Journal articles on the topic 'Behavioral psychology|Management|Occupational psychology'

BackgroundApproximately half of MS patients (pwMS) experience cognitive impairments including domains such as memory, concentrations, executive functions, which can be exacerbated by mood disturbances and fatigue. NICE guidelines (CG168) recommend proactive identification of cognitive symptoms, assessment and referral to neuropsychology services or occupational therapy.AimTo assess the local departmental MS service with regards to diagnosis and management of cognitive and behavioural symptoms.MethodWe conducted a retrospective audit of pwMS attending the specialist MS clinic since March 2017. Records were reviewed for documented evidence of: a discussion about cognitive and behavioural changes; use of assessment tools; management; referral. Data was also collected on demographics, presence of comorbidities, use of disease modifying therapy, and cognition-modulating medication.Results69% of pwMS demonstrated cognitive or behavioural symptoms including: fatigue (71%), poor memory (28%), depression, sleep disturbance, and concentration difficulties. Almost half expressed multiple symptoms. 47% of patients were referred for further management with OT, psychology services, or counselling.ConclusionThis study highlights the ongoing need for greater focus on identification of cognitive and behavioural symptoms in the MS population. Furthermore, simple assessment tools such as questionnaires should be considered within the clinic for monitoring cognitive symptoms and response to intervention.

We conducted a comprehensive review of empirical research related to frontline service employees over the past four decades (1980-2020). Utilizing a bibliometric mapping approach, we identified 630 relevant articles appearing in service, management, marketing, and applied/occupational health psychology journals. Our analysis identified five distinct research clusters: (a) collective predictors and effects, (b) services encounters, (c) emotional regulation and management, (d) customer orientation, and (e) service stress and strain. In this article, we describe the nature of current research within each of these clusters and identify future directions within and across different clusters for scholarly work. Our review highlights the conceptual and methodological richness within the clusters and calls out for interdisciplinary scholarship to build a diverse, yet unified field of service work research.

Many workers experience their jobs as effortful or even stressful, which can result in strain. Although recovery from work would be an adaptive strategy to prevent the adverse effects of work-related strain, many workers face problems finding enough time to rest and to mentally disconnect from work during nonwork time. What goes on in workers’ minds after a stressful workday? What is it about their jobs that makes them think about their work? This special issue aims to bridge the gap between research on recovery processes mainly examined in Occupational Health Psychology, and research on work stress and working hours, often investigated in the field of Human Resource Management. We first summarize conceptual and theoretical streams from both fields of research. In the following, we discuss the contributions of the five special issue papers and conclude with key messages and directions for further research.

This investigation examined nurses' intentions to leave their profession in response to problems related to occupational stress in a national sample of hospital nurses. The majority of the 283 nurse respondents were RNs, most worked the day shift, and the mean length of practice was 15–4 yr. Occupational stress was assessed on the Nurse Stress Inventory, which assesses eight factors: Professional Distress, Patient Care and Motivation, Time and Workload Management, Personal Time Disruptions, Emotional Manifestations, Behavioral Manifestations, Fatigue Manifestations, and Physiological Manifestations. Subscale scores were summed and averaged to derive a Total Stress Score. Each of nine group analyses of variance indicated significantly stronger stress for leavers than for stayers. Six of ten nurses indicated an intention to leave the profession.

Nonaversive behavior management is an approach to supporting people with undesirable behaviors that integrates technology and values. Although this approach has attracted numerous proponents, more adequate definition and empirical documentation are still needed. This article presents an introduction to the nonaversive approach. Important definitions are suggested, and three fundamental elements are presented: (a) an emerging set of procedures for supporting people with severe challenging behavior; (b) social validation criteria emphasizing personal dignity; and (c) a recommendation for prohibition or restriction of certain strategies. These elements are defined in hopes of stimulating further discussion and empirical analyses of positive behavioral support.

