Gemma Hicks - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Gemma Hicks
The low standard of occupational safety in China is an issue of human rights and is an ethical co... more The low standard of occupational safety in China is an issue of human rights and is an ethical concern at an international level. No country in history has industrialised at the same rate as China has over the past 20 years. This focus on production is reflected not only in the national culture, but also the organisational culture of Chinese businesses. Whilst it is important to appreciate China's developmental goals, it is necessary to achieve more balance between production and safety. This paper presents a review of occupational safety combining the research conducted in developed countries with the state of occupational safety in China. As a result of this review, it is argued that whilst a focus on legislation, regulation, and technology are vital, so to is the development of an understanding of safety culture and safety climate at the national and organisational level in China. The literature reviewed in this paper suggests that while China recognises the importance of such concepts their research agenda does not support such a focus.
I'm 20 and he’s 21, I say “I’m not sure if I want to get a real job. I like uni.” He looks at... more I'm 20 and he’s 21, I say “I’m not sure if I want to get a real job. I like uni.” He looks at me puzzled. I’m 21 and he’s 22, “I’ve decided to do my honours! I’ll have a better chance of getting a good graduate position, and it’s only an extra year.” I’m 22 and he’s 23 and I say “I got an RTS place to do my PhD, but I didn’t get a postgraduate award. We’re going to be a bit broke, we’ll be OK.” I’m 23 and he’s 24, we’re sitting on the back steps at home, it’s Friday night, empty bottle of wine and I’m sad, confused and tired, he has to be sick of hearing about my PhD. I say “I don’t want to do this anymore, it’s too hard. I want a real job with normal hours and regular money.” He looks at me puzzled “But that’s the sort of job you never wanted.” I say, “You’ve got no idea what this is like.” I snarl at him and go to bed. Then things get better and I’m glad I’m at uni. I own my work! I work for me! And then this, “Hi Everyone … Just letting you all know that I finish work tomorro...
Whilst a large portion of contemporary occupational safety research is focused on understanding s... more Whilst a large portion of contemporary occupational safety research is focused on understanding safety culture and safety climate as antecedents of unsafe behaviour, there is very little research that explores the barriers to the achievement of a positive safety culture or climate. Additionally, there is a paucity of research in the field of organisational safety that utilises qualitative research methodologies. This paper presents some of the results from semi-structured interviews conducted with 120 managers and occupational health and safety professionals working within one organisation. The organisation was in the process of introducing and implementing an occupational safety strategy aimed at decreasing injury and accident rates through the improvement of organisational safety culture and safety climate. Whilst a range of important themes emerged from the interview transcripts, this paper focuses on the barriers to the improvement of organisational safety as identified by the p...
This paper aims to explore the relationship between psychological climate, safety climate and saf... more This paper aims to explore the relationship between psychological climate, safety climate and safety performance. Safety research is increasingly expanding from a central focus on safety specific explanations of safety performance, to encompass more general management principles (e.g. leadership, role stress, and performance management). This research aims to contribute to this body by exploring the way in which psychological climate can be used to explain safety performance. This paper compares the fit of three competing models of safety performance using structural equation modelling. In the first model safety performance is predict by safety climate only, in the second by psychological climate only and the third is a saturated model using both safety and psychological climate. Comparison of the models revealed that the saturated model provides a better and more parsimonious explanation of safety performance than safety climate alone.
Within the field of management and organisational behaviour research, the climate concept is rela... more Within the field of management and organisational behaviour research, the climate concept is relatively common. Despite its presence in the literature, however, at times it is poorly defined, particularly in terms of the distinction between psychological climate and organisational climate. Further, there is ongoing discussion in the literature regarding the content of the climate construct and whether it is best conceptualised as multidimensional or a single higher order factor. This paper seeks to address these major issues through discussing two questions associated with the psychological climate literature. The first question is what is psychological climate? The second research question is what does psychological climate look like? The first question is addressed through a review of the current literature in the field. The second question is addressed through the results of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses conducted on psychological climate data gathered from 739 emp...
