) defines
Quantified Risk Assessment (QRA) as a term used for the quantified estimation and evaluation of risk,
often in the chemical industry (xii-xiii Hurst, 1998).

30
(FTA), and Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA), Facility Risk Review (FRR),
and Quantitative Risk Analysis (QRA). The Hazard and Operability (HAZOP)
methodology is a technique to analyse process risks used to study both the hazards of a
system and its operability problems, by exploring the effects of any deviations from
design conditions. The HAZOP methodology started with a deductive approach
hypothesizing top events (deviations), and then followed the inductive method examining
what would happen to the system. Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) is a deductive method,
beginning the investigation from a Top Event to continue down to single source events,
while Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) is an inductive method where each
element of the plant is analysed to find failure modes, following the pathways upward to
the top event. (Dunjó 19-32, 2010).

Risk assessment methods focusing on the process usually do not consider human factors;
therefore, other methodologies have been developed that consider the man-machine
interfaces, as well as organizational aspects, culture, leadership style and training
processes, among many other factors that have contributed to provide feedback to
methods focused on the process so that they incorporate the analysis of hazards introduced
by human error.
Another way to classify risk assessment methods stems from the temporary perspective
in which they are applied. Thus, there are predictive and retrospective methods. Predictive
methods require workers to mentally visualize the task they are going to carry out in the
immediate future and predict the hazards and risks that may occur; job hazard analysis
and pre-shift meetings are predictive methods, among others. Retrospective methods
include lessons learned from incidents that occurred previously. A limitation of predictive
methods is that hazards deriving from tasks being carried out simultaneously or
unforeseen changes in working conditions are not always identified. Furthermore,
limitation of retrospective methods is that they do not always capture enough detailed
information to generate substantially new learning (Namian et al. 04016073-1-10, 2016).

However in everyday work, operators who have not mastered the techniques of risk
assessment, have to identify hazards in real time (while working) from their own
experience and from knowledge available to them, or even through feedback from their
bosses and colleagues, a situation becoming more complex when work is varied, as in the
case of construction workers, or maintenance technicians who are frequently changing
activity. While this mechanism is useful, hazards generated in adjacent work are
oftentimes ignored, and some workers have difficulty in predicting what the development
of the tasks in the following phases will be.

Scheduled inspections, safety programs based on behaviour and other methods as lessons
learned, checklists and job hazard analysis (JHA) facilitate identification of hazards, but
they do not fully meet needs since they are not always generalizable given the changes in
context, and also because workers may perceive that the situation is similar and thus they
make invalid generalizations and wrong predictions, and this reasons make it necessary
to develop skills in workers so that they become more active, accurate and timely in this
process ( Albert 1000-1016, 2014).

Figure 6 illustrates the process of hazard identification in dynamic environments, which

requires alertness and discrimination regarding signals, against which observation

31
patterns based on experience and knowledge are used as benchmarks. (Albert 1000-1016,
2014).

Figure 6. Hazard identification and management process

Experience; Knowledge

Cognitive
Frameworks

Dynamic worksite:
•Site conditions.
•Changes in scope. Hazard stimuli Pattern
Alertness
•Tasks undertaken. detection recognition
/ Search Selective Hazard
•Equipment and tools.
attention identification
•Others

Hazard management
Source: Albert 1000-1016, 2014

Hazop is a method commonly used in chemical plants to identify hazards; other methods
related to the engineering context consider the effects of hazards and damage caused by
them, as in the fault tree analysis. Assessment of human reliability11 has been incorporated
into risk assessment of complex work systems. Thus, human errors based on skills (slips)
are susceptible to prediction and depend partly on the nature and complexity of the task,
while rule-based errors depend more on the mental and physical condition of worker;
knowledge-based errors are more difficult to predict, but are related to the effectiveness
of training processes (48-51 Hurst, 1998).

The methods to analyse human reliability can be quantitative or qualitative and their
usefulness lies in understanding and controlling human performance.

Consequently, the probability of human error is directly related to how the task is
designed, and also to the following factors: Workplace design (environment, tools,
controls, displays etc.); documentation such as written procedures, signs, labels; operator
competence (qualification, experience). The human reliability analysis is used to obtain
and report information on the factors mentioned, following a logical procedure. Even
though the human reliability analysis provides valuable information, it is also demanding
because it requires participation of an expert and investment of time and resources
(Energy Institute. Human and Organisational Factors Committee (HOFCOM) (d) 1-4
2011).

To perform an analysis of human reliability, the following five steps should be

followed:

11
Human Reliability Assessment (HRA), the process of estimating human error probabilities for use in risk
assessment (Hurst xii-xiii, 1998).
32
 - Identify critical tasks through any of the following techniques: hazard and
operability studies (HAZOPs), probabilistic safety assessment (PSA), examining
historical data (accident and near misses), brainstorming with experts, behavioural
safety observation.
- Perform a hierarchical task analysis (HTA) (describing a task in terms of all the
sub-tasks needed to carry it out.
- Identify errors, consequences and defences from the answer to the following
question: can the action be performed on the wrong object, or in the wrong order?
- Estimate human error probabilities (HEPS), considering that any task has a finite
probability of failure, and less than ideal conditions will increase that probability.
- Develop conclusions and making recommendations for reducing error.

Various training programs have been designed to improve risk perception, perception of
hazards and risk assessment; however, the use of training methodologies that produce
little participation and involvement of those receiving the training has been a factor in
obtaining unsatisfactory results.

To verify this, Namian et al., 2016, conducted a research to assess the impact of training
on two specific aspects: recognition of hazards and risk perception. Information on the
training methodology used in fifty-one (51) construction projects in the United States
allowed the authors to classify them into two groups according to the level of engagement
(high and low). The results of the study revealed that training with high level of
participation and involvement is associated with higher levels of recognition of the
hazards and perception of safety risks, and it was also established that risk perception is
mediated by performance in hazard recognition. In conclusion, we can say that there is a
holistic relationship between training, recognition of hazards and risk perception (Namian
et al. 04016073-1-10, 2016). Significantly, however, even if hazard has not been
completely and properly identified, if there are sufficient and effective controls, accident
probability (risk) decreases, and vice versa. However, to the extent that the effectiveness
of controls depends on decisions of line worker and their supervisors, the greater will be
the need to develop in them skills related to observation, analysis and decision making.

Methodologies for hazard identification have also had particular applications, as in the
case of construction industry, characterized by changing jobs and workers often poorly
educated. Through a panel of experts and an analysis of consensus, Albert et al. (2014)
prioritized the pre-job safety meeting quality measurement tool and the augmented and
interactive virtuality training environment as the two techniques with the most
applicability in the sector (Albert et al. 152-161, 2014). Annex 2 presents the list of hazard
recognition techniques initially proposed, which can be a source of knowledge for those
interested in this subject (Albert et al. 152-161, 2014).

Lists of hazards, review of lessons learned from previous accidents and analysis
procedures are mechanisms for information. Moreover, the understanding of what makes
a situation to be hazardous, the possible harmful outcomes and the tactics to avoid them,
all is deemed as knowledge. However, the practical use of this knowledge to achieve the
ability to recognize, evaluate and avoid hazards is known as competence. Both knowledge
and competence are substantial ingredients for prevention of incidents and accidents in
any context.

33
In the Haddon’s energy release theory, a hazard is understood as “the potential for an
uncontrolled release of, or an unwanted contact with, an energy source that can result in
harm to people, the environment, assets, or company’s reputation” (Fleming 1-15, 2009).
The identification of harmful energies allows managing the process and occupational
safety, thus it becomes necessary to develop skills in workers to follow a logical thinking
that will allow them to apply their knowledge in recognizing hazards (Fleming and
Fischer 1-25, 2015).
Some of the key elements that help understanding the process to become proficient in
identifying hazards and risks are: (Fleming and Fischer 1-25, 2015):

 The volume of information handled to address safety does not necessarily improve
the quality of hazard recognition.
 Workers can use their knowledge to identify hazards that affect the process and
people and thus they can make and communicate timely decisions to reduce risks.
 Teaching workers that energy transfer is the logical basis of incidents, provides
knowledge that connects occupational safety and processes and provides an
opportunity to apply that knowledge in risk reduction.
 The definition of hazard, based on the energy concept provides a basis to
anticipate situations that can fail both in the process and in occupational safety.
 Since the same forms of energy can create hazards for both process and safety of
people, their grouping into simple categories helps understanding and evaluating
the harmful effects of each and of the interaction of several of them.
 Consistent with the above, a hierarchy of controls also simpler (elimination,
control and protection) for managing energy is a powerful tool to reduce risk.
 Providing knowledge to workers regarding warning signs and stop-the-job
triggers, should be part of the continuous hazard assessment process to be
practiced daily to gain competence to make clear and timely decisions when
situations arise.
 As part of the hazard detection process, it is necessary to identify changes in the
status of energy through the human senses or through other means (technology).

The following five questions derived from MORT, will allow workers recognize,
evaluate, and manage hazards for a safe job (Fleming and Fischer 1-25, 2015):
 What is the job?
 What energy is involved?
 Where is the energy going?
 How will we manage the energy for a safe job?
 What are the specific stop-the-job triggers?

Poor perception of hazards is associated with a higher frequency of accidents in drivers,

so the ability to anticipate and perceive them to act properly is susceptible to training.
Hazard perception can be described as similar to situational awareness since it involves
the ability to “read” the environment, creating a comprehensive assessment of the
situation and predicting future events; thus, it is a cognitive ability, particularly useful in
relatively complex tasks involving knowing how to do something.

34
In addition to identifying hazards in a situation and predicting possible effects, training
should strengthen the relationship between perception and action. In this context,
perception implies a relationship between individuals and their environment through
which the way people perceive the properties of their environment (Meir et al. 172-180,
2014) is outlined. However, since perception of objects changes with the mastery and
expertise of the subject, the ability for action also becomes dynamic; therefore, training
to improve perception of a situation and to identify hazards presented at a given time
strengthens people's capacity for action, particularly because they perceive the
environment in terms of their ability to act in it12 (Witt 201-206, 2011).

The phenomenon of perception affects identification of hazards and associated risks, both
regarding the possibility of action and the associated costs. For example, the awareness
of spatial layout (spatial awareness) depends on the perception of space as the costs
associated with performing a task on that space. If we are in a terrace on the 35th floor of
a skyscraper, our perception of height is also based on the fear experienced by the
giddiness that height causes in us. (Proffitt 110-122, 2006).
The intervention designed by Meir et al (2014) to improve the ability of hazard
identification was guided by the following principles that the authors tested in the
development of their research (Meir et al 172-180, 2014.):
- Intervention timing: to improve performance in training, workers must have
acquired the basic skills to do the job before training in hazard identification.
- Exposure of workers to a large amount of diverse real situations improves the
learning process.
- Regarding the type of hazardous events used in training, the findings of previous
studies indicate that in addition to showing potentially hazardous situations, cases
in which the risk has materialized should be used as a mechanism to engage the
interest of workers.
- With regard to training methodology, the authors found that active techniques
encourage participation of people in recognizing hazards, while the combination
of active techniques and theoretical training seems to be more effective compared
to the purely instructional method, although the latter improves awareness
regarding hazards.

Even though skilled performance and risk-taking behaviour are considered independent
phenomena, training to develop the ability to identify hazards may influence risk-taking
behaviour. McKenna et al, 2006, conducted a study based on three experiments with
which they studied the influence of training in hazard perception on risk-taking behaviour.
On the one hand, hazard perception training can increase risky behaviours because greater
self-confidence is developed; and on the other, it may decrease them if knowledge of the
hazards is improved, unlike when risky behaviour is caused by ignorance of the hazards.
The authors claim that it is possible to perform hazardous activities when hazard

12
People perceive the environment in terms of their ability to act on it because perception involves a
phenomenon of reciprocal and in double track influences, also known as the action-specific perception
account (Gibson's ecological approach, 1979). In light of this theory, perception is based on the skills of
perceiver. Moreover, the factors that influence the ability also influence perception. For example, we
perceive differently an object when it is 30 meters high and is tilted, than when the same object is on a table
just one meter away, and thus we will have different abilities to reach it according to its position; therefore,
performance of an action also influences perception. (Witt 201-206, 2011).
35
identification fails, case in which training in anticipating hazards helps identify the hazard
and therefore can help reduce risky behaviour caused by ignorance.