Purpose This meta-analysis aims to verify the efficacy of occupational health and safety (OHS) training in terms of knowledge, attitude and beliefs, behavior and health. Design/methodology/approach The authors included studies published in English (2007–2014) selected from ten databases. Eligibility criteria were studies concerned with the effectiveness of OHS training for primary prevention of workplace injury; and studies focused on examined outcome related to OHS. Findings The selected studies (n = 28) highlighted a strong support for the effectiveness of training on worker OHS attitudes and beliefs and, to a lesser extent, on worker’s knowledge but only medium for behavior and small evidences for its effectiveness on health. Research limitations/implications Future research should more deeply investigate the efficacy on knowledge increase of trainings delivered by experts and researchers, applying different methods, in a small group; training delivered by peer and by researcher, applying different methods; and trained workers less than 29 years and more than 49 years old, considering that workers in these age groups are particularly vulnerable to fatalities. Practical implications Our study is a contribution for those they intend to grant effective training, in response to specific needs of OHS. The evidences presented could be considered a first step to identify the factors related to the efficacy of OHS training to plan adequate interventions. Social implications The OHS training is effective on the basis of the extent interventions are carried out for each specific learning outcome. Originality/value This meta-analysis suggested that classroom training, although the most used and studied, does not ever revealed itself very effective: it was not significant for outcomes in terms of knowledge and showed a decreasing efficacy for attitudes and beliefs, behaviors and health. It seemed that there was a distinction between interventions on knowledge, attitudes and beliefs, as opposed to behavioral interventions and health.

Objective We aimed to identify opportunities for application of human factors knowledge base to mitigate disaster management (DM) challenges associated with the unique characteristics of the COVID-19 pandemic. Background The role of DM is to minimize and prevent further spread of the contagion over an extended period of time. This requires addressing large-scale logistics, coordination, and specialized training needs. However, DM-related challenges during the pandemic response and recovery are significantly different than with other kinds of disasters. Method An expert review was conducted to document issues relevant to human factors and ergonomics (HFE) in DM. Results The response to the COVID-19 crisis has presented complex and unique challenges to DM and public health practitioners. Compared to other disasters and previous pandemics, the COVID-19 outbreak has had an unprecedented scale, magnitude, and propagation rate. The high technical complexity of response and DM coupled with lack of mental model and expertise to respond to such a unique disaster has seriously challenged the response work systems. Recent research has investigated the role of HFE in modeling DM systems’ characteristics to improve resilience, accelerating emergency management expertise, developing agile training methods to facilitate dynamically changing response, improving communication and coordination among system elements, mitigating occupational hazards including guidelines for the design of personal protective equipment, and improving procedures to enhance efficiency and effectiveness of response efforts. Conclusion This short review highlights the potential for the field’s contribution to proactive and resilient DM for the ongoing and future pandemics.

Purpose – Extant research has shown the positive effects of value congruence on individual attitudes, behaviors and performance. However, very few studies have been conducted to examine the difference in the relationship between value congruence and attitudinal outcomes across people of different attributes. The purpose of this paper is to examine how the relationships between employee-organization value congruence and job attitudes vary across different occupational groups, with the focus on different levels of nurses. The study provides evidence to organizations to adopt better approaches to harness the benefit from employees’ spontaneous work motivation. Design/methodology/approach – Nursing homes provide a unique research context because of the different nursing occupations with varying degree of identifying characteristics including educational attainment, skill level, income and decision-making power. The present study thus examines how the relationships between nurses-home value congruence and nurses’ job attitudes vary across different nursing occupations, instrumented by a survey of nursing staff of nursing homes in a Midwestern state in the USA. Findings – Consistent with prior research, value congruence is found positively associated with nurses’ job satisfaction and organizational commitment, but negatively with turnover intention. Consistent with the “diminishing marginal effect” argument, the relationships between value congruence and job satisfaction and organizational commitment are found more pronounced among nurses of lower occupational level. Originality/value – The extant literature does not explicitly compare the effect of within-occupation value congruence on various attitudinal and behavioral outcomes across different occupations. As values have individual and social foundations, in a specific workplace context, it is impractical, if not impossible, to gain a comprehensive view of employees’ value profile and work-related consequences without looking further into the differences across types of employee. Although without sufficient existing literature to compare to, the present study does provide consistent results with theoretical predictions, and display a relatively clear picture of how the relationships between value congruence and job attitudes are unwrapped along the occupational dimension.

