Abstract
Accident prevention in industry has been actively promoted by labour and management for many years but only in recent years has the psychological and motivational aspects of accident behaviour been systematically studied. The three ‘E's’, engineering, education and enforcement, have been the bases upon which successful accident-prevention programs have been erected in the past. Our attention is now directed to a fourth ‘E,’ emotions, as we attempt to understand the emotional aspects of accident behaviour, and weave this knowledge into a constructive accident prevention program.
Reference is made to a five-year study conducted by the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, in the general area of mental health in the industrial setting, with a major emphasis on case-finding and early intervention, secondary prevention. This paper is based on data particularly related to occupational accidents.
The results of the study, in general, corroborate much of the work already done in the area of accident behaviour. Accidents are multi-factorial in origin, each employee has a certain accident potential which is variable and dependent upon many internal and external factors. The severity of interpersonal problems, the employee's satisfactions or dissatisfactions, act together with ever-present dangers in his environment, with chance factors to determine the accident potential of an employee at any given point in time.
Accident behaviour is only one of many job-disruptive types of behaviour. Other types are long-term absences, short-term absences, AWOL, work spoilage, grievances, garnishments, and interpersonal and efficiency problems, to mention a few. Our results show an absence of significant correlation between more than one job-disruptive type of behaviour at any given point in time. It is hypothesized that the employee is either moving from one type of job-disruptive behaviour to another or to the problem-free group.
Attention is also given to preventive measures, dealing with the various levels of prevention — primary, secondary and tertiary.