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SAGE Journal User Guide

Article 1

Collins, B. L., Lerner, N. D., & Pierman, B. C. (1981). Assessment of workplace safety symbols. Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting, 25(1), 552.

Topics in this article:

• Written signs are commonly used in industrial sites to provide hazard warnings and safety information. The use of safety symbols and pictorials may increase the effectiveness of safety communication, however, because such signs are language-free and because they can be recognized more rapidly and accurately even under some conditions of interference and distraction. The effectiveness of safety symbols critically depends upon the selection.
• A three-phase evaluation of a set of selected workplace symbols was conducted to determine the effectiveness of hazard warnings.

Questions from this article:

1. What are some advantages and disadvantages of using symbols and not words when displaying safety signs in organizations? Under what circumstances can such safety symbols be most effective or ineffective?
2. What are some ways human resource management departments can ensure that the use of symbols are the most appropriate option when displaying safety signs?
3. Who is most responsible (employees, human resource personnel, department managers) for making sure that employees are knowledgeable about safety symbols?

Article 2

Hilyer, B., Leviton, L., Overman, L., & Mukherjee, S. (2000). A union-initiated safety training program leads to improved workplace safety. Labor Studies Journal, 24(4), 53–66.

Topics in this article:

• Workplace safety training programs initiated by unions have gained strength and numbers over the past 10 years. Union-initiated peer training offers a new twist on joint labor–management health and safety programs, which have become an important area of labor–management cooperation. Peer trainers play a major role in the new partnerships, as management learns how effectively workers function as trainers who speak directly to worker interests.
• This article describes a program of cooperation between a large international union, a university labor center, and companies where members of the union developed and taught workplace safety courses. Results of a survey to quantify workplace impact of the training program are reported.

Questions from this article:

1. Do you believe that union involvement in safety issues is more beneficial to the labor–management relationships in organizations? Why or why not?
2. What are some things managers, human resource personnel, and union representatives engage in to improve safety in the workplace?
3. How do you think managers, employees, human resource personnel, union representatives, and OSHA view the recent rise in the development of a variety of joint labor–management cooperative programs designed to encourage their increased participation in process management, worker protection, and safety training?