In relation to training method, Gregersen and Nyberg, 2003, quoted by McKenna et al,
2006, examined two skid training programs in Norway, one of which resulted in an
increase in accidents and the other in decrease. Researchers believe that the results are
explained by differences in the training method: in the first of them, there were exercises
that created unrealistic and positive perceptions of the ability to handle the skid, and in
the second the activities carried out showed the hazard inherent to the activity with the
skid. The main findings of the study were as follows (McKenna et al 1-10, 2006.):

- Acquisition of skills through training in anticipation of risk significantly

decreased proneness to take risky behaviours in drivers, which means that the
degree of risk perception is one of the main differences between hazard
anticipation training (emphasis on early detection of potential risks) and other
types of training to develop skills in workers.
- Anticipation training through video simulation not only sensitizes people but
quickly generates more aware preventive measures when facing hazardous
situations. The authors also proved that training effects lasted even a week after
surgery.
- The ability to perceive risk affects more the decision to make safe behaviours than
what worker's experience does.
- Risky behaviour does not occur only in terms of a deliberate decision, but it may
also reflect a failure to appreciate the level of hazard. Therefore, if a worker fails
to detect hazards, also fails to detect risks; thus, training aimed at developing skills
on early detection of hazards will have an impact on risk taking. Moreover, the
relationship between skill-based errors and accident involvement suggests the
importance of developing skills for detecting hazards through appropriate training
programs.
- As far as perception of road safety is concerned, hazard anticipation training
seems to offer two benefits: first, it increases perception of the hazards; and
second, reduces the tendency to risk taking.

To summarize the contributions of this chapter, we can say that the ability to anticipate
plays an important role in skilled activity, which explains the differences between
experienced people and rookies. Consequently, the underlying assumption is that training
can help sensitize people against risk and thus helps reducing risky behaviour, provided
that the training method is cautiously considered, hence the value attached to this study.

36
6. Commonly used methods for OSH competence development and a critical
analysis of their effectiveness.

Since training is one of the most commonly tools used for transforming behaviour in
health and safety as well as in prevention of accidents and injuries at work, this chapter
focuses on reporting the evidence collected through several systematic reviews, which
given their representation in the quantity and quality of the studies reviewed, provide
elements that help identifying the most significant aspects for the purposes of this
research.
The study of the effectiveness of training processes for preventing and reducing injuries
and illnesses at work is difficult, because it requires long periods of time, important
resources for monitoring, and because there are many factors that affect the impact of
training, some of which are outside the scope of the teaching - learning process, such as
management commitment, adequacy of resources, safety climate in the organization, and
feedback.
In the systematic review carried out by Cohen and Colligan (1998), eighty studies
(experimental designs) published between 1980 and 1996 in which training was used as
a tool to reduce risks related to accidents and illness at work were analysed. The
systematic review aimed at analysing the effectiveness of training in reducing accidents
and injuries, and identifying the characteristics of training affecting the achievement of
its objectives. The authors reviewed the impact of issues such as group size, duration and
frequency of training sessions, methodology and characteristics of coaches, as well as
goal setting, feedback and motivational incentives to transfer learning to the workplace.

The main findings of the aforementioned systematic review were as follows (Colligan
and Cohen 223-248, 2004):

Indicators used to evaluate the interventions were of two types: subjective (self-reports)
related to the trainees' reactions (whether the training was interesting, worthwhile, or
relevant), acquisition of knowledge (scores on a quiz, behavioural assessment), and
applications at work (changes in work practices). On the other hand, objective indicators
such as behavioural changes, injury reduction, illnesses, cost of days lost and other
(biological indicators and environmental measurements) were used.

Twenty-one (21) of the eighty studies included in the review were related to injury
prevention, twenty-two (22) to chemical hazards, ten (10) to physical hazards, nineteen
(19) to ergonomic and eight (8) to biohazards. Regarding the subjective evaluation of the
effect of training, the best results were reported in interventions related to chemical
hazards, followed by those focusing on biological hazards. Eight (8) of the 21
interventions focused on monitoring accidents reported impacts in objective
measurement, followed by interventions on chemical and ergonomic hazards (4 of 22 and
4 of 19 interventions). Finally, out of the total measurements (138), one hundred and
nineteen (119) of them showed positive effects on subjective and objective indicators.
Despite this, the authors of the systematic review estimate that it is difficult to determine
the extent to which reduction of indicators was due to the training program itself, since

37
other variables were not controlled (i.e. the role of supervisors), whereby the results may
have been biased.

Regarding the role of supervisors, a group of studies reported that they supported and
reinforced the training's achievements, while in other trainings the same supervisors acted
as coaches; another series of studies reported that supervisors monitored the introduction
of new practices after training, and other reports even state that indifference of supervisors
regarding the objectives of the training undermined long-term positive effects.

In the studies design, the authors of the systematic review raised a question regarding
durability of the effects and the influence of events that could affect long-term measures.
The researchers also drew attention to groups’ size, in some cases very small, and also to
the fact that in several studies participants were not selected randomly, and all this poses
questions on generalizability of the results.

As far as the training target is concerned, the 80 studies were distributed as follows: Work
practices (53); Hazard recognition/awareness (13); Worker empowerment training; (8)
and Participative efforts in hazard recognition and Control (6).

The characteristics influencing training programs on health and safety to achieve their
objectives are of two types: those directly related with training (size of group, frequency
and length of sessions, mode of instruction, and trainer qualifications), and others acting
in a supplementary manner (transfer of training, motivation and promotional factors,
management support, and others) (Cohen & Colligan 47-71.1998).

The main findings regarding the above factors were (Cohen & Colligan 47 to 71.1998;
Colligan and Cohen 223-248, 2004):
- Group size: Small groups (less than 25 people) of people who share work and exposure
to occupational hazards of a similar nature, provide better learning opportunities
because they have the opportunity to exchange their experiences in controlling risks.
- Number and frequency of sessions: Participation in several training activities related
to hazard recognition and actions to control them, and using short sessions at the start
of work shift have resulted in an increase in knowledge about the risks and on reporting
protective actions against them.
- Training mode: Information campaigns (brochures, videos and presentations)
contribute to assimilation of safe practices, but their effects are scarce and short lived.
Active methods such as hands-on or interactive video techniques are better than
conferences or written instructions as far as learning is concerned. On the other hand,
workers reported better success of training provided using role play and case study of
safety and health problems mixed with practices in the workplace to detect and control
hazards through changes in work processes.
- Transfer of training: Even though training confronting safe versus unsafe practices
promotes learning, transfer of knowledge to work depends on the motivational-
management, both during and after training. Likewise, implementation of safe
practices learned in training also depends on the physical conditions and other
limitations at the workplace.
- Motivational aspects: Setting goals for incorporating specific behaviours, particularly
feedback on progress during and after training are effective mechanisms to achieve the
expected results with the training process. Token rewards are also useful to reinforce
38
 learning during and after training, although there is the question of whether such
awards distract the purpose of the training itself. Finally, training processes are most
successful when they include transfer of skills learned as part of the performance
evaluation.
- Trainer qualifications: Supervisors trained in development of work teams and conflict
resolution have the potential to impact the safety performance of line-level workers
base in the organization. Train-the-trainer programs focused on promoting actions in
workers regarding the prevention and control of hazards at the workplace tend to
generate good results, although acceptance of workers as trainers seems to offer some
difficulties.
- Management role: support provided by bosses to training processes on health and
safety significantly affects the nature and duration of their impact. Initiatives that
allocate greater priority to hazard control programs that also assess their effectiveness,
help strengthen the achievements of training programs, and conversely, i.e.
indifference of leaders regarding training results and actions for improving health and
safety, adversely affects progress attained with training.
- Other factors: Availability of resources and personal protective elements reduces the
effort involved in training and facilitates achievements in safety.

Later, in 2006, Burke et al. (315-324) published a systematic review and meta-analysis
and to determine the relative effectiveness of different training methods aimed at
improving knowledge, safety performance and reducing adverse effects such as accidents,
injuries and illnesses. The authors analysed ninety-five quasi-experimental studies
published in 15 countries between 1971 and 2003. Inclusion criteria were: (i) the study
had to involve a quasi-experimental design; (ii) participants had to be workers; (iii) the
method of intervention had to be clearly identified and had to involve the development of
job-relevant safety knowledge; (iv) the study had to have at least one of the following
dependent variables: safety knowledge, safety performance, safety and health outcome
(accidents, illnesses, or injuries); (v) training intervention and data had to be assessed at
the individual level of analysis; and (vi) the statistical information necessary to calculate
an effect size had to be available.

The authors classified the methods used for training in three broad categories according
to the level of participation of those trained: (i) least engaging because lectures, pamphlets
or videos were used; (ii) moderately engaging because of the use of programmed
instruction, workbooks, computer-based instruction and feedback; finally (iii) most
engaging were those using behavioural modelling (observation of a role model, modelling
or practice, and feedback designed to modify behaviour) and hands-on training, which
require active participation from trainees and feedback to engage trainees in dialogue
concerning acquired knowledge or actions taken, so as to generate a reflection that
contributes to learning.

The results were consistent with the authors' hypothesis. As training methods became
more engaging (trainees' active participation), workers demonstrated greater knowledge
acquisition, and reductions were seen in accidents, illnesses, and injuries. Supplementary
data analysis show other findings of interest:
 The association between level of engagement and training duration was not
statistically significant in studies assessing knowledge, likewise in those

39
 evaluating performance, which means that the training method seems to have
more influence than its duration.
 Regarding keeping knowledge in time, it was found that in studies reporting low
level of engagement, the average effect decreased by 50% over time (from 1 week
to 1 year after the initial assessment), while the sole training study with moderate
engagement showed that after 4 weeks knowledge had decreased by 15%; and the
study reporting high engagement showed that knowledge remained after 4 weeks.
 As a result of the above, the authors suggest that distance learning programs and
those based on computer platforms should include mechanisms for active
participation and dialogue of learner to facilitate learning platforms.
 Another important finding in relation to the design and evaluation of training was
that study designs between-subjects and within-subject had similar results
regarding acquisition of knowledge.
 Moderately and highly engaging training generally require more investment in
time and costs in the short run; however, they are more effective in the long run.

Since the distal effects of training, such as job performance and injuries can be affected
by higher number of intervening variables as compared to proximal effects, the authors
emphasize the importance in further research of the combined effect of training and other
aspects such as safety climate, opportunities to apply knowledge and skills, type of work,
culture, and others.

In 2010, U.S. NIOSH published a new systematic review carried out by Robson et al.,
about the effectiveness of training processes related to health and safety at work. In the
aforementioned review the authors report the importance of training, not only because of
the benefits it can generate, but also due to the huge costs it means and regarding which
employers expect to get a higher rate of return, reflected in lower rates of occupational
accidents and illnesses.

The referred review sought to answer two basic questions: does training on health and
safety have a beneficial effect on workers and their organizations? A higher level of
engagement in the training process has higher benefits on worker and their organizations
as compared to lower level of engagement in training? (Robson et al. 4-7, 2010).

The main findings of the systematic review of twenty (22) selected studies were (Robson
et al 36-83, 2010.):
- The hazards most frequently taken into consideration in training processes were
ergonomic, followed by those related to safety, and less frequently chemical,
biological and physical hazards.
- Lecture was the training method most frequently used, followed by use of printed
materials and workshops in a realistic environment including feedback from the
trainer.
- Two thirds of interventions were carried out in just one training session, and an
average session lasted two hours or less.
- The occupations most frequently considered in the studies reviewed were workers
in the health sector, followed by administrative workers, agricultural workers and
workers in different economic sectors.

40
Data analysis allows the authors to conclude: (Robson et al 36-83, 2010.); (Robson et al
193-208, 2012.):
- Training activities generating high engagement have greater effects on behaviour
than those with moderate or low engagement; however, since differences are
small, the authors conclude there is insufficient evidence to make
recommendations regarding the training method.
- Strong evidence regarding the effectiveness of training on developing new
behaviours regarding health and safety was found.
- The size and direction of the effects observed with regard to knowledge, attitudes
and beliefs is consistent with evidence regarding behaviour; nonetheless, it is
insufficient given the small number of studies with enough methodological quality
to draw conclusions in this regard.
- Evidence on the effectiveness of outcomes of training in health and safety is
insufficient because the effects are small and inconsistent. The authors also
concluded that there is lack of high-quality randomized studies related to the
effectiveness of training in health and safety.

