THE EFFECT OF NEW TRENDS OF THE WORKING ENVIRONMENT ON WORKPLACE RISK AND ITS MODELLING

Year 2009, Volume: 9 Issue: 3, 873 - 887, 01.08.2009

Antonis Targoutzidis Pavlos Karakoltsidis

Abstract

The acceleration of global competition has brought very important changes in
the working environment. Some of these changes, such as increasing part-time,
temporary or self- employment (either virtual or true), intensification of labour
productivity, etc. have a significant impact on workplace risk.
This impact is multilateral and complex, since the changes affect a number of
different features and factors of workplace and its risks. This paper aims to
identify and sort these changes in three categories (changes in production
patterns and tools, changes in size of workplace and changes in employment
patterns) and to explore their impact in workplace through their impact in riskaffecting
factors (greater complexity in the workplace, greater potential for risky
behaviour and more drivers of unconscious undesired behaviour).
The main conclusion is that the approach to risk modelling has to change taking
individual-level factors and individual economic motives more explicitly into
account.

Keywords

New work environment , safety , risk assessment

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