Abstract. While previous research has examined the consequences of emotional regulation, less research has focused on genuine emotional expressions in the workplace. Two theoretically grounded, yet opposing, hypotheses were tested in a diverse sample of 103 service employees. It was proposed that autonomy could either (a) enhance the number of genuine negative emotional displays in irritable employees, consistent with the behavioral concordance model, or (b) reduce the number of these displays, consistent with the limited capacity model of self-regulation. Moderated hierarchical regression analyses supported the latter hypothesis. For employees with an irritable disposition, autonomy appears to serve as a buffer against job demands, reducing negative emotional expressions. The occupational health implications of a research focus on genuine emotional displays are discussed.

A new research stream in the field of leadership that has been linked to managerial ethics is servant leadership. The present study investigated the psychometric properties of a German version of the multidimensional Servant Leadership Survey (SLS) developed by Van Dierendonck and Nuijten (2011) . Based on ratings by 533 participants from various branches of business, results from a confirmatory analysis demonstrated that the translated instrument had adequate factorial validity. In terms of content validity, results showed that servant leadership was related to other relevant leadership measures such as transformational leadership and ethical leadership. Evidence for criterion-related validity was based on findings relating servant leadership to leader-member exchange as well as positive work-related attitudes and behavioral orientations such as job satisfaction, affective commitment, and organizational citizenship behaviors. Moreover, servant leadership was found to be related to important self-constructs of the followers including occupational self-efficacy and organization-based self-esteem. Overall, the results suggest that the translated servant leadership instrument represents a valid and reliable measure that can be used in the area of leadership research with German-speaking samples.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to expand the nomological network of a relational efficacy construct, transpersonal efficacy, and examine its effect on attitudes and behaviors important for team performance. The authors identify several antecedents to transpersonal efficacy, including task interdependence, agreeableness and conscientiousness. The authors also find that transpersonal efficacy is related to relational attitudes and behaviors in teams.Design/methodology/approachThis study consists of an online cross-sectional survey completed by participants representing a wide range of occupations, team types, contexts and industries. Participants reported on their working relationships with team members and various behavioral outcomes. Participants used the Occupational Information Network (O*NET) to describe their teammates’ job requirements and to evaluate each teammate’s ability to complete required tasks. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling were used to test hypotheses.FindingsFindings suggest that people in highly interdependent teams have more confidence in their teammates. Further, transpersonal efficacy predicts relationship, task and process conflict when controlling for team task interdependence and virtualness, along with individual differences including agreeableness and conscientiousness. Transpersonal efficacy also contributes to the prediction of relationship conflict beyond the explained variance of collective efficacy.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to our understanding of individuals in teams by using social cognitive theory, expectancy theory and uncertainty reduction theory as a base for predicting the value of transpersonal efficacy in driving relational team behaviors. The authors uniquely consider efficacy as an interpersonal construct that is related to individual behaviors and attitudes that target specific teammates, rather than the team as a whole.