The review made by Robson et al, 2012, also showed some aspects requiring further
research, such as measuring the impact of training (in the short and long run) and its
relationship to specific factors affecting it, as well as applying various psychological
theories (reinforcement, social learning, adult learning) and the effect of certain trends on
organizational models (outsourcing). Last but not least, is to study the methods that have
the best impact on reducing accidents, injuries and diseases, since they will derive in
decisions related to policy on health and safety and the necessary investments (Robson et
al. 193-208, 2012).
After he systematic review made in 2010 by Robson et al., was published, Weinstock and
Slatin posted an article introducing another vision of the objective of worker health and
safety training. The authors believe that training must overcome the change of behaviour
of workers regarding hazardous conditions, and focus on developing in them the ability
to identify, reduce and control hazards to which they are exposed, through collective
efforts to promote such changes. This approach to education for empowerment is
participatory, based on real life experiences, embodies the dialogue between trainers and
trainees, performs a critical analysis of the organization and the system to find the causes
of problems; in other words, it trains for action (Weinstock and Slatin 255-267, 2012).

Breslin et al., 2010, conducted a systematic review to identify identity effective

Occupational Health and Safety interventions for small businesses. The authors started
from the following question: "Do OHS interventions in small businesses have an effect
on OHS outcomes?" Intervention is defined as a systematically planned program, which
aims at reducing health and safety issues, includes education actions and programs to
address organizational factors. The outcomes of interest were: attitudes and beliefs;
behaviours regarding actions related to safety (i.e. use of personnel protective
equipment); health (fatal and non-fatal injuries) and workplace exposures.

The authors selected and reviewed twenty three quantitative studies, but only five of them
met the criteria for relevance and quality. The results showed a moderate level of impact
of interventions in preventing injury. The high-quality study refers a positive effect on
behaviour derives from using a combination of training and audit, while one of the studies

41
of moderate quality provides insufficient evidence regarding the training effect as a single
strategy on OHS-related outcomes (Breslin et al. 163-179, 2010).

Inaccurate perception of risk, with feelings of being invulnerable, is a frequent cause of

accidents, as evidenced in the detailed analysis of 100 accidents in the construction sector
in Great Britain, which also showed that the lack of knowledge on safety originates from
deficiencies in education and training. Effective education develops the individual's
ability to analyse and respond properly to a situation (Haslam et al. 401-415, 2005).

On the other hand, Meir et al., 2014 carried out a study with drivers to test three training
modes in the perception of the hazards (active, instructional, or hybrid)13; the evaluation
conducted one week later identified that people who took training in the active and hybrid
modes were more aware of potential hazards. (Meir et al. 172-180, 2014).

Beyond the acquisition of fundamental knowledge or declarative knowledge on health

and safety, worker needs to develop two basic skills: recognition and awareness skills,
and analytical decision-making decision skills. Awareness skill refers to observing and
inspecting the workplace for potential hazards and report them properly. Decision-
making skills focus on controlling hazards and proactively take action to prevent
accidents, illnesses and injuries, therefore they rely on cognitive and motor processes
(Burke 1-44, 2006).

Burke et al., 2006, state that application of specific methods needs to be consistent with
the type of knowledge to be acquired. Bearing this in mind, they explored the main
theories of learning14 and analysed their usefulness in training, considering how they
embody action, reflection, feedback, dialogue and motivation. The authors highlighted
the benefits of experiential learning due to its usefulness in the integration of new
knowledge and experience applied to current problems, a process mediated by reflection
on the experience (Kolb 1984 cycle). This method of learning implies that training is
significant because the learner has an active role in their own training. On the other hand,
the stage learning theories emphasize on feedback from the expert, which involves a two-
way communication. This bidirectional feedback produces significant changes in
learner's declarative knowledge and in procedural knowledge and in transferring training
to work. Research suggests that goal setting has a significant effect on the final stages of
acquiring complex skills. On the other hand, there are numerous applications for the
principles of reinforcement theory, widely used in behavioural based safety.

They conclude by reiterating the need to motivate learners to use the knowledge gained
through self-regulation strategies and from use of reinforcers, as well as the importance
of being aware of situational factors of training that may affect transfer of knowledge to
practice (Burke 1-44, 2006).

The study by Engels van der Gulden and Senden, 1997 (quoted by Health and Safety
Executive, 2009) to change practices of nurses when lifting patients and thus reduce

13
To identify hazards, active training was based on videos; the instructional method used a tutorial with
printed materials and videos; and the hybrid method consisted of a summarized theoretical presentation
followed by an active component.
14
(i) Reinforcement and feedback intervention theories, (ii) social learning theory, goal-setting theory,
and action regulation theory, and (iii) experiential-learning theory and theories of distance learning.
42
frequency of spinal injuries, showed that the basic components of an education (training)
program are: knowledge and understanding about the origin and prevention of
musculoskeletal problems and understanding risk factors at work; comparing pros and
cons of the desired behaviour; training in proper use of equipment used for lifting patients,
and feedback.

In conclusion, transfer of training to changes in behaviour at the workplace depends on

an extremely complex mixture of factors such as the characteristics of the person under
training, work environment characteristics and aspects of the training itself. Some of the
most important determinants are:
- The more democratic leadership style of organizations has a positive impact on the
decision to implement health promotion programs (Witte 227-235, 1993).
- Programs involving the community in their design and implementation (McClure et al
.1-8 2003) and targeting that community in groups with similar socio-demographic
characteristics are more likely to meet the goals (Klassen et al. 83-110, 2000),
(Kendrick et al. 1-25, 2007).
- Promoting safety through curricula of formal educational programs is a strategy of
cultural transformation that brings students closer to the risks they will encounter in
working life and how to handle them (Ofsted 1-22, 2011).
- Traditional educational actions, while increasing knowledge, require periodic
repetition, since their effect tend to decline over time (Duperrex 1-7, 2002)
- Education with the support of promoters and advisers has shown good results in
community and occupational environments (Marin 36-43, 2009).
- Prevention activities including behavioural change as their main goal show more
consistent results if they are structured from theoretical models derived from the
behavioural sciences (Sleet 19-40, 2006), (Geller 78-82, 2006) (Winston and
Jacobsohn 107-112, 2010).
- The contents of educational programs must provide sufficient, relevant and appropriate
information for the target group (Gielen and Sleet 1-16, 2006).

Educational prevention actions also require to be structured within the framework of a

management model that fosters a systematic process of continuous improvement and
innovation in response to environmental demands. From this point of view, management
of prevention education should focus on pedagogical leadership, rather than on simple
resource management.

Studies addressing specific development of skills for hazard identification are scarce; one
of the most interesting was developed by Albert et al. (2013). The authors conducted a
multiphase large-scale study on hazard recognition and communication in the
construction field. The study had three main objectives: "(i) devise a new recognition
method based upon the principles of cognitive mnemonics that promotes hazard
recognition skill; (2) build a maturity model to improve hazard recognition performance
and encourage hazard communication; and (3) experimentally measure improvement in
hazard recognition and communication resulting from the new program "(Albert et al.
04,013,042, 2013).

43
The strategy to strengthen hazard recognition skill used the principles of cognitive
retrieval mnemonics15. Information translates into mental cues through a reliable coding
process, which allows to store and then retrieve it from the long-term memory. Examples
of mnemonics are acronyms, story mnemonics and simple rhymes.
The goal in integrating mnemonics was to provide workers with cognitive cues useful to
identify hazards associated with work tasks and the work environment. Cognitive cues
used were based on the work by Fleming (2009, quoted by Albert et al., 2013), which
categorizes hazards based on the primary energy source that could cause injury and which
must be identified before work begins. The expert research team predefined and
operationalized the definitions of ten (10) energy sources that are relevant to construction
operations to serve as cognitive cues. Additionally, the energy sources16 also provided a
unified framework for workers to review each kind and discuss relevant hazards. The
intervention to improve the ability to identify hazards at work was carried out by using
photographs displaying several scenarios in construction activities. A total of 16
randomly chosen photographs were used for both the pre-test and the post-test.

Observations from the study were analysed by using interrupted time series regression
models. The results showed that workers were able to identify and communicate an
average of 38% of hazards before the intervention; but the intervention strategy caused a
weighted overall level-change improvement in hazard recognition skill of 31% (p<0.01).

Later, Albert et al., 2013, published another article related to the use of the strategy
designed to facilitate identification of hazards in real time during the phases of planning
and execution of the works.17 The results show that, on average, crews were able to
recognize and communicate 54% of hazards in the baseline measurement, but after the
intervention this went up to 77% during the planning phase and an additional 6% during
the implementation phase of the works.

Lack of recognition of the hazards is a common cause of accidents and therefore requires
progress in strategies allowing use of lessons learned as an efficient feedback, by using
the aids provided by artificial intelligence, such as case-based reasoning (CBR)18, since
they can facilitate the knowledge representation scheme and case retrieval mechanism
(Goh and Chua 1181-1189, 2009).

The above studies are supported in understanding hazard as a release or transfer of

uncontrolled energy that has the potential to affect animate or inanimate structures and
against which control strategies, classified by Haddon into ten categories are required

15
Mnemonics is a memory technique to help the brain better encode and recall important information.
16
Energy sources: Gravity Force (i.e. falling objects); Motion (i.e. vehicle); Mechanical Energy (i.e.,
rotation, vibration); Electrical (i.e. presence and flow of an electric charge); Pressure Energy (i.e.
compressed gas cylinders); Thermal energy (i.e. open flame and ignition sources, cold surface); Chemical
Energy that has the potential to create a physical or health hazards (i.e. flammable vapours); Biological
Living organisms (i.e. bacteria, viruses, blood-borne pathogens); Radiation Energy (i.e. lighting issues,
welding arc, X-rays); and Sound.
17
The strategy consisted of a board with information on the diverse energy produced or transformed at
work.
18
CBR has its root in psychological theory of human reasoning, which has the intuitive paradigm that
humans solve new problems by recalling past experiences (Mount and Liao 2001, quoted by Goh and
Chua 1181-1189, 2009).
44
(Haddon 355-366, 1973). This approach gave rise some time ago to barrier analysis19 as
a mechanism to study system failures (NEOGY et al., 1996). This analysis suggests that
an accident may be linked to an uncontrolled energy transfer. For an accident to affect a
person is then required that she/he is present; that a power source exists; and that barriers
separating them fail (U.S. Department of Transportation - Federal Aviation
Administration 1).

The ten control strategies suggested by Haddon are in order: (i) to prevent the marshalling
of the form of energy; (ii) reduce the amount of energy marshalled; (iii); (iv) to prevent
the release of the energy; (v) to modify the rate of spatial distribution of release of the
energy from its source; (vi) to separate, in space or time, the energy being released from
the susceptible target; (vii) to separate the energy being released from the susceptible
target by a barrier; (viii) to modify the contact surface; (ix) to strengthen the structure that
might be damaged by the energy transfer; (x) In case of loss, to move promptly in
detecting and evaluating damage and to counter its continuation and extension; (xi) final
stabilization of the process after reparative and rehabilitative measures (Haddon 355-366,
1973).

Challenges for training workers on hazard identification and risk assessment are great,
but as a result of this chapter we conclude that active training processes are required, with
high engagement by worker and with the incorporation of new concepts to strengthen
their thinking skills in order to develop their ability to read the environment, make timely
decisions and protect themselves from an accident.

19
A barrier is a measure put in to prevent the release of a hazard (uncontrolled energy) or to prevent the
occurrence of a top event once it is released.
45
7. Training and competence development in OSH issues: a change of paradigm

7.1 Training and competence

To perform a task or a work properly and safely, the worker must be competent, not only
on technical aspects but also on issues related to safety, starting with identification of
hazards and risks at work.

Any organization wishing to have a competence management system must select people
with good potential and must also provide the necessary training in accordance with the
requirements of skills and knowledge. Furthermore, it should also assess and monitor the
quality and relevance of training to feed back the training process and ensure it achieves
the goal of developing skills. Training can meet various purposes, including acquisition
and updating of knowledge, preparation for job change or to deal with contingencies
(Energy Institute Human and Organisational Factors Committee - HOFCOM (b) 1-4
2011).

