racticum training is an integral part of postgraduate organisational psychology training in Australia, yet little is known about the experience of students. This research surveyed current (N = 88) and past (N = 58) students of 10 Australian postgraduate organisational psychology programs. First, we examined the type of practicum activities undertaken; second, we examined attitudes to payment for practicum training; third, we explored determinants of practicum satisfaction and successful preparation for work as an organisational psychologist; and finally, we examined the relationship between practicum training and employment. The findings showed that the most common practicum training areas were selection, training, vocational counselling and performance management. About half of current and past students had been paid for practicum work and most believed they should be paid. For both groups of students, practicum satisfaction was associated with having their work preferences matched and the learning of new skills during practicum training. Other determinants of practicum satisfaction were being involved in the choice of work (current students) and supervisor feedback (past students). For the majority of ex-students practicum led to their current employement as an organisational psychologist. The practical and research implications of these findings are discussed.Postgraduate psychology training programs in Australia adopt a tripartite approach to the development of vocationally specific skills. This approach is based on the guidelines of the Australian Psychological Society (APS) which stipulate that professional training programs (i.e., 5th & 6th year programs) must include three key, interrelated components. First, a program must include coursework on the basic foundations of theory and research in the area of study; second, students are expected to complete a thesis and undertake advanced study in research skills; and third, students are expected to have the opportunity to develop their professional or practical skills by undertaking a number of practicums. In this journal there has been considerable interest and debate about postgraduate clinical and counselling psychology training (e.g.
A rise in perceived workload might partly reflect the need to boost self-esteem. This paper examines whether a decline in autonomy magnifies this need, and thus augments perceived workload, when employees feel detached from their social collectives. In study 1, 205 public servants completed a survey; autonomy was negatively related to perceived workload, especially when cohesion declined. In study 2, these results were replicated with 194 operations workers. In study 3, 164 employees completed a survey, demonstrating that personal belief in a just world was negatively associated with perceived workload when attachment to a social collective declined. Thus, individuals who feel detached from their social context, but experience a limited sense of control, demonstrate cognitive biases that amplify perceived workload.
Introduction The occupational safety literature increasingly focuses on the organizational nature of health and safety performance and the concept of safety culture is widely discussed under this banner. It is now commonly accepted that a strong safety culture is fundamental to an organisation's ability to achieve excellent safety performance. Moreover, research concurs that strong safety leadership, effective supervision and workforce involvement play a critical part in fostering safety culture (e.g. HSE, 1999; HSE 2001; Flin, Mearns, O'Connor & Bryden, 2000; Zohar, 2002). Various approaches have been employed to improve safety culture. A typical approach is to conduct a safety culture diagnosis at the site or organisation level and develop and implement improvement plans based on the results. In such approaches, the improvement plan usually targets a need for change in behaviours and practices at different levels of the organisation. Another common method for enhancing safety culture is interventions that target one occupational level—for example, implementing an observation and feedback program at the workforce level, or a development program at the leadership level. Although these approaches are appropriate in some circumstances, they do not describe the behaviours required at different occupational levels to foster a strong safety culture, nor specify how these behaviours relate to each other and are mutually supportive across different levels of the organisation. Furthermore, such methods do not readily lend themselves to integration into the organisation's safety management and human resource systems. This need is particularly important in light of recent safety research demonstrating that organizational characteristics influence safety climate (Novatsis, 2004; Wallace, Popp & Mondore, 2006), a concept commonly recognised as providing an indicator of the underlying safety culture of a site or organization. In addition, effective human resource systems have been shown to relate positively to safety climate and safety outcomes (Zacharatos, Barling, & Iverson, 2005), suggesting that safety culture improvement initiatives should be linked to broader organisational systems designed to enhance the performance of people. Such an approach provides reinforcement to foster sustainable change. Woodside embraced these lessons and is working toward a holistic and integrated behavioural approach to improve its safety culture, a need apparent through numerous safety performance indicators. This work has involved development of a competency framework for safety behaviour, providing a common language and understanding of safety culture, whilst enabling flexible application across the business. This paper describes the framework, its development, and how it has been introduced at Woodside, with particular focus on integration into the health and safety management and human resource systems.
The contribution of human factors in major accident events is well established and accepted. Organisations are increasingly seeking help on how to best understand and manage human factors issues. This paper describes how Woodside has progressively strengthened its internal human factors capability over the past five years to complement its existing skill set and improve health and safety performance. Woodside began by creating a new role in its health and safety function for an organisational psychologist. The purpose of this role was to deliver a range of human factors projects, increase the profile and knowledge of human factors in the business, as well as provide and guide the use of human factors tools and methods. The first project was on the subject of safety culture and the work scope has progressed to cover a wide range of human factors topics important for high hazard industries. Human factors focal points were also established and these people are given more knowledge and skills on certain topics to provide support at a local level. This capability is supported by a steering group, aligned plans, preferred tools and practices, and human factors competencies. Woodside now has multiple full time human factors advisers, a wide network of human factors focal points, and many human factors "spotters". Improvement in a number of areas has been achieved and a demand and enthusiasm created for using human factors methods to improve all aspects of performance, not just health and safety. This paper will interest organisations wanting to strengthen their internal human factors capability.
Many organisations in the process industries seek to improve how they learn and embed lessons from incidents. Yet we hear less from such organisations on trialling novel learning methods in search of better ways to learn from incidents. This paper describes a project that used an engaging and interactive method to help personnel learn generic lessons from previous isolation incidents. A realistic written scenario was developed based on the common characteristics of previous isolation incidents. The scenario was completed by teams in facilitated workshops. Information about the scenario was progressively revealed, and at each stage participants were asked to identify what they would think and do as the events unfolded. Correct answers were discussed as a group, illustrating potential "holes" in organisational barriers if understanding or application of these barriers was lacking. Evaluation of the approach indicated that the scenario was a more interesting and engaging method of learning from incidents than passive methods such as emails, bulletins, and presentations. This project is being extended to scenarios for lessons from other themes of incidents. Using scenarios to strengthen individual learning impact from incidents is unusual, and can be applied by other organisations seeking a deeper level of learning from incidents.
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