A model for occupational safety and health intervention diffusion to small businesses

Details

• Personal Author:
  Cunningham, Thomas R. ; Schulte, Paul A. ; Sinclair, Raymond C.
• Description:
  BACKGROUND: Smaller businesses differ from their larger counterparts in having higher rates of occupational injuries and illnesses and fewer resources for preventing those losses. Intervention models developed outside the United States have addressed the resource deficiency issue by incorporating intermediary organizations such as trade associations. METHODS: This paper extends previous models by using exchange theory and by borrowing from the diffusion of innovations model. It emphasizes that occupational safety and health (OSH) organizations must understand as much about intermediary organizations as they do about small businesses. OSH organizations ("initiators") must understand how to position interventions and information to intermediaries as added value to their relationships with small businesses. Examples from experiences in two midwestern states are used to illustrate relationships and types of analyses implied by the extended model. RESULTS: The study found that intermediary organizations were highly attuned to providing smaller businesses with what they want, including OSH services. The study also found that there are opinion leader organizations and individual champions within intermediaries who are key to decisions and actions about OSH programming. CONCLUSIONS: The model places more responsibility on both initiators and intermediaries to develop and market interventions that will be valued in the competitive small business environment where the resources required to adopt each new business activity could always be used in other ways. The model is a candidate for empirical validation, and it offers some encouragement that the issue of sustainable OSH assistance to small businesses might be addressed. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Decision Making Mass Behavior Occupational Health Safety Small Business Staff Development Workplace
• Keywords:
  Analytical-models Author Keywords: Small Business Decision-making Disease-prevention Diseases Group-behavior Injuries Injury-prevention Intervention Model Models Occupational-health-programs Occupational-health-services Occupational-safety-programs Occupational Health Occupational Safety Small-businesses Work-environment Work-organization

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• ISSN:
  0271-3586
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Ohio ; OSHA Region 5
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  EID - Education and Information Division
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  56
• Issue:
  12
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20043270
• Citation:
  Am J Ind Med 2013 Dec; 56(12):1442-1451
• Contact Point Address:
  Raymond C. Sinclair, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health,4676 Columbia Parkway, Cincinnati,OH 45226
• Email:
  rsinclair@cdc.gov
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2014
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Source Full Name:
  American Journal of Industrial Medicine
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:a48800cef79bb312f0b4461061e29a0bbfa7ff2015dc0c87b532e8f1ecdbb3a3932211c45d9de98696b7670335f5120315d79b34722cd3bb693a15313761f642
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/195204/cdc_195204_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 367.65 KB ]