Why talk about competency training? Mainly because progress in performance of

workers trained under the competence approach shows continued progress on the learning
curve and in applying and generating knowledge as well as in developing skills until
reaching a proficiency level.

The development of skills in safety has particular applications in groups, such as health
workers, since their behaviour has a direct impact on patients' safety. The importance of
this issue regarding health led the World Health Organization - WHO (2010) to publish a
document that describes the process of developing competencies for patient safety (World
Health Organization, 4-27, 2010).

The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada developed a competency

framework made up by six core domains of abilities that health professionals should have.
The usefulness of this model focuses on the possibility of translating the needs and
desirable behaviours in professional practice into effective training practices. The
competency-based educational approach involves defining the key skills expected from
health professionals, which are compared and contrasted with the training curriculum.
Competences must be explicit so they can be teachable, observable and measurable. The
model's authors differentiate between key competencies (higher-order statements that
describe a health professional's ability) and enabling competencies (each key competency
is made of smaller, contributory abilities, termed enabling competencies). (CPSI and The
Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, 1-46, 2008).

The above model was developed in three phases, starting by assessing needs assessment
with deans of health schools regarding the extent to which the curriculum included the
concepts of patient safety; this assessment led to the need to develop a national safety
competencies framework. Then, they moved into the second phase of the project,
consisting of developing an inter-professional competency framework, which went up to

46
defining the model and the respective competencies. The third phase was the
implementation process.

In general, developing a competency model involves five great moments beginning by

identifying the desired competencies, adapting them to the culture and needs, defining
those competencies in an explicit and measurable way, defining the essential goals, and
finally the teaching and assessment process (CPSI and the Royal College of Physicians
and Surgeons of Canada, 1-46, 2008).

The strategy designed to implement the competency model considered critical success
factors such as: (CPSI and The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, 1-
46, 2008).
- Implement changes fostered through providing awareness and communication to
various stakeholders, and include training in safety competencies in the regular
curriculum to avoid overloading students' time.
- Sufficient resources to implement the changes, which must also be as simple as
possible.
- Engagement of stakeholders and leadership to model and inspire change.
- Scientific evidence to support and develop the safety competencies model.
- Orientation towards a vision of providing better care to patients, thus making their
goals realistic, worthwhile and inspire commitment.
- Development of competences in the group of those who introduce changes
(teachers, professionals and users).
- Inclusion of competencies in the priorities of teaching and learning to make them
part of everyday conversation, so as to have an impact on cultural change.
- Incorporate the safety competencies model into recognized national standards and
programs of education.

Also, different tools to measure skills in health professionals have been explored, as
documented in a systematic review developed by Okuyama et al (Okuyama; Martowirono
and Bijnen, 991-1000, 2011). The findings show different approaches in the evaluation:
the trainees' knowledge of patient safety (the 'knows' level); the trainees' knowledge
applied using case management (the 'knows how' level); the trainees' performance (the
'shows how' level); the trainees' competencies at multiple levels (the 'knows',' knows
how', and 'shows how' levels).

Progress has also been made in guiding the development of competencies in particular
populations such as managers of health and safety organizations in the UK (The national
NHS Staff Council 1-16, 2015), in construction workers (Dingsdag et al., 1-10, 2006) and
chemical industry (Centre for chemical Process, 1-33, 2014), and aerospace and nuclear
plants, among others.

In particular, the construction industry in Australia has developed a Safety Competency

Framework, which presents a process to promote a national standard that contributes to
improving and adopting of a culture of health and safety in the sector. The general
proposal focuses on identifying the safety critical positions and the safety management
tasks, given the fact that safety and health in the workplace can be promoted through
them. Training for developing the core safety culture competencies starts by analysing
the needs and planning the plan to develop the skills, abilities and behaviours. Such

47
competencies are integrated into the organisational safety management and Human
Resources Management, in order to keep them current within the framework of
organisational management. The ultimate purpose of the entire framework is that the
higher the adoption of standardised safety culture competencies by individual
organisations, the more uniform safety practice across the industry will be. Figure 7
depicts the structure of the Safety Competency Framework. (Dingsdag et al. 1-6, 2006).

Figure 7. Structure of the construction safety competency framework

Understand safety culture and how it can be built and maintained through
staff competencies and actions

Identify safety Customize the task and position competency

critical positions matrix of safety critical position.

Adapt the competency specifications

Plan how to train (knowledge, skills and behaviors) to the
organizational context

Use a step-wise
approach to reduce Show continuous
“culture shock” Implement the improvement
strategy Evaluate, review and
reflect on strategy.

Source: Adapted from Dingsdag et al. A Construction Safety Competency Framework:

Improving OH&S performance by creating and maintaining a safety culture (2006)

Since the 90s, the countries of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD) have been seeking to improve their productivity, and in so doing
have given significant attention to the development of skills and education of their
citizens. In the case of Australia, they have introduced the competency based training as
a means to increase productivity. In this regard, the Australian National Training
Authority (ANTA) was created, and national accreditation standards have been set up as
a mechanism to recognize the skill of their workforce through a National vocational
education and training system. An example of nationally endorsed competency standard
is the “Local Government management and team leadership”, which standardizes
leadership roles, including those related to health and safety. (Kellie 118-131, 1999).

The Guideline - Integrating OHS competencies into national industry competency

standards (NOHSC: 7025) was developed in Australia in response to changes in the field
of vocational education and training. The latest version of the NOHSC: 7025, includes
information on underpinning knowledge and underpinning skills. The generic
occupational health and safety competencies are the bases for the implementation of
effective occupational health and safety management in Australian workplaces. Such
competencies are divided into three large groups according to the type of worker: (i)
Workers without managerial or supervisory responsibilities; (ii) Workers with
supervisory responsibilities; and (iii) Workers with managerial responsibilities. These
48
competencies are related to task skills, task management skills, contingency management
skills, and job/role environment skills. (The National Occupational Health and Safety
Commission 1-58, 1998).

The guide for the development and maintenance of skills of workers in the rail transport
sector in Great Britain is another important example showing the development of
competence management systems20 (CMS) as a contributing factor to effective health
and safety results and to assure in an integrated and logical way the cycle of activities.
This guide applies to the various activities such as normal operations, degraded operations
and emergencies. Its focus on the three different moments of the operation stems from
the importance of maintaining the system controlled or promptly return it to normal
conditions through competent people, so as to prevent occurrence of accidents, incidents
and injuries. In this regard, it is clear that competence depends on the context and the
conditions in which the activity is carried out, as well as on the working culture, so
competencies must be maintained and improved over time. (HMRI and Hoddinott 1-9,
2007).

The mentioned guide explains the principles (the key safety objectives) and the factors
(matters that should be considered or reviewed when implementing the principles)
considered in a competence management system as a cyclic process, made up by five
major phases containing 15 basic principles (figure 8).

Figure 8. Competence management cycle

Phase 1: Establish requirements for the CMS

1. Identify activities and assess risks
2. Select standards

Phase 2: Design the CMS

Phase 5: Verify, audit and review the CMS 3. Develop procedures and methods
14. Verify and audit the CMS 4. Decide how to meet the standards
15. Review and feedback 5. Establish requirements for training,
development and assessment
6. Maintain managers´ competencies

Phase 4: Maintain and develop competence Phase 3: Implement the CMS

10. Monitor and reassess staff performance 7. Select and recruit staff
11. Update the competence of individuals 8. Train, develop and assess staff
12. Manage sub-standard performance 9. Control activities undertaken
13. Keep records

Source: Adapted from HMRI and Hoddinott 2007.

20
“Competence management system means a process to develop and maintain staff competence that
includes risk assessments of activities, selecting suitable standards and using procedures and appropriate
methods to carry out competence management, maintaining records, carrying out verification, audits and
reviews of the system and feeding back recommendations to improve the system.” (HMRI and Hoddinott,
1-9, 2007)
49
The evaluation and improvement of the process to develop competencies is guided by
assessment and reassessment, which allow feedback the training process and experience,
and thus competence is a continuum that places people at various stages along it: (i)
unconscious incompetence (unaware of limitations), but through training and
development activities people can move forward to the next step, (ii) conscious
incompetence; (iii) conscious competence (trained and assessed as competent); (iv)
unconscious competence (develops good habits); (v) unconscious incompetence that
occurs when people reach an almost automatic level of performance, to the point that if
an emergency occurs during the process, there is the risk of responding with bad habits
or lapses, and at this time monitoring and reassessment of performance must be run
individually, as well as system-level audit and verification. (vi) The last stage occurs
when the individual is faced with a new job or task, or when is assessed as incompetent,
case in which the continuum process must be restarted. (HMRI and Hoddinott 1-9, 2007).

In addition to the aforementioned developments, advances in competency models have

influenced in generating technical standards such as in the case of Australia (The National
Occupational Health and Safety Commission, 1-58, 1998), and in incorporating the
development of competencies in safety as part of risk management systems by process
(OSHA 3132, 1-53, 2000), as well as the regulation for prevention of chemical accidents
by the Agency for Environmental Protection of the United States (United States
Environmental Protection Agency, 36-70, 1994), and European directives for risk
assessment (European Agency for Safety and Health at work: 1-14, 1989).

In 1998, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA U.S.
Occupational Safety and Health Administration 1-11, 2008) issued Directive Number:
CSP 03-01-003 to establish the Voluntary Protection Programs (VPP)21. The VPP is
designed to recognize and promote the effective worksite-based safety and health
management systems. To qualify for VPP, an applicant must develop a safety and health
management system that includes a set of integrated elements in daily operation to reduce
incidence and severity of illnesses and injuries. VPP elements are: (i) Management
leadership and employee involvement; (Ii) Worksite analysis; (iii) Hazard prevention and
control; and (iv) Safety and health training (U.S. OSHA 1-11, 2008).

To delve deeper into the scope of processes to develop competencies in workers, the next
two fundamental concepts should be clear.

Competence is the integrated combination of knowledge, skills and attitudes leading to

proper and timely performance in various contexts (Irigoin and Vargas 14, 2002). The
World Health Organization defines competencies as “the requirements for an Individual
to properly perform a specific task. They encompass a combination of knowledge, skills
and attitudes that are considered essential to perform a function” (World Health
Organization, 4-27, 2010). The definition of competence provided by the Majesty's
Railway Inspectorate is also pragmatic, since it considers competence as “the ability to
undertake responsibilities and to perform activities to a recognised standard on a regular
basis”. Other authors define it as “A combination of practical and thinking skills,
experience and knowledge” (HMRI and Hoddinott 1-9, 2007). In short, competence in

21
Voluntary Protection Programs (VPP): Policies and Procedures Manual.
50
the working context is the effective capacity to successfully carry out a work activity,
thus it does not represent a chance of success in performing a job, but a real and
demonstrated capacity (Vargas, 9-62, 2004).

Two aspects of the above definitions draw attention: firstly, three fundamentals elements
are incorporated in the competence (knowledge, skills and attitudes); secondly, its
practical application is emphasized. Therefore, it becomes necessary to develop models
of comprehensive training, consistent with the need to optimise the role of individuals in
work systems that involve all aspects of their performance and behaviour, such as
cognitive processes, decision making, equipment design, environmental conditions,
communication processes, procedures and technology (Federal Aviation Administration
1-25, 2004).

Now then, the definition provided by HMRI and Hoddinott (2007) establishes two
components of competencies: “practical and thinking skills” and “experience and
knowledge”. Experience is not limited to the time a person has had a particular job, but
is the result of experience gained over time, providing the opportunity to learn and
develop skills; therefore, learning is a change of behaviour that can result in better
performance. (Rail Safety and Standards Board Limited 8-33, 2013).

Various types of skills are described, including basic ones that come with early childhood
education such as reading and writing, and specific skills, which are acquired with
vocational or occupational training. However, there are some generic competencies
acquired both with education and experience, which are useful in any activity: problem
solving, communication, decision-making, and use of information, among others.
(Brigido and Freire 1-17, 2002).

Competencies are more easily understood when analysed in the light of three types of
skills that are described in detail in the “BSSR Good Practice Guide on Competence
Development” document (Rail Safety and Standards Board Limited 8-33, 2013):

- Technical skills and underpinning knowledge required to practice them.

- Non-technical skills or “thinking skills” refer to “generic skills that can enhance the
way a task or procedure is carried out, and can increase safety by helping to manage
threats (e.g. hazardous weather conditions) and errors when they occur (e.g.
situational awareness and decision making).” The analysis of many accidents leads
to concluding that lack of adequate development of non-technical skills has a
significant impact on causality.