Purpose With employees’ support of organizational changes being vital for today’s organizations, the purpose of this paper is to enhance the understanding of how organizational commitment is linked to change-supportive intentions. Based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB, Ajzen, 1991), mediated effects of affective organizational commitment were empirically tested to explore the underlying psychological processes. Design/methodology/approach The study was conducted in the context of a complex change process at a production facility of a large international manufacturing company (n=667). Data from the change survey were analyzed employing Hayes’ (2012) PROCESS macro. Findings The results showed that organizational commitment relates to change-supportive intentions directly and, as suggested by the TPB, its effects are mediated via change-related attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control. Furthermore, results suggest additional effects of change recipients’ age and occupational status. Practical implications Employing the TPB offers specific insights for tailored interventions to create conditions facilitating organizational changes. The results indicate that commitment lays the ground for employees’ change reactions. Moreover, the psychological processes suggested by the TPB serve as additional levers for explaining change-supportive intentions. Originality/value The study provides valuable information on the relationship between commitment and change-supportive intentions. Specifically, affective organizational commitment is shown to be an important resource in times of change, as it relates to more positive psychological reactions to change.

Introduction. The expansion of infocommunication and digital technologies, the uncertainty of professional future and accelerated changes in the social and professional future of a modern man and the radical transformation of socio-professional environment require qualitative changes in the Russian education, revision of its methodology, content and technologies of training for the postindustrial economy. Today, “work in the specialty” is increasingly losing its importance, hard professional knowledge and hard skills are not decisive in the professional development and building of a successful career. Flexible, soft skills are becoming increasingly required. Soft skills allow a person to be successful regardless of the specifics of the activity and the direction in which he or she works. However, educational programmes, developed on the basis of Federal State Standards, continue to be currently directed by “mass production” and “conveyor production”, which is contrary to objective requirements of the labour market and students’ requirements.The aim of the present research is the development and theoretical-methodological justification of an innovative educational model of socio-professional development of a student personality. The introduction of this model into the practice of universities and secondary vocational educational institutions will allow the graduates to realise their potential in new realities through the formed transprofessional qualities and extraprofessional competencies.Methodology and research methods. Methodological framework of the research is based on the concept of subject-activity approach, according to which the personality is considered as an active, self-improving, self-actualising and self-determining actor; process and project approaches; as well as the methodology of convergence, which provides a synergistic effect of interaction of socio-humanitarian, natural-scientific and industrial-technical disciplines. The authors used the methods of various types of analysis including SWOT analysis; logical-semantic and structural-functional modelling.Results. The authors actualised the problem of creating an innovative educational content, which expands the range of professional knowledge and skills required of competitive personnel, who are capable and ready to preadapt to the rapidly changing socio-professional conditions. The educational model proposed by the authors is built on a modular principle. The targets, the content of modules, elective disciplines representing this or that module are defined. The content of each module is focused on the final result of educational activity: professional, diagnostic, competence, technological, functional. The mechanism of the model implementation is to build an individual student professional perspective aimed at practical action in order to improve the level of qualification, ability to work, enrichment of professional and personal qualities and behavioural patterns.Scientific novelty of the present research consists in the formation of interdisciplinary scientific knowledge (at the intersection of psychology, pedagogy, philosophy, occupational studies) on the methodology of the modelling, organisation and content of professional education taking into account modern challenges and demands of the digital economy. When training pedagogical personnel, it is necessary to create professional transcendence – an ability to go beyond particular professional activities, to find new meanings in it and beyond it and to solve nonstandard tasks.Practical significance. The presented innovative model of socio-professional development can be focused on the training of specialists at different levels of education, including additional education. The research materials can be useful to developers of educational programmes and training technologies of vocational education, to managers and specialists of educational organisations when making management decisions and organising the educational process.

Instruction and support for students with intellectual disability in general education classes should be informed by research-based interventions. In this systematic review, we examined the focus and impact of interventions delivered in inclusive classes to support middle and high school students with intellectual disability. We identified 40 intervention studies involving 177 secondary students with intellectual disability attending a range of core academic and elective classes. These multicomponent interventions fell within five primary categories: systematic instruction, peer support arrangements, self-management strategies, peer-mediated communication interventions, and educational placement changes. Although the overall focus was fairly balanced across academic, social, and behavioral outcomes, each intervention approach prioritized somewhat different dependent measures. Moreover, although the impact of the interventions on most outcomes was positive, the methodological quality of these studies was somewhat varied. We offer recommendations for future research and practice aimed at strengthening the availability and implementation of effective interventions within inclusive secondary school classes.