Journal of human ergology, 2001
The study examined the impact of family type on the timing and duration of sleep of 16 experience... more The study examined the impact of family type on the timing and duration of sleep of 16 experienced female shiftworkers working a rotating 3-shift roster. The nurses lived in one of three domestic lifestyle arrangements: single with no child care responsibilities (N = 4), partnered with no child care responsibilities (N = 5) and partnered with child care responsibilities (N = 7). Self report sleep diaries were used to collect data over a period of 28 days, following which each nurse took part in a conversational interview. Comparisons of the roster mean sleep durations between groups show that nurses who do not have the added unwaged workload of child care, record significantly more sleep than nurses with such responsibilities. Analysis of the data by shift type shows a significant difference for afternoon shift: nurses with child care responsibilities record a significantly earlier rise time and a significantly shorter total sleep duration. The interview data further highlights how ...
Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, 2012
The psychological approach to occupational safety is comprised of two perspectives, the behaviour... more The psychological approach to occupational safety is comprised of two perspectives, the behaviourbased perspective and the person-based perspective. These two perspectives are typically applied separately in research, leaving gaps in the explanation of safety-related behaviour. In this paper, we argue that an integrated approach to occupational safety is required and that Bandura's social cognitive theory can be used to address this need. The paper is conceptual, integrating several bodies of literature and theoretical approaches to safety-related behaviour.
Contemporary Nurse, 2002
This study of female nurses working a continuous 3-shift roster found that the average sleep dura... more This study of female nurses working a continuous 3-shift roster found that the average sleep duration per 24-hours across the roster is almost one hour less for nurses who combine shiftwork, partner and parent roles. In particular, they are not free to use the later starting afternoon shift as an opportunity to repay the sleep debt incurred on night shift. The results show an interaction between work and family roles resulting in chronic fatigue that is a risk factor especially when combined with the acute fatigue associated with night work. The sleep record data is supported by interview data which highlight shiftwork as a stressor that reduces the opportunity for participation in social and leisure activities by all three of the groups studied: single, partnered and partnered with children. The strain of shiftwork on personal and social relationships reduces the resources available for coping with the emotional and physical stressors encountered by nurses in their work and family roles.
China Information, 2010
The improvement of health and safety standards within the organizational context is an important ... more The improvement of health and safety standards within the organizational context is an important issue of global concern. China’s occupational health and safety (OHS) has increasingly drawn national and international attention as it has not kept pace with its globalization of production and trade. The traditional approach to managing workplace safety in China has focused on the technical aspects of engineering systems and processes, and it has attributed the majority of workplace accidents and injuries to unsafe working conditions instead of the unsafe work practices of employees. However, there has been a fundamental shift in the safety management research carried out in many countries and across diverse industries, which aims to measure the impact of attitudinal, organizational, cultural, and social dimensions on occupational safety. This article examines the relationship between safety climate and safety-related behavior in the Chinese context and draws implications for the manag...
Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, 2005
This paper aims to explore the relationship between larger organisational factors, specifically r... more This paper aims to explore the relationship between larger organisational factors, specifically role stress and safety outcomes specifically, safety climate and safety performance. The purpose of this research is to expand our understanding of the 'human factor' in organisational ...
The low standard of occupational safety in China is an issue of human rights and is an ethical co... more The low standard of occupational safety in China is an issue of human rights and is an ethical concern at an international level. No country in history has industrialised at the same rate as China has over the past 20 years. This focus on production is reflected not only in the national culture, but also the organisational culture of Chinese businesses. Whilst it is important to appreciate China's developmental goals, it is necessary to achieve more balance between production and protection. In this paper it is argued that whilst a focus on legislation, regulation, and technology are vital, so to is the development of an understanding of safety culture and safety climate at the national and organisational level in China.
Journal of Management & Organization, 2015
The purpose of this study is to employ Koeske and Koeske’s stressor-strain-outcome model of stres... more The purpose of this study is to employ Koeske and Koeske’s stressor-strain-outcome model of stress to examine the extent to which strain, a central component of occupational stress, mediates the relationship between safety climate and safety-related outcomes. The relationship between safety climate, strain and safety outcomes has been relatively under tested where strain is a mediating variable. This study makes a contribution to the literature by examining the dynamics of these relationships. Questionnaires were sent to 1,800 employees of an electricity provider, with a 41.4% response rate. The hypothesized model was tested using structural equation modeling. Analysis of the hypothesized model indicated that, while safety climate had a significant direct relationship with safety-related behaviors, the model was also partially mediated by the experience of strain. Understanding the relationship between safety climate, strain and safety outcomes is important. Support for the model ve...