- Functional skills or core practical skills: allow people to achieve the expected
performance at work and in matters of everyday life.

From the foregoing it can be said that a proper risk assessment is supported on generic
skills or non-technical skills, and on learning concepts and technical information to
facilitate recognising hazards and identifying consequences, thus generating “generic
skills” inasmuch as they produce the possibility of transferring learning to the various
contexts in which people's work and life unfold.

51
The second concept that requires deepening is “training”, which is the systematic
optimization of action competence that a person or a group have. In this definition, the
term "systematic" means that training is planned, organized and run to meet an end, on
the basis of assumptions, scientific methods and practical experience, and is controlled in
its course and effects to achieve the greatest possible effects with the least expenditure
(Nitsch & Neumaier 57-65, 2002). In the same line, other authors define training as
planned efforts to facilitate learning specific skills or expertise, skills and behaviours for
success in a particular environment (Robson et al. 4-7, 2010).

The ultimate goal of training in the context of occupational safety and health (OSH) is
“to reduce the risk of injury and disease as well as to promote work practices. That ensure
workers' health and well-being” (NIOSH 41, 2004). Consequently, training should be
done by instructional techniques aimed at increasing the level of self-confidence of
workers in the knowledge of OSH, as well as to Promote her/his active Involvement in
the company OSH program planning and development. Training also requires guiding
workers on how to find additional information about potential hazards, and can also
empower them to be more active in implementing controls and in introducing effective
changes at work to increase levels of protection.

Researchers and educators have characterized the training methods in various ways,
including for example, training focused on learning or teaching, and training according
to the degree of engagement (active or passive) (Robson et al. 4-7 2010).

Training with low engagement requires very little participation of the learner (e.g.
conferences and multimedia presentations), while training that generates a moderate
engagement is characterized by a higher level of interaction (e.g. active discussion and
feedback). Training methods generating higher level of engagement require even more
activity from learner (e.g. techniques that encourage cognitive and behavioural interaction
with material and trainer); this type of training usually occurs in face-to-face learning
environments.

The factors influencing training, some of which can be manipulated (independent

variables) include: training method, time and content, learning environment (place and
materials), among others.

Immediate outcomes are the reactions measured proximally in trainees, such as changes
in behaviour, beliefs, attitudes, skills and motivation. Intermediate outcomes are
dependent variables representing knowledge transfer and incorporating behaviour into
practice, while end outcomes are prevention and reduction of diseases, injuries and work-
related deaths. Such impacts can be influenced not only by the training processes, but by
other variables characteristic of the job or task and the organization.

Furthermore, confounding factors are those associated with the result but which do not
explain the relationship between training and outcomes. These factors have an

52
individual22 or organisational23 character, as they affect how the training is done or even
its effects.

With the aim of summarizing the above items, the following model by Robson et al.
(Robson et al 4-7;. 36-83, 2010) is shown next, illustrating the main cause-and-effect
relationships between training factors, outcomes in workers, and impacts on injury and
fatalities, and their relationship with modifying and confounding factors (Figure 9).

Figure 9. A conceptual model of workplace training interventions for primary prevention

in occupational safety and health.

IMMEDIATE
TRAINING OUTCOMES
FACTORS Reaction to training, INTERMEDIATE IMPACTS
(e.g. learning principles, knowledge, beliefs, skills, OUTCOMES Injuries,
timing, format, trainer) attitude, motivation to act, Behaviors, illnesses,
behavioral intent etc. hazard controls, fatalities,
hazards, disabilities,
exposures, costs
etc. etc.
INDIVIDUAL FACTORS
(e.g., demographic factors, cognitive
abilities, occupation, ethnicity,
language abilities, learning style,
previous training. Health status, pre-
training attitudes, expectancies,
motivation to learn)

PRE-INTERVENTION POST-INTERVENTION
WORKPLACE FACTORS WORKPLACE FACTORS
(e.g. pre-training needs assessment, (e.g. post-training maintenance
empowerment, safety culture) interventions, empowerment safety
culture)

WORKPLACE

Source: Robson et al. 15, 2010 EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT

As already said, when people learn new skills and apply them in practice they achieve
behavioural changes; however, although education is an important component of
behavioural change, it is not enough to produce it. In the health and safety field, training
has been one of the most commonly used techniques, but that does not ensure proper
development of competencies.

The weight given to training underrates in some cases the importance of other preventive
measures; thereby training programs end up losing credibility because their effectiveness
depends on the organizational commitment to provide safe conditions, as well as on
workers' recognition of that commitment (Colligan et al. 223-248, 2004). Moreover,
training also has limited effect if we consider the “real power of workers” regarding

22
Individual factors include demographic characteristics, cognitive abilities, learning styles, previous
training attitudes, expectations and motivations, among others.
23
Organisational factors include for example, commitment of management and influence of others at the
workplace.
53
elimination of hazards as a basic mechanism for controlling morbidity and fatalities
attributable to work (Weinstock and Slatin, 255 -267, 2012).

Therefore, a change of paradigm in the traditional training methods to achieve

competence development in OSH issues is required, in order to acquire and develop a
universal hazard recognition competency as a requirement for attaining a culture that is
cognizant of its own ability to continuously improve in the prevention of all types of
incidents. (Fleming 1-15 2015).

7.2 The learning process

To complete the basic elements of competencies development, besides reviewing

training, it is also necessary to review learning, which can be understood as a feedback, a
continuous and dynamic process involving three fundamental moments: (Rail Safety and
Standards Board Limited 8-33, 2013)
- Providing information and understanding of it.
- Transfer of knowledge
- Practice of skills to perform an activity

There are several learning theories with different explanatory power; some of them are
geared to what has to be learned, while others at developing the learner's competencies.
Arnold has structured the learning theories into four main groups: behaviourist,
cognitivist, constructivist, and those related to the science of the subject, but stresses the
need to expand their understanding towards “transformative learning”, emotional and
organizational. (Arnold 39-55, 2004).

- Behavioural theories explain acquisition of learning by conditioning stimuli - response

(Pavlov and Skinner).

- Cognitivist theories favour the role of thought, reflection and perception to acquire
knowledge that help solve problems and develop action-oriented competencies.
Because of their comprehensive nature, these theories can explain more complex
learning processes, including restructuring or rearranging existing cognitive structures
and reinforcing the role of discovery of reality (Bruner) and the association of prior
knowledge with new one to give them consistency (meaningful learning by Ausubel
and Novak).

- Constructivist theories mark a shift in the psychology of learning since they consider
it not only a result of internal processes, but also as a process integrating biological,
socio-cultural, emotional and motivational aspects of the individual. Learning is then
the “construction of knowledge” and of some competencies applicable to real life,
based on biology itself, on prior knowledge and new information interpreted in the
light of experience (Piaget), with strong influence of the environment surrounding the
subject (Vigotski).

- Learning theories focused on the subject exclude the objective context (demands and
stimuli) and favour motivation to produce an intentional learning that promotes the
individual's development.
54
An important line of the development of learning theories has focused on understanding
teaching - learning process in adults. The term adult comes from the Latin verb
“adolescere” which means to grow; thus, adult is derived from the past participle
“adultum”, meaning someone who has finished growing, who has grown up.

Adult education strategies have evolved to models that include the understanding of their
characteristics; in this regard, UNESCO defines adult education as “all the organized
processes of education, whatever the content, level and method, whether formal or
otherwise, whether they extend or replace the initial education provided in schools and
universities, and in the form of professional learning, thanks to which people that are
regarded as adults by the society to which they belong develop their abilities, enrich their
knowledge, improve their technical or professional competencies or provide them with a
new direction, and bring about changes in their attitudes or behaviour in the twofold
perspective of full personal enrichment and participation in a balanced and independent
socioeconomic and cultural development” (Unesco 1-15, 1976).

The focus of adult learning has taken elements of constructionism that favour the role of
the individual's interaction with its environment (Jean Piaget 1970), entails a “situated
cognition”, because to some extent it is a product of the activity, context and culture in
which it is developed and used (Brown, Collins and Duguid, 32-42, 1989) and is
influenced by the social environment (Vygotsky 1987).

One of the most important developments in the field of adult education is andragogy,
whose conception as a cultural approach, or as a specific practice in education or even as
a science, has been varied. (Reischmann 1-8, 2004).

The basic principles of andragogy raised by Knowles start by considering that the adult's
self-concept is based on self-direction, and they also consider that adult experience is an
important source of learning. (Knowles 40-59, 1970). Willingness to learn is geared
towards the tasks characteristic of the roles that adult plays in society, so people learn
what they need to know and thus motivation to learn is internal; likewise, application of
knowledge is immediate and focused on troubleshooting and performance. (Knowles,
31.1984).

Despite the importance of Knowles' contributions, some arguments lead to a revision of

his approach. While adult learning is characterized by self-direction, it could not be said
that children's learning is totally dependent; the emphasis on “me” (self) seems to stem
more from a particular humanistic conception than from a transcultural reality; the
didactics of adult learning focused on experience tends to underrate the need to learn new
information devoid of previous experience. The willingness to learn what is relevant to
social roles and necessary to solve problems, could set aside learning of other contents
deprived of their applicability in a particular social role, or in solving specific problems.
In general, the concept of andragogy can be summarized as a “discipline that studies
forms, procedures, techniques, situations and teaching strategies in order to achieve
significant learning in adults, promoting at the same time development of skills and
attitudes, and acquisition and transfer of knowledge to the context in which the adult
operates” (Caraballo, 187-206, 2007); therefore, the contributions of andragogy apply
both to career training and to lifelong learning in different scenarios, including work, and
55
give the facilitator the role of provider of strategies based on participation and
horizontality, to enable learning in a self-directed manner.

The weight of experience as a source of learning boosted the development of the

experiential learning theory (Kolb 1984), which incorporates the contributions of scholars
of human learning, such as those proposed by John Dewey and Maria Montessori, as well
as those by Brazilian educator Paulo Freire. Kolb's model presents two ways to pick up
on experience: concrete experience and abstract conceptualization, and also two opposite
ways of transforming experience: reflective observation and active experimentation.
Experiential learning builds knowledge through a cycle in which the learner moves
through the various forms of learning. (Kolb and Kolb, 193-212, 2005).

Consequently, experiential learning occurs when the social environment promotes

observation and search for information to guide analysis, evaluation and reconstruction
of the experience towards solving problems in different contexts (inductive reasoning).
From this point of view, experiential education promotes individual and social
transformation through action, hence its applicability for learning and competence
development in people. Experiential learning is a holistic process (involves the
individual's intellect, senses and feelings), built up socially and culturally and influenced
by the socio-emotional context in which it occurs. So while learning is a process,
knowledge is created through transformation of experience. (Andresen, Boud and Cohen,
225-239, 1995).

Kolb’s developments gave rise to a Learning Styles model that has resulted in the
production of measuring tools such as the Honey & Mumford's (2006) Learning Styles
Questionnaire, which assesses four different learning styles preference: Activist,
Reflector, Theorist and Pragmatist (Honey and Mumford, 19-21, 2006).

In addition to the approaches focusing on the learning processes, the scientific literature
also records the approach to cognitive styles24 whose major developments date back to
1960; however, the term “learning style” has been used more recently, replacing the term
“cognitive style”. While there are differences between the two concepts, “learning style”
is more used in the field of education and training, due to its action-oriented character.
(Riding and Cheema, 193-215, 1991). Although different meanings are given when these
two concepts are used, practical experience with workers highlights the importance of
taking them into account them when designing training processes since they generate
benefits in performance and safety. (Rail Safety and Standards Board Limited 8-33,
2013).

In conclusion, it can be said that given that experiential learning comprehensively collects
elements from cognitivist and constructivist theories, and given its active nature, very
close to the forms of adult learning, it is believed that it can provide the conceptual bases
for effective education processes aimed at preventing injuries and accidents at the
workplace.

24
The cognitive style, considered as a person's typical or habitual mode of problem solving, thinking,
perceiving and remembering, was described by Allport (1937).
56
7.3 The learning objectives

Since long ago, the development of educational processes has considered the importance
of properly defining the objectives of learning. In this regard, the Convention of the
American Psychological Association, held in 1948, was the stage on which Benjamin
Bloom and a group of educators started working on classifying the educational goals
based on the thinking behaviours considered important for learning. The first result was
a taxonomy of three domains: cognitive: knowledge-based domain; affective: attitudinal-
based domain; and psychomotor: skills-based domain. The development of cognitive
domain was completed in 1956, published under the name “Bloom's Taxonomy”.
(Forehand 1-9, 2010).