AbstractDuring the process of community integration, individuals with acquired brain injury may experience difficulties in all areas of occupational performance including self-care, home management, community access, leisure, social activities and vocational pursuits. Community based rehabilitation services provide opportunities to minimise such difficulties by working with clients as they engage in meaningful real-life context-based occupations. The therapeutic use of occupation is at the core of occupational therapy practice. We reflect on the nature and principles of occupation and highlight particular benefits for facilitating community integration after brain injury. This is illustrated using the example of executive dysfunction. Several challenges for the occupational therapy profession arise from the shift in focus from hospital to community based rehabilitation, and the need for further research on community integration after brain injury from an occupational perspective is recognised.

Aim: To investigate the characteristics of Australian organisations providing case management to individuals who have acquired brain injury, and to determine the methods of case management service delivery including professional development and evaluation of outcomes.Method: An anonymous 23-item web-based survey was used. Respondents were case managers who deliver services to adults and/or children with brain injuries. A snowball sampling method was used to recruit respondents from around Australia.Findings: Fifty-one case managers completed the survey. Respondents were from a wide range of professions, the largest group being occupational therapy. The majority of respondents were based in metropolitan areas, were employed within the public health system and were based in the community. Respondents reported that the main determinant for clients receiving case management was the severity of the brain injury followed by complex family needs. Variations in practice and a lack of consistency in outcome measurement, goal setting and professional development were noted.Discussion: This study provides an overview of characteristics of case management practices for people with acquired brain injury (ABI). Identifying roles and responsibilities of case managers is the first step to developing future research designs, which determine the effectiveness of case management.

Objectives: In this study, we explored the potential impact of disasters on individuals' fruit and vegetable consumption. Methods: Individual-level data (N = 351,229) from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) 2011 survey were merged with county-level disaster declaration data from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) based on disaster duration, interview month and residential county. Multilevel mixed-effects generalized linear models were conducted to examine the impact of different types of disasters on self-reported daily fruit, 100% pure fruit juice, beans, green vegetables, orange vegetables, other vegetables and overall vegetables consumption frequencies, adjusting for individual covariates. Results: No associations between disasters and daily fruit and overall vegetable consumption frequency were identified at either national or state levels. Only floods were consistently associated with reduced consumption of orange vegetables. Conclusions: This study did not identify an association between natural disasters and daily overall fruit/vegetable consumption frequency at national or state levels, whereas disasters were found to alter the consumption of certain vegetable subgroup (orange vegetables) slightly. Longitudinal studies with validated and detailed measures on diet and disaster are warranted to advance research in this field.

Background: There is a lack of evidence on the clinical management of patients who have suffered human trafficking. Synthesizing the evidence from similar patient populations may provide valuable insight. This review summarizes findings on therapeutic interventions for survivors of sexual assault and intimate partner violence (IPV). Method: We conducted two systematic reviews using the MEDLINE database. We included only randomized controlled trials of therapies with primary outcomes related to health for survivors of sexual assault and IPV. For the sexual assault review, there were 78 abstracts identified, 16 full-text articles reviewed, and 10 studies included. For the IPV review, there were 261 abstracts identified, 24 full-text articles reviewed, and 17 studies included. Analysis compared study size, intervention type, patient population, primary health outcomes, and treatment effect. Results: Although our search included physical and mental health outcomes, almost all the studies meeting inclusion and exclusion criteria focused on mental health. The interventions for sexual assault included spiritually focused group therapy, interference control training, image rehearsal therapy, sexual revictimization prevention, educational videos, cognitive behavioral therapy, and exposure therapy. The interventions in the IPV review included group social support therapy, exposure therapy, empowerment sessions, physician counseling, stress management programs, forgiveness therapy, motivational interviewing, and interpersonal