Abstract
Four general discussions come together in this chapter: the workplaces to be examined are each a product of sociohistorical processes; professional and administrative institutional interventions in the workplaces in the name of safety are examined; hypotheses drawn from the sociological theory constructed in Chapter 3 are tested; and to do this, methods and study design discussed in Chapter 4 are called upon.
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Notes
T. Dwyer. 1981. Industrial Accidents and Nightwork in the Manufacturing Sector. Wellington: Department of Labour. It should be noted that this was originally written as a government research report, and for this reason some sensitive data were excluded. A fair amount of the descriptive material was changed to protect the anonymity that was requested by and guaranteed to companies and unions. The original report is a preliminary one, and some of the data gathered and reported are here presented in a different light subsequent to modifications, frequently induced by the research, of the theory. Interviews with staff always included a very early question: “Have you ever had an industrial accident?” which was followed by, “Have any of your workmates ever had an accident?” Starting from such a base anchors the interview in concrete events and not, as do most surveys of safety, in abstract concerns. All interviews obligatorily covered several other questions: what do you think are the most important causes of accidents in this plant? How can accidents be best prevented? Questions were asked pertaining to the individual member, organizational, command, and rewards levels, and their functioning and their roles in accident production. In addition perceptions of intershift differences and of accident causation differences between shifts were solicited. Interviewees were always invited to ask questions of the interviewer and to introduce observations of their own. Throughout the interviews, observational data would be introduced as would data from previous interviews, and this would occur especially where conflicts and differences were perceived. Over 200 people were interviewed giving approximately 900 pages of notes.
The reduction in labor turnover reflected national trends generally attributed to the retraction in the labor market due to national economic difficulties.
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Dwyer, T. (1991). Testing the Sociological Theory. In: Life and Death at Work. Plenum Studies in Work and Industry. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-0606-9_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-0606-9_6
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