Bloom's Taxonomy has evolved to incorporate new concepts that describe in detail the
cognitive process dimension, and has even led to an updated version developed by
Anderson & Krathwohl in the 90's, formulating changes in terminology, structure, and
emphasis. Terminology changes replaced by verbs the names of the six categories of
cognitive processes, and some categories were also renamed. The structural change was
to include the knowledge dimension, so that the model acquired the two-dimensional
nature shown in a double entry table. The last major change is on the use of taxonomy,
which today is oriented as a tool for curriculum design, planning, instructional delivery
and assessment of educational processes.

The Cognitive Processes were defined by Anderson & Krathwohl (Anderson &
Krathwohl, 67-68, 2001) and then supplemented by Extended Campus The Oregon State
University (2005) by including subcategories (total 19) that facilitate definition of
objectives: remembering, understanding, applying, analysing, evaluating and creating.
(Annex 3 details information on categories of The Cognitive Processes).

The knowledge dimension refers to various levels described below, going from abstract
knowledge to concrete knowledge (Forehand 1-9, 2010): metacognitive, procedural,
conceptual and factual. (Annex 4 shows information on the levels of the knowledge
dimension).

As an additional contribution, The Oregon State University25 facilitates understanding

each process of the new Bloom's Taxonomy, by going back to the developments of
Krathwohl Anderson et al. 200126 depicted in Table 1, which includes the actions arising
from crossing both dimensions, useful for defining objectives, results, outcomes, and
changes to be achieved through a training process.

25
Oregon State University, Extended Campus Course development, Instructional Design - The Taxonomy
Table. Available at http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/coursedev/models/id/taxonomy/#table
26
A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing: A Revision of Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational
Objectives. Lorin W. Andersin, David R. Krathwohl; et al. 2001 Addison Wesley Longman

57
Table 1. Bloom's Taxonomy Knowledge and Cognitive Process Dimensions

The Cognitive process dimension

The Knowledge dimension
Remember Understand Apply Analyse Evaluate Create
Factual knowledge List Summarize Classify Order Rank Combine

Conceptual knowledge Describe Interpret Experiment Explain Assess Plan

Procedural knowledge Tabulate Predict Calculate Differentiate Conclude Compose

Metacognitive knowledge Appropriate use Execute Construct Achieve Action Actualize

Source: Table taken from Extended Campus The Oregon State University (2005)
http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/coursedev/models/id/taxonomy/#table Designer/Developer - Dianna Fisher

Based on the concepts supported in Bloom's taxonomy and its subsequent developments,
it is easier to consider Learning Objectives containing the actions the learner is expected
to perform after the training (e.g. identifying hazards).

7.4 Competency-based training

The teaching-learning process based on competencies arises in the United States in the
early 70s, supported on five principles: (i) all learning is individual; (ii) the individual,
like any system, is guided by goals to be achieved; (iii) the learning process is easier when
the student knows precisely the performance expected from him; (iv) accurate knowledge
of the results to be achieved promotes learning; and (v) it is more likely that student does
what is expected of him and what he wants for himself if he is given responsibility in
learning tasks. (Brigido and Freire 1-17, 2002).

Competency training for performing a job or task at the workplace involves the clear
definition of a behaviour or outcome expected to be performed or reached by the
individual. Competence is described with a verb (infinitive) and then the object on which
the action rest is described, and if necessary the condition the action must have on the
object is included.

Complementary to the elements previously described in this chapter, the definition of

competency may include the description of conditions, environment, elements and
equipment with which the action unfolds. Similarly, evidence of performance usually
verified through observation or through tangible products are described. Performance
criteria are specified in terms of quality and other characteristics of results obtained (e.g.
storage of materials is performed according to safety requirements, at allocated places).
It is also possible to demonstrate knowledge, understanding and cognitive skills necessary
to achieve competent performance (Vargas 9-62, 2004).

Information collected in the review of literature on the influence of human factors on

accident causation and prevention, the dynamic of hazards and the risk assessment
process, the methods commonly used for OSH training and competence development and
their effectiveness, as well as the comprehension of competences and training

58
requirements, allow us to move forward to the last major component of this dissertation,
which is designing a strategy for developing risk assessment competence in blue collar
workers considering the human factors approach.

59
 8. Designing the strategy to develop competencies to perform spontaneous risk
assessment.

Based on the review of scientific literature to understand how perception of hazards

occurs and how it affects risk analysis and decision making, and also on progress related
to training of workers in occupational health and safety issues, this chapter focuses on
proposing a training strategy to develop the required competence that will allow blue
collar workers perform spontaneous risk assessment and consequently behave in a safe
way.

8.1 Training strategy effectiveness criteria

The strategy to develop competence of blue collar workers to perform spontaneous risk
assessment as a contributing element to have a safe behaviour at work, must meet the
following effectiveness criteria, noted by studies consulted in the development of this
research:

- Clearly define learning objectives regarding the cognitive processes27 that we want to
mobilise, and the dimension of knowledge28 to be influenced by the actions aimed at
developing competencies in workers.

- Identify and describe the competencies to be developed in terms of knowledge, skills

(practical and thinking), and attitudes necessary to perform spontaneous risk
assessment at work. Likewise, the definition includes describing the conditions,
environment, elements and equipment with which the action unfolds.

- Foster motivation of blue-collar workers regarding self-care and development of their

skills and knowledge by acquiring safe work practices and transferring to problem
solution.

- Encourage active participation of workers in the process of developing competencies

and assessing their experience and prior knowledge to attain meaningful learning.

- Develop training by combining activities to allow processing experience and

knowledge acquired through reflective observation and active experimentation in the
field of prevention of accidents and injuries.

- The facilitator's role should be to provide training strategies and scenarios based on
participation and feedback, and enable self-directed learning and continuous feedback
during the training process. Feedback involves having clear evidence and performance
criteria.

27
Remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating and creating
28
Metacognitive, procedural, conceptual and factual
60
8.2 Overall learning outcome

Upon completing the training, participants will be able to: Perform spontaneous risk
assessment, decide and behave in the safest way to protect themselves against mechanical
and chemical hazards at the workplace and to prevent accidents or injuries.

8.3 Learning outcomes

At the end of the session, participants will be able to:

1. Identify and describe the chemical and mechanical hazards present in a work
situation.
2. Identify the risks associated with each type of identified hazard, and recognise the
likelihood they have to arise.
3. Describe mixtures of hazards present in a work situation and their effect regarding
risks to people, the process and the environment.
4. Prioritise hazard mixtures according to their potential for harm.
5. Identify controls or barriers set at the workplace to reduce exposure to hazards and
minimise risks.
6. Describe actions to be followed to protect themselves from the hazards and reduce
the likelihood of risks materialising.
7. Apply concepts learned in different work situations, identifying and describing
solutions and safe behaviour to avoid accidents in specific work situations.
8. Suggest new solutions and safe behaviour to avoid accidents in specific work
situations.
9. Evaluate solutions according to their usefulness in preventing accidents and
injuries.
10. Analyse the effect of solutions chosen to prevent accidents and injuries.
11. Suggest improvements to current work processes involving hazards with high risk
of causing accidents or injuries.
12. Define action commitments with the learning achieved.
13. Monitor implementation of the learning achieved throughout training.

The specific learning outcome of each training session address different knowledge and
cognitive process dimensions contributing to the development of non-technical skills, as
they focus on abilities such as understanding, applying, analysing and evaluating the
hazards and risks typical of day-to-day work.

The following table depicts location of objectives (identified with relevant numbering) in
Bloom's Taxonomy Knowledge and Cognitive Process Dimensions.

61
Table 2. Bloom's Taxonomy Knowledge and Cognitive Process Dimensions and their
relation to the objectives of the strategy to develop competencies in workers

The Cognitive process dimension

The Knowledge dimension
Remember Understand Apply Analyse Evaluate Create
Factual knowledge 1, 2 1,2, 1,2,5,7 5,10 4,9

Conceptual knowledge 3,5 3,7,5 3,7,10 4,9 8

Procedural knowledge 11

Metacognitive knowledge L, 12, 13

8.4 Methodology to develop training

The methodology is participatory and arises from workers’ analyses of their own
experience and previous knowledge; learning is encouraged in all activities through
experience, active learning, questions and assessment of the participant's experience. It
also promotes exchange with others to expand the issue of learning sources.

A facilitator who introduces the basic content and guides the workshops to be held
inside and outside the classroom supports each session. Workshops are of various types
and are usually done in groups of up to three people to ensure participation of all
attendees; also, each workshop is developed following a guide with precise instructions:

(i) Workshops enabling participants to identify, recognise and describe the concepts
learned establish relationships and hierarchies and apply them to a particular
situation.
(ii) Workshops leading to the implementation of actions enabling participants to
demonstrate their ability to abstracting concepts, generalising and applying them to
other situations. These workshops require the participant to apply, analyse, find
solutions, implement them and assess their effects.
(iii) Workshops to build or identify ways to use methodological tools for hazard
identification and risk assessment.
(iv) Final workshop to secure commitments for action with the learning achieved.

8.5 Target population

Blue-collar workers in groups of up to 15 people to facilitate development of practical

activities.

8.6 Plan to develop training sessions

Detailed information on each session, their purpose, content, methodology, activities,

resources and duration are shown in the following table.

62
Resources used are basically audio-visual materials reflecting real work situations. Cases
raised by the participants themselves are also included.

Sessions are developed sequentially, with the aim of gradually bringing worker to meet
the ultimate objective of the training process. Sessions are planned short, from one to two
hours maximum, and must be performed for four weeks (three per week); the cycle is
closed with an additional session two months later, carried out as an activity to follow up
and assess impact of the training process. The total training time is twenty (20) hours.

63
Table 3. Training sessions planning
Session

Duration
Learning outcomes Content Methodology Activities and resources Hours
and min.

- What is hazard? - Use of photographs to identify

hazards in various places and
- Presenting basic concepts
Identify and describe chemical - What is risk jobs.
1 regarding chemical and 1:00
and mechanical hazards present in - Group workshop to identify and
mechanical hazards
a work situation. - What are the chemical and mechanical describe hazards in 3 different
hazards and which are their main classes? situations

- Associated risks related to each class of

- Use of video to identify hazards
chemical and mechanical hazards.
Identify the risks associated with and risks in various places and
- Present the main risks
each type of identified hazard and jobs.
2 - Identification of controls associated with each hazard 1: 30
recognise the likelihood of - Group workshop to identify
(mechanical and chemical).
occurrence. hazards and risks associated with
- Identification the probability of risk
chemical and mechanical hazards.
occurrence.

