Enhancing the implementation of Occupational Health and Safety interventions through a design of the socio-technical interaction

The Transition from Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Interventions to OSH Outcomes: An Empirical Analysis of Mechanisms and Contextual Factors within Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises

“…Nevertheless, as suggested by Masi et al [ 10 ], the ideal proposed studies for the analysis of the interventions are often not fully exploitable by OSH practitioners during the design of OSH intervention because they do not guide practitioners into a systematic and structured fashion to identify the mechanisms and the contextual factors relevant for a particular OSH intervention. The frameworks limited themselves to providing a generic definition of mechanisms and contextual factors, assuming practitioners will be autonomously able to identify them on the basis of their skills and previous experience.…”

“…Pedersen et al [ 13 ] defined mechanisms as relevant personal characteristics of key actors or interpersonal relations between them. For Masi et al [ 10 ], mechanisms are a “mental state of key actors that are triggered by a program, that vary with changes in the context, and that produce a change in the performance or in the behaviour of the workers”.…”

“…In Legg et al [ 21 ] mechanisms are considered to understand how they influence the OSH programs of governments. Only the study of Masi et al [ 10 ] gives it a complete taxonomy of mechanisms, which was used in this research to identify the results ( Table 2 ). Their research made a practical example of the relation between a mechanism and a contextual factor; it detected that perception of the familiarity with the situation was influenced by the contextual factor layout of the plant.…”

“…Therefore, the overall aim of this research is understanding the mechanisms by which an OSH intervention at the workplace level works or does not work as expected, by adopting the procedure and related taxonomies of mechanisms and contextual factors recently developed by Masi et al [ 10 ]. By means of a questionnaire, several interviews were conducted in enterprises to reach a clear view on interventions and on the related outcomes.…”

“…By means of a questionnaire, several interviews were conducted in enterprises to reach a clear view on interventions and on the related outcomes. The adoption of the structured approach proposed by [ 10 ] claims for better supporting practitioners in the organisation all their knowledge, information and a data in a more systematic way, helping them to better understand the phenomena that take place and thus to improve their capacity of finding new and more effective solutions.…”