Encouraging foot care in people with and without diabetes through narrative communication.

In order to minimize risk of infection and potential foot complications, it is recommended that people with and without diabetes check their feet regularly for problems such as cuts, sores, blisters or calluses. Hence, an understanding of how to craft effective messages to encourage people to check their feet is important. Two studies investigated the use of narrative stories to encourage foot problem detection behaviour; Study 1 in a general population sample (N = 193), and Study 2 in a sample of people with type 1 or type 2 diabetes (N = 129). In both studies participants were randomised to either (a) receive an information sheet written in first-person narrative; (b) the same in non-narrative format; or (c) no information sheet. Changes in weekly detection behaviour was the outcome of interest. In both studies, greater detection behaviour was observed in the narrative message condition vs. non-narrative condition and the non-narrative condition vs. no information condition. Our findings have implications for the design of health messages in delivering effective foot care education to people with and without diabetes, suggesting that narrative information sheets may be more effective than non-narrative information sheets.

Returning the Favor? Feeling Obliged and Reported Participation in Discretionary Safety Activities.

Recent research has shown that the reported participation of employees in voluntary safety activities is related to the prevention of accidents and injuries. Encouraging such participation, then, is beneficial to organizations. A key question, therefore, is why employees should choose to report that they engage in such activities: what is their motivation given such activities are not compulsory? We used social exchange theory (SET) and organizational support theory (OST) to develop a model linking perceived organizational support to reports of safety participation. SET postulates that the benefits given (by an organization) are reciprocated with potential benefits to the giver as a result. OST emphasizes that feeling obliged is a key part of why people reciprocate the perceived support they get from their organization. Voluntary safety activities have the potential to benefit an organization, so for the first time, we test whether there is a link between perceived organizational support and the reported participation of employees in such activities, and whether the relationship is mediated by felt obligation. We also test whether another key SET motivation to reciprocate, the anticipated reward, is involved in mediating the relationship. A structural equation model with a sample of 536 workers from a Belgian public company, involved in the production and distribution of safe drinking water and in waste water treatment, supported the hypotheses of the authors. The model showed that felt obligation mediated the relationship between perceived organizational support and safety participation reports, and that the anticipatory reward, in the form of perceptions that management was committed to safety, also mediated the relationship between perceived organizational support and safety participation reports. These processes were shown to be separable from employee job engagement and employee perspectives on whether or not voluntary safety activities were part of their job. The findings add to the understanding of why employees choose reported participation in voluntary safety behaviors and also, add to the literature on OST by demonstrating for the first time the involvement of felt obligation and perceived management commitment to safety as mediators between outcomes and perceived organizational support.

Personality and safety citizenship: the role of safety motivation and safety knowledge.

Safety citizenship behaviors (SCB) have never been classified following the intended beneficiary of these behaviors. The first aim of this study was to examine Hofmann et al. (2003)'s SCB items in an attempt to identify two dimensions: SCB oriented towards individuals (SCB-I) and SCB oriented towards the organization (SCB-O). Further, by drawing on Christian et al. (2009)'s model of safety performance, we examined how distal (i.e. personality) and proximal (i.e. safety motivation and knowledge) person-related factors are associated with these behaviors. Structural equation modelling realized on a sample of 290 workers from a Belgian pharmaceutical company showed that the broader conscientiousness trait was related to both SCB-I and SCB-O, indirectly through safety motivation and knowledge, as would be predicted by Christian et al. In contrast, the altruism facet was directly related to SCB-I only. Results are discussed and practical implications considered.

Perceived organizational support for safety and employee safety voice: the mediating role of coworker support for safety.

In the present study, we modeled 2 sources of safety support (perceived organizational support for safety and perceived coworker support for safety) as predictors of employee safety voice, that is, speaking out in an attempt to change unsafe working conditions. Drawing on social exchange and social impact theories, we hypothesized and tested a mediated model predicting employee safety voice using a cross-sectional survey of urban bus drivers (n = 213) in the United Kingdom. Hierarchical regression analysis showed that perceived coworker support for safety fully mediated the relationship between perceived organizational support for safety and employee safety voice. This study adds to the employee voice literature by evaluating the important role that coworkers can play in encouraging others to speak out about safety issues. Implications for research and practice related to change-oriented safety communication are discussed.

Foot care, 'spousal' support and type 2 diabetes: an exploratory qualitative study.

OBJECTIVES: People with type 2 diabetes (T2DM) should check their feet and protect them against harm, but few do. Living with a spouse contributes to good foot care behaviour. This study explores awareness, perceived susceptibility of, and concern about, foot problems, and reported foot care behaviour, and ways in which a spouse may or may not contribute to foot care in T2DM. METHODS: 1:1 interviews were conducted with 6 individuals with T2DM. Half had a spouse half did not. There was one person at low, medium and high risk in each sample. Each spouse participated in a separate interview, and the dyads were interviewed together. Interviews were analysed using Applied Thematic Analysis. RESULTS: All participants knew that diabetes was associated with foot problems. Not all people with T2DM thought that they were susceptible; spouses perceived greater susceptibility for the patient. This was unrelated to risk level. Most people with T2DM and all spouses engaged in behaviour to identify problems or protect feet, but rarely both. Spouses' attitude and behaviour did influence the patients' own behaviour. At times spouse support was perceived positively, and at times negatively. CONCLUSION: Engaging spouses in foot care education may improve foot care behaviour.

Railing for safety: job demands, job control, and safety citizenship role definition.

This study investigated job demands and job control as predictors of safety citizenship role definition, that is, employees' role orientation toward improving workplace safety. Data from a survey of 334 trackside workers were framed in the context of R. A. Karasek's (1979) job demands-control model. High job demands were negatively related to safety citizenship role definition, whereas high job control was positively related to this construct. Safety citizenship role definition of employees with high job control was buffered from the influence of high job demands, unlike that of employees with low job control, for whom high job demands were related to lower levels of the construct. Employees facing both high job demands and low job control were less likely than other employees to view improving safety as part of their role orientation.

Safety behavior: Job demands, job resources, and perceived management commitment to safety.

The job demands-resources model posits that job demands and resources influence outcomes through job strain and work engagement processes. We test whether the model can be extended to effort-related "routine" safety violations and "situational" safety violations provoked by the organization. In addition we test more directly the involvement of job strain than previous studies which have used burnout measures. Structural equation modeling provided, for the first time, evidence of predicted relationships between job strain and "routine" violations and work engagement with "routine" and "situational" violations, thereby supporting the extension of the job demands-resources model to safety behaviors. In addition our results showed that a key safety-specific construct 'perceived management commitment to safety' added to the explanatory power of the job demands-resources model. A predicted path from job resources to perceived management commitment to safety was highly significant, supporting the view that job resources can influence safety behavior through both general motivational involvement in work (work engagement) and through safety-specific processes.

Life on the line: Job demands, perceived co-worker support for safety, and hazardous work events.

The present study of 334 United Kingdom trackside workers tested an interaction hypothesis. We hypothesized, drawing on the job demands-resources framework, that perceived support for safety (from senior managers, supervisors, and coworkers) as job resources would weaken the relationship between higher job demands and more frequent hazardous work events. Consistent with social impact theory, we predicted that perceived coworker support for safety would be particularly influential when trackside workers faced higher job demands. Moderated multiple regression showed that, of all three sources of perceived support for safety, perceived coworker support for safety was most important for keeping employees safe in the face of high job demands.