The low standard of occupational safety in China is an issue of human rights and is an ethical co... more The low standard of occupational safety in China is an issue of human rights and is an ethical concern at an international level. No country in history has industrialised at the same rate as China has over the past 20 years. This focus on production is reflected not only in the national culture, but also the organisational culture of Chinese businesses. Whilst it is important to appreciate China's developmental goals, it is necessary to achieve more balance between production and safety. This paper presents a review of occupational safety combining the research conducted in developed countries with the state of occupational safety in China. As a result of this review, it is argued that whilst a focus on legislation, regulation, and technology are vital, so to is the development of an understanding of safety culture and safety climate at the national and organisational level in China. The literature reviewed in this paper suggests that while China recognises the importance of such concepts their research agenda does not support such a focus.
I'm 20 and he’s 21, I say “I’m not sure if I want to get a real job. I like uni.” He looks at... more I'm 20 and he’s 21, I say “I’m not sure if I want to get a real job. I like uni.” He looks at me puzzled. I’m 21 and he’s 22, “I’ve decided to do my honours! I’ll have a better chance of getting a good graduate position, and it’s only an extra year.” I’m 22 and he’s 23 and I say “I got an RTS place to do my PhD, but I didn’t get a postgraduate award. We’re going to be a bit broke, we’ll be OK.” I’m 23 and he’s 24, we’re sitting on the back steps at home, it’s Friday night, empty bottle of wine and I’m sad, confused and tired, he has to be sick of hearing about my PhD. I say “I don’t want to do this anymore, it’s too hard. I want a real job with normal hours and regular money.” He looks at me puzzled “But that’s the sort of job you never wanted.” I say, “You’ve got no idea what this is like.” I snarl at him and go to bed. Then things get better and I’m glad I’m at uni. I own my work! I work for me! And then this, “Hi Everyone … Just letting you all know that I finish work tomorro...
Whilst a large portion of contemporary occupational safety research is focused on understanding s... more Whilst a large portion of contemporary occupational safety research is focused on understanding safety culture and safety climate as antecedents of unsafe behaviour, there is very little research that explores the barriers to the achievement of a positive safety culture or climate. Additionally, there is a paucity of research in the field of organisational safety that utilises qualitative research methodologies. This paper presents some of the results from semi-structured interviews conducted with 120 managers and occupational health and safety professionals working within one organisation. The organisation was in the process of introducing and implementing an occupational safety strategy aimed at decreasing injury and accident rates through the improvement of organisational safety culture and safety climate. Whilst a range of important themes emerged from the interview transcripts, this paper focuses on the barriers to the improvement of organisational safety as identified by the p...
This paper aims to explore the relationship between psychological climate, safety climate and saf... more This paper aims to explore the relationship between psychological climate, safety climate and safety performance. Safety research is increasingly expanding from a central focus on safety specific explanations of safety performance, to encompass more general management principles (e.g. leadership, role stress, and performance management). This research aims to contribute to this body by exploring the way in which psychological climate can be used to explain safety performance. This paper compares the fit of three competing models of safety performance using structural equation modelling. In the first model safety performance is predict by safety climate only, in the second by psychological climate only and the third is a saturated model using both safety and psychological climate. Comparison of the models revealed that the saturated model provides a better and more parsimonious explanation of safety performance than safety climate alone.
Within the field of management and organisational behaviour research, the climate concept is rela... more Within the field of management and organisational behaviour research, the climate concept is relatively common. Despite its presence in the literature, however, at times it is poorly defined, particularly in terms of the distinction between psychological climate and organisational climate. Further, there is ongoing discussion in the literature regarding the content of the climate construct and whether it is best conceptualised as multidimensional or a single higher order factor. This paper seeks to address these major issues through discussing two questions associated with the psychological climate literature. The first question is what is psychological climate? The second research question is what does psychological climate look like? The first question is addressed through a review of the current literature in the field. The second question is addressed through the results of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses conducted on psychological climate data gathered from 739 emp...
Journal of human ergology, 2001
The study examined the impact of family type on the timing and duration of sleep of 16 experience... more The study examined the impact of family type on the timing and duration of sleep of 16 experienced female shiftworkers working a rotating 3-shift roster. The nurses lived in one of three domestic lifestyle arrangements: single with no child care responsibilities (N = 4), partnered with no child care responsibilities (N = 5) and partnered with child care responsibilities (N = 7). Self report sleep diaries were used to collect data over a period of 28 days, following which each nurse took part in a conversational interview. Comparisons of the roster mean sleep durations between groups show that nurses who do not have the added unwaged workload of child care, record significantly more sleep than nurses with such responsibilities. Analysis of the data by shift type shows a significant difference for afternoon shift: nurses with child care responsibilities record a significantly earlier rise time and a significantly shorter total sleep duration. The interview data further highlights how ...
Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, 2012
The psychological approach to occupational safety is comprised of two perspectives, the behaviour... more The psychological approach to occupational safety is comprised of two perspectives, the behaviourbased perspective and the person-based perspective. These two perspectives are typically applied separately in research, leaving gaps in the explanation of safety-related behaviour. In this paper, we argue that an integrated approach to occupational safety is required and that Bandura's social cognitive theory can be used to address this need. The paper is conceptual, integrating several bodies of literature and theoretical approaches to safety-related behaviour.
Contemporary Nurse, 2002
This study of female nurses working a continuous 3-shift roster found that the average sleep dura... more This study of female nurses working a continuous 3-shift roster found that the average sleep duration per 24-hours across the roster is almost one hour less for nurses who combine shiftwork, partner and parent roles. In particular, they are not free to use the later starting afternoon shift as an opportunity to repay the sleep debt incurred on night shift. The results show an interaction between work and family roles resulting in chronic fatigue that is a risk factor especially when combined with the acute fatigue associated with night work. The sleep record data is supported by interview data which highlight shiftwork as a stressor that reduces the opportunity for participation in social and leisure activities by all three of the groups studied: single, partnered and partnered with children. The strain of shiftwork on personal and social relationships reduces the resources available for coping with the emotional and physical stressors encountered by nurses in their work and family roles.
China Information, 2010
The improvement of health and safety standards within the organizational context is an important ... more The improvement of health and safety standards within the organizational context is an important issue of global concern. China’s occupational health and safety (OHS) has increasingly drawn national and international attention as it has not kept pace with its globalization of production and trade. The traditional approach to managing workplace safety in China has focused on the technical aspects of engineering systems and processes, and it has attributed the majority of workplace accidents and injuries to unsafe working conditions instead of the unsafe work practices of employees. However, there has been a fundamental shift in the safety management research carried out in many countries and across diverse industries, which aims to measure the impact of attitudinal, organizational, cultural, and social dimensions on occupational safety. This article examines the relationship between safety climate and safety-related behavior in the Chinese context and draws implications for the manag...
Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, 2005
This paper aims to explore the relationship between larger organisational factors, specifically r... more This paper aims to explore the relationship between larger organisational factors, specifically role stress and safety outcomes specifically, safety climate and safety performance. The purpose of this research is to expand our understanding of the 'human factor' in organisational ...
The low standard of occupational safety in China is an issue of human rights and is an ethical co... more The low standard of occupational safety in China is an issue of human rights and is an ethical concern at an international level. No country in history has industrialised at the same rate as China has over the past 20 years. This focus on production is reflected not only in the national culture, but also the organisational culture of Chinese businesses. Whilst it is important to appreciate China's developmental goals, it is necessary to achieve more balance between production and protection. In this paper it is argued that whilst a focus on legislation, regulation, and technology are vital, so to is the development of an understanding of safety culture and safety climate at the national and organisational level in China.
Journal of Management & Organization, 2015
The purpose of this study is to employ Koeske and Koeske’s stressor-strain-outcome model of stres... more The purpose of this study is to employ Koeske and Koeske’s stressor-strain-outcome model of stress to examine the extent to which strain, a central component of occupational stress, mediates the relationship between safety climate and safety-related outcomes. The relationship between safety climate, strain and safety outcomes has been relatively under tested where strain is a mediating variable. This study makes a contribution to the literature by examining the dynamics of these relationships. Questionnaires were sent to 1,800 employees of an electricity provider, with a 41.4% response rate. The hypothesized model was tested using structural equation modeling. Analysis of the hypothesized model indicated that, while safety climate had a significant direct relationship with safety-related behaviors, the model was also partially mediated by the experience of strain. Understanding the relationship between safety climate, strain and safety outcomes is important. Support for the model ve...