64
Session
Learning outcomes
Describe mixtures of hazards in a
3 work situation and their effect on
risks to people, the process and
the environment.
4 Hierarchise hazard mixtures
according to their harm potential
Content
- Illustration of work situations
- Present the synergistic effect occurring
when several hazards get together in the
same work situation.
- Analysis of differences in
- Most common situations in which
mixtures of hazards arise.
- Risks associated with hazard mixtures.
- Explanation of the way in
- “The formula” for major accidents
Duration
Methodology Activities and resources Hours
and min.
- Use of video to illustrate mixtures
of hazards. E.g. Combustible
in which mixtures of hazards
material and friction, pressure,
are present.
heat and gases, etc.
1:30
- Group Workshop for
risks when an isolated hazard
identification and description of
arises, i.e. without the
risks in presence of several
presence of others.
hazards simultaneously.
- Video with presentation of a
major accident in the chemical
industry.
- Group workshop to develop
“formulae” for accidents resulting
from hazard mixtures at high risk
which simultaneous
of accident.
occurrence of uncontrolled 2:00
- Presentation of exercises and
hazards can cause a major
development of a list of
disaster.
“formulae” for accidents caused
by the simultaneous presence of
several hazards, and group
selection of the three riskiest
"formulae".
65
Session
Learning outcomes
Identify the controls or barriers
set at the workplace to reduce
exposure to hazards and minimize
5 - Types of controls for chemical and
risks.
Describe actions to be taken to
protect themselves from hazards
6 against hazards: safe and risky behaviour.
and reduce the likelihood of risks
materialising.
Apply concepts learned to
7 - Practical demonstration: field
different work situations,
identifying and describing
solutions and safe behaviour to
Content
- Hierarchy of Controls
mechanical hazards.
- Human behaviour as a means of protection
- Impact of behaviour on risks.
- Behaviour: What? How?, and When?
- Key behaviours for safe handling of
chemicals and mechanical equipment.
Duration
Methodology Activities and resources Hours
and min.
- Photographs of various
workplaces.
- Explain the hazard control
- Group Workshop to identify and
hierarchy by presenting
classify controls (hierarchy) that 1:30
pictures of various worksites
they usually have in the kitchen
and in different situations.
at home for chemical and
mechanical hazards.
- Videos with examples of people
working while exposed to
mechanical and chemical
- Group analysis of safe
hazards.
behaviours versus risky 1:30
- Group Workshop for identifying
behaviours.
risky and safe behaviours that
impact the likelihood that a risk
materialises.
- Video of people working with
- Group analysis of a situation
chemicals and moving
shown on a video to identify
equipment.
desirable behaviours: what to
2:00
do when facing danger? With
observation of a real working
what? When to act to avoid an
situation regarding which
accident?
participants respond individually
66
Session

Duration
Learning outcomes Content Methodology Activities and resources Hours
and min.
avoid accidents in specific work to the following questions: How
situations. could an accident happen in this
place? What to do (behaviour) to
avoid it? With what? And when?

- Group dynamics to solve a - Dynamics: “The space

problem.
Steps to solve a safety issue (1st part): - Once the group dynamics has
- Understanding the situation been completed, the process
Propose new solutions and safe
8 - Identifying specific problems followed to solve the problem
behaviours to prevent accidents in
- Brainstorming for possible solutions. is analysed, and lessons
specific work situations.
learned for solving safety
issues are identified with the
participation of the group.
experiment” and reflection on
learning achieved.
- Workshop: Participants select a
task that they usually perform at 1:30
work, and present a case where
an accident occurred. Participants
develop a list of possible
solutions.

Rate the solutions according to - Participants prioritize possible

Steps to solve a safety issue (2nd part):
their usefulness in preventing solutions and supplement them
- Prioritise ideas according to their ease for - Feedback on workshop
9 accidents and injuries. with a diagram illustrating the 1:00
implementation and effectiveness. progress.
steps to be followed to implement
- Implement the solution.
the new solution.

67
Session

Duration
Learning outcomes Content Methodology Activities and resources Hours
and min.
- Participants define the criteria to
rd assess whether or not the solution
Steps to solve a safety issue (3 part):
worked, identify potential
- Evaluate results and impact.
Analyse the effect of the solutions barriers in implementing it and
- Improve the idea - Feedback on workshop
10 chosen on preventing accidents propose ideas for improvement. 1:00
- Disseminate the solution for others to progress.
and injuries. - Finally, participants introduce the
apply it.
improved peers solution to their
peers and support the importance
of putting it into practice.

68
Session

Duration
Learning outcomes Content Methodology Activities and resources Hours
and min.

- Individual Workshop to propose

a new way to perform a task in
which the participant or one of
his co-workers had an accident.
- The workshop identifies: Perils
and hazard mixtures, risks, risk
behaviour, safe behaviours and
conditions (equipment, time,
Suggest improvements to current working methods, etc.) to be
work processes involving hazards - Assistance from the facilitator adjusted or changed to prevent
- Improving work processes: motivation
11 with high risk of causing to each worker to get the accident. 1:30
towards change
accidents or injuries. feedback on the exercise. - Finally, each participant prepares
a simple drawing to show the
changes implemented to prevent
another accident.
- Exit self-evaluation regarding the
extent to which worker has
developed the competence to
identify hazards and assess risks
in real time, using the criteria
contained in rubric 2.

69
Session

Duration
Learning outcomes Content Methodology Activities and resources Hours
and min.

- Through a brief story, the

Define commitments to action
12
with the learning achieved.
- Each participant answers the
facilitator invites participants
following questions: What did I
to define commitments for
learn in this training? What
improvement to be
- Change is possible: leadership to achieve changes have I achieved with
implemented in the short term
it. what I learned? What concrete
to avoid accidents. 1:00
- Closure of training. commitment towards change can
- At the end of the session the
- Schedule a new session to monitor I take up as of now to perform
facilitator invites all
progress. my job in more safe way?
participants to come to get
- Participants share their answers
certificates of attendance and
as a group.
group pictures are taken.

- Two months after completion of

Follow up implementation of the
13
learning achieved during training.
- Experiences and achievements.
- New challenges.
- Feedback on the level of competences
acquisition.
training, the facilitator invites
participants to share and
exemplify two accomplishments
and two issues to be improved
regarding development of
- Dynamics of group reflection.
competencies for risk assessment 3:00
- Field observation of worker.
in real time. (1 hour)
- The facilitator conducts a field
visit to briefly observe worker
regarding how he/she identifies
hazards, assesses and controls
70
Session

Duration
Learning outcomes Content Methodology Activities and resources Hours
and min.
associated risks, and based on the
findings of this activity makes a
comprehensive evaluation of
worker's competence by using
rubric 2.
- The facilitator closes the exercise
by comparing worker's self-
assessment with the results of the
evaluation conducted during field
observations, and then him and
worker discuss achievements and
define suggestions for
improvement. (2 hours)

71
8.7 Assessing competence development

Assessment will be carried out by using an overall score guide, known as “rubrics” 29, which
makes assessment simpler and more objective. From the worker's perspective, rubrics offers
the possibility to know in advance the criteria to be assessed, and allows them identify the
level of development and advancement opportunities. In addition to using the guide,
feedback to each participant is done, thus achieving the formative assessment30.

Since participants are blue collar workers whose level of education is relatively basic, it is
advisable to perform assessments in two moments:

a) At the end of each training session in which questions about understanding or solving a
case are answered, consequently, competencies acquired are assessed through the
development of various scheduled workshops by using a specific rubric. For this purpose,
rubric number one will be used considering only the criteria related to the "cognitive
processes" working with each target are applied, each of which in turn corresponds to a
session (table 4).

When the evaluation of a person in any of the criteria shows a need to improve, a follow-
up session with the facilitator is required to support that person so as to ensure that he/she
at least will reach an expected performance.

Some signs that worker must re-enter the training are:

- Failure to safely use or operate equipment, ignoring the hazards faced.
- Occurrence of an incident as a result of a behaviour evidencing difficulty in
identifying and controlling hazards and risks.
- Task conditions have changed in such a way that new training to recognize new
hazards and risks is required.

Once the training is completed, it is necessary to assist and verify maintenance and
development of the competencies acquired, by observing worker's behaviour doing a
practical demonstration in which the trainee is required to complete a task to demonstrate
their skills (field observation). Rubric 2 is used to this end (table 5), since it allows a
comprehensive assessment of the competence in all its components: Cognitive (know),
attitude (be willing to do) and skill (know-how).

29
Rubrics usually contain evaluative criteria, quality definitions for those criteria at particular levels of
achievement, and a scoring strategy.
30
Formative assessment helps determine the extent to which the person knows or is able to perform a task
after the training cycle. (Brigido and Freire 1-17, 2002)

72
Table 4. Rubrics to evaluate development of cognitive component of the competencies
Evaluation criteria Needs to improve
Requires support to recall
Information recall
concepts learned
Understanding Has difficulty understanding
concepts some concepts
Application of Has difficulty applying in other to other situations
learning situations what was learned
Relates ideas to analyse the
Situation analysis current situation, but finds it finds it difficult to
difficult to project possible
statuses of the situation
Has difficulties in assessing a situation over another, or
Situation assessment solution or the impact a
situation has over another
Finds it difficult to solve new
Design solutions cases (examples of situations)
with the concepts learned
Outstanding
Expected performance
performance
Recalls the most Recalls all concepts
important concepts with great accuracy
Very quickly captures
Shows good the concepts and
understanding of facilitates their
concepts understanding between
co-workers
Applies concepts
learned to understand a
Applies concepts learned
situation and
incorporates their own
(generalization of
experience and
learning)
previously acquired
knowledge
Relates ideas and
Relates ideas to analyse projects possible
the current situation, but statuses of the situation
to imagine possible
project possible statuses ways on how an
of the situation accident or injury may
or may not happen
Assesses the impact of a
situation over other
Assesses the impact of a
situations, or possible
solutions to a risky
the impact of possible
situation, and considers
solutions to a risky
possible barriers against
situation
which he/she identifies
new solutions
Designs new solutions
Applies concepts learned
from learning and from
in solving situations
own experience
73
Table 5. Rubrics to evaluate integral development of competencies.

Outstanding
Evaluation criteria Needs to improve Expected performance
performance

Has redundant controls

Setting controls to Leaves uncontrolled hazards in Sets up controls for
(double control)
hazards. work area. hazards at work.
available for hazards
with the highest risks.

Is exposed or allows other
colleagues to be exposed to
Protection against
hazard lines31 without
hazard lines.
implementing measures to
prevent possible accidents.
Spontaneously gives
brief safety talks to
Moves away from the teammates to warn
hazard line and moves them about danger
others away to avoid an lines, and looks forward
accident. to feedback them if they
are exposed to hazards
in risky ways.

Adopts protective
Adjust behaviour to Ignores changes in the Changes behaviour if behaviours to changes
changes in the environment, thus neglecting hazards at workplace in the environment and
environment. new hazards. change. warns colleagues so that
they also get protected.

Identifies hazards and

Decision making their respective
Is exposed to mixtures of Sets controls to
regarding protection synergies and has the
hazards without having set the minimize risk to the
against hazard necessary controls
means to control the associated extent that hazards
mixtures at the available to avoid a
risk. synergy is identified.
workplace. hazard before
performing a work.

31
Hazard line refers to the hazard’s outreach.

74
9. Discussion

The collection and analysis of information consulted to develop this research allowed us
reaffirm the relationship between training and decent work, inasmuch as the former is a
“fundamental right” of workers and a tool against discrimination, as stated by the
International Labour Office (Uriarte 1-18, 2001).

The comprehensive approach to human factors provided a holistic and complex vision of the
phenomena that affect behaviour and thus occurrence of accidents; therefore, prevention
should also be holistic.

One of the greatest achievements of this research was the possibility of bringing closer
conceptual positions that, even though they are not divergent, are nonetheless insufficiently
related in technical documents on management tools for safety and health at work; those
conceptual positions are: cognitive processes of the human being and their behaviour
regarding safety. The study of human errors (296-53-96 Reason, 1990) and the development
of comprehensive models of accident causation (Wiegmann and Shappell 1006-1016, 2001)
derive from the confluence of such approaches, which despite the existence of human causes,
recognize that they occur in the context of structural problems in organisations, as previously
noted by some authors (Rasmussen 449-462, 1990).

The interplay between the characteristics of the task and human performance has also been
the subject of exploration (Maurino et al. 166-1-29, 1995), and its application has influenced
identification of aspects affecting the efficiency and reliability of human performance, an
approach that broadens the perspective of risk assessment to transcend the analysis of
environmental conditions, thus deepening to the cognitive and behavioural aspects of
individuals; an approach not always taken into account at the workplace.

The study of human errors has helped in the search for solutions, some of which are reflected
in actions aimed at developing competencies and others at improving processes, especially
in those studies with the highest criticality, as quoted by the Human and Organisational
Factors Committee of the Energy Institute (HOFCOM (c) 1-4 2011).

A fairly new but highly interesting concept due to its applicability in everyday work context
is the “situational awareness”, which involves aspects of hazard perception, mental models,
projection of future statuses, and decision making at work (Endsley 97-101, 1988; Smith and
Hancock 137-148, 1995; Endsley, 32-64, 1995; Endsley and Garland 3-32, 2000). This
concept has had its greatest application in aerospace and in designing information control
systems, as well as in developing specific skills to operate complex systems. (Styles, 122-
141, 2005).

The design of the strategy to develop competencies in workers to improve their ability to
hazard identification and risk assessment, which is a result of this investigation, included the

75
concept of “situational awareness” because of its importance in preventing accidents and
injuries.

The consulted scientific literature shows progress in understanding social and communicative
risk phenomena; however, there are still aspects insufficiently studied, which opens an
interesting field of research as a deepening phase arising from this study; some of those
aspects are:

If accidents prevention is based on hazard control, and if a misperception affects

their identification, thus leading to an improper assessment of those risks, the
situation becomes even more complex when worker is also required to analyse and
interpret the effects of synergy occurring when hazards are mixed, therefore
substantially changing the nature of the risk.

This condition necessarily poses a challenge to traditional training on hazards and

risks, which often focuses on reviewing them one by one, as a linear model because
of its “vertical” reading, while understanding the dynamics of hazards is systemic
and thus cross-wise. This issue becomes more complex with the “bias” or “hit”
prompted by communication and social and individual perception of hazards,
calculation or estimation of the magnitude of the associated risk, and mental
heuristics applied to solving problems, all of them affecting decisions made
regarding protection and prevention.

Besides the aforementioned aspects, the cognitive interaction between emotions and risk
perception needs further exploration given its impact on risk-taking behaviour, as shown by
Borowski et al (277-287, 2009; and from 1240 to 1249, 2010), as does the collective
perception of risks noted by Puy (263-270, 1995).

Communication mechanisms were also considered as part of the literature review.

Particularly, it is worth noting the need to provide information and develop critical thinking
in the community as an input for making good decisions, as referred by Trettin and Musham
(410-426, 2000). In addition, most of the sources were consistent regarding inclusion of
cultural aspects (of the organisation and society) and their impact on perception of the
hazards and therefore on risks assessment (14-37 Hurst, 1998).

Risk assessment shows significant achievements in the development of methodologies with

a technical engineering approach that analyses aspects of the environment, the equipment
and processes, and sheds objectivity on hazards description, while risk assessment is still
susceptible of greater subjectivity, as referred by Hurst (48-51, 1998).

The time perspective (retrospective or prospective) of several traditional methods for risk
assessment does not fully solve the need for performing consecutive risk assessments to
respond to the dynamics of tasks and dangers themselves, which shows a gap in the literature
consulted regarding advances in simple and fluid techniques for the employee to perform this
process, which Albert (1000-1016, 2014) names hazard identification in dynamic
environments; an exception to this issue are the developments by Fleming and Fischer (1-25,
2015), which are based on Haddon's energy release theory.
76
Findings described related to different teaching-learning methodologies strengthen the need
to implement processes for continuous training focused on adults, considering their social
context and their needs and motivations; nonetheless, training practices causing high
engagement and offering opportunities to experience and apply new learning are regarded as
the most convenient since they promote in workers the development of thought processes
and nontechnical skills oriented to recognising and analysing risks arising from work, as well
as finding solutions for protection of health and personal integrity (Robson et al 36-83, 2010;.
Robson et al 193-208, 2012.).

Some reflections arise from progress mentioned in this research: Training provided to
workers to prevent accidents and injuries is relevant? Does the way in which training is
conducted contribute to developing competencies having impact on the final outcomes? The
design of work systems understands and applies the human factors approach? (Robb and
Miller 752-762, 2012).

As a corollary to the considerations made, there is the need to review training methods
commonly used in the industry to find out whether their methodology is aimed at the needs
and if their results really impact behaviours regarding prevention and protection. In addition,
definition of objectives for competence training has great opportunities to benefit from
Bloom's taxonomy, nowadays enriched by the description of the cognitive process
dimensions (Anderson & Krathwohl) and the knowledge dimensions (Forehand 1-9 2010).

The teaching-learning model based on competencies was recently incorporated in the field
of health and safety (Brigido and Freire 1-17, 2002), which starts by defining needs and
objectives in terms of behaviour or outcome expected from the person.

Progress made regarding development of non-technical skills (Rail Safety and Standards
Board Limited 8-33, 2013) also opens new opportunities for management models by
competencies in the safety field, starting with the competence to conduct an adequate risk
assessment in real time. Thus, it should be noted that knowledge management helps to
visualize and sustain the progress of the organisation as a support tool in decision-making.

Several steps forward regarding developing competencies in workers in matters related to

health and safety have been recorded, e.g. in the health sector (CPSI and The Royal College
of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, 1-46, 2008; and The National NHS Staff Council 1-
16, 2015), in the chemical industry (Center for chemical Process, 1-33, 2014) and in
construction (Dingsdag et al. 1-10, 2006), among others.

Competency training processes often show progressive developments ranging from a status
of unconscious incompetence to unconscious competence, and cycle restarts progressively
(HMRI and Hoddinott 1-9, 2007).

In conclusion, the principles ruling a training model to develop competencies in preventing

injuries and accidents involve: emphasizing participation and innovation as mechanisms to
transform and improve working conditions; and bringing together all stakeholders to achieve

77
intersectoral coordination, as well as following up and evaluating their impact on control of
accidents and injuries.

78
10. Annexes

Annex 1. Terms used in the search for bibliographical material

Operator Operator
Keyword 1 Keyword 2 Keyword 2
1 2
Human factors And Accident prevention - -
Human factors And Hazard analysis Or Risk assessment
Competence
Human factors And Training Or
development
Human factors And Occupational Safety Or Occupational Health
Human factors And Blue collar workers Or Workers
Accident
And Blue collar workers Or Workers
prevention
Accident Competence
And Training or Or
prevention development
Accident Hazard analysis
And Or Risk assessment
prevention
Competence
Risk assessment And Training Or
development
Risk assessment And Hazard analysis
Risk assessment And Blue collar workers Or Workers
Hazard analysis And Blue collar workers Or Workers
Competence
Hazard analysis And Training Or
development
Risk assessment And Blue collar workers Or Blue collar workers
Cognitive process And Competence
Training Or
development
Cognitive process
And Hazard analysis Or Risk assessment
Cognitive process And Accident prevention Or Occupational Safety
Cognitive process And Occupational Health
Cognitive process And Blue collar workers Or Workers
Effectiveness And Hazard analysis Or Risk assessment
Risk assessment And Dynamic of Hazard
Situational
And Hazard analysis Or Risk assessment
awareness

79
Annex 2. Emerging hazard recognition programs with application to construction

Source: Albert, Alex; Hallowell, Matthew R.; Kleiner, Brian M. Published In: Journal of
Safety, Health & Environmental Research; 2014, Vol. 10 Issue 2, p152-161

 Pre-job safety meeting quality measurement tool evaluates the crew’s hazard
identification capability and communication to create hazard awareness.
 Senior leadership engagement in JSA process is a quantitative measure of the
management’s involvement in the JSA process through resource allocation and
commitment.
 Augmented and interactive virtuality training environment is a computer-based simulation
tool that trains workers to identify hazards using a representative virtual environment.
 Safety situational-awareness training refers to a worker centric program in which various
potential hazards are detailed to the work crew prior to initiating work.
 JSA post-kick-off audit is an evaluation of JSAs after task completion to obtain feedback
on unidentified hazards.
 Hazard identification board is a waterproof board displayed at the work site to
communicate potential hazards as work progresses.
 Precursory visual cues are visual aids such as tapes, signals, signs and LEDs to
communicate hazards to the workforce proactively.
 Physical area hazard simulation is an active exercise by the crew that simulates work to
be done as a way of identifying associated hazards.
 Foreman one-on-one w/employee is a one-on-one walk through the work facility, where
an experienced foreman points to hazards in the environment.
 Video/Photo monitoring and feedback is a continuous feedback process received through
the review of previous work captured as videos or photographs.
 Job safety/hazard analysis is a formal technique that focuses on specific work tasks as a
way of identifying hazards before work is initiated.
 Task demand assessment is an evaluative method in which task difficulty is assessed and
better and efficient work practices are proposed.
 What-if analyses uses a systematic, but loosely structured form of brainstorming sessions
guided by what-if questions.
 Action plan critique is a feedback mechanism involving the critiquing of established plans
to improve implementation work plan.
 Recordkeeping and accident analyses consists in a database that records lessons learned
from past injuries and experiences to avoid recurrence of accidents.
 Safety checklists of work area or construction process to ensure conformance to certain
established criterion.
 Method statement review/Work permitting is an audit of a written work plan elaborating
on work tasks and conditions before a written permit to work is issued.
 Walk-through safety and health audit is an observational method to identify active
hazardous conditions, unsafe behaviour through walk-through sessions.
 Worker-to-worker observation program is a peer-to-peer safety observation program to
provide feedback on worker performance with respect to safety.

80
 Proactive safety alert systems is the incorporation of detection technologies into
equipment that sound an alarm, or is disabled when a hazard is detected.
 Preuse analysis and planning consists of a formal study conducted prior to any process
modification, or the use of new equipment or chemicals in the job site.

81
Annex 3. The Cognitive Processes

The cognitive process (Anderson & Krathwohl, 67-68, 2001)

- Remembering: Retrieve relevant knowledge from long-term memory. It comprises:

(i) Recognizing (e.g. Recognise the characteristics of a welding equipment); and (ii)
Recalling (Recall the reference of a mask for metal fume).

- Understanding: Constructing meaning from oral, written, and graphic messages

through (i) interpreting (e.g. paraphrase a safety instruction); (ii) exemplifying (e.g.
give examples of personal protection equipment); (iii) classifying (e.g. classify
various types of safety gloves): (iv) summarizing (e.g. write the report of an
emergency in a production plant); (v) inferring (infer the principles of fire fighting
from the study of the fire and how it is generated); (vi) comparing (e.g. compare the
quality of safety glasses); and (vii) explaining (e.g. explain the importance of
protection measures against falls from heights).

- Applying: Applying: Carrying out or using a procedure through executing, or

implementing; this process includes: (i) Executing (e.g. carrying out a risk
assessment); (ii) Implementing (e.g. Determine in which situations work at height
should be cancelled).

- Analysing: Breaking down the material into its constituent parts, determining how
the parts relate to one another and to an overall structure or purpose. The following
are used for the analysis process: (i) Differentiating (e.g. distinguish between two
types of equipment for fire extinguishing); (ii) Organizing (e.g. structure information
as part of an accident investigation); and (iii) Attributing (e.g. define the causality of
an accident).

- Evaluating: Making judgments based on criteria and standards through checking and
critiquing. This process includes: (i) checking (e.g. check the status of a process by a
checklist); and (ii) critiquing (e.g. judging which method is most appropriate for the
safety assessment of an industrial plant).

- Creating: Putting elements together to form a coherent or functional whole;

reorganize elements into a new pattern or structure. The action of creating includes:
(i) Generating ideas, or hypotheses for an Observed phenomenon (e.g. production of
sparks as a result of static electricity); (ii) Planning (e.g. planning a new information
system); and (iii) Producing (e.g. produce a new variety of biological pest control in
banana crops).

82
Annex 4. The knowledge dimension levels

The knowledge dimension levels (Forehand 1-9, 2010)

- Metacognitive: Knowledge of cognition in general as well as overall awareness and

knowledge of one's own cognition. The concept of metacognition refers to the ability
of people to reflect on their thought processes and how they learn, through which it
is possible to know and regulate their basic mental processes involved in cognition.
Metacognition comprises: (i) Strategic knowledge (e.g. outlining to plan a job); (ii)
Cognitive tasks (e.g. knowledge of the cognitive demands of work at height); and (iii)
Self-knowledge (e.g. awareness of one's own knowledge level).

- Procedural: How to do something, methods of inquiry, and criteria for using skills,
algorithms, techniques and methods. This type of knowledge includes: (i) Knowledge
of subject-specific skills and algorithms (e.g. handling safety equipment for fall
prevention); (Ii) Knowledge of subject-specific techniques and methods (e.g.
procedure for isolation of hazardous energy); and (iii) Knowledge of criteria for
determining when to use appropriate procedures (e.g. forced ventilation in confined
spaces with presence of explosive gases).

- Conceptual: The interrelationships amongst the basic elements within a larger

structure that enable them to function together. The category includes: (i) Knowledge
of classifications and categories (e.g. kind of hazards); (ii) Knowledge of principles
and generalisations (risk as a result of combining probability and consequences); and
(iii) Knowledge of theories, models and structures (e.g. models of accident causality).

- Factual: The basic elements persons must know to be acquainted with a discipline to
solve problems in it. This group includes: (i) knowledge of terminology (e.g.
technical vocabulary or specific symbols used in safety); and (ii) knowledge of
specific details and elements (e.g. reliable sources of information about kinds of
chemicals).

83
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