Contingent workers in high risk environments

Article Abstract:

Contingent workers, particularly independent contractors and temporaries, are increasingly performing high risk work across many industries. Based on a review of studies conducted in the mining and petrochemical industries, this article identifies the high risk factors associated with the use of contingent workers. The migration of contingent workers from peripheral (low risk) to core (high risk) tasks has been a major factor in increased accident rates. Managers need to reduce accident risks from the use of contingent workers, create on-going relations with a limited set of contractors, orient strangers to the work setting, provide incentives for safe performance, create means for employing firms to monitor both contingent and core worker performance, and promote risk awareness at all organizational levels. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

Safety and security measures, Occupational health and safety, Occupational safety and health, Independent contractors, Temporary employees

---

The trickle-down effect: policy decisions, risky work, and the Challenger tragedy

Article Abstract:

The Challenger disaster cannot be accounted for by reductionist explanations that direct attention only toward individual actors, nor by theories that focus solely on communication failure or the social psychological dynamics of the infamous eve-of-launch teleconference. The cause of the tragedy was rooted in historic organizational and environmental contingencies that preceded the launch decision. By tracing the connection between top policy decisions and decisions by engineers and managers assigned to do risky work, this analysis contradicts conventional understandings about what happened at NASA. As a consequence, this case contains new lessons for both managers and students of organizations. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

Decision-making, Group, Group decision making, Policy sciences, Challenger Space Shuttle Accident, 1986

---

Understanding power in organizations

Article Abstract:

Managers devote too much of their time and energy to making the "right" decisions and too little to figuring out how the decisions they make are actually going to be implemented. A decision itself changes nothing. The key to effective management lies in understanding how organizational change actually occurs. This in turn requires managers to recognize that organizations are essentially systems and structures of power. By learning how to "manage with power," managers will be better able to achieve both their own goals and those of their company. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

Decision-making, Decision making, Management, Power (Philosophy)

Similar abstracts:

• Abstracts: Accounting for perestroika. Understanding global standards. Accounting for China
• Abstracts: Managing organisations in complex environments. Changing approaches to management: from coercion to codetermination
• Abstracts: Taking M. Scott Peck's community building into organisations. Deeper than the quick fix: what a performance
• Abstracts: A model of factors affecting the treatment of disabled individuals in organizations. Narcissism, identity, and legitimacy
• Abstracts: Competitive dynamics of interfirm rivalry. Toward an institutional ecology of organizational founding. Procedural justice in entrepreneur-investor relations

This website is not affiliated with document authors or copyright owners. This page is provided for informational purposes only. Unintentional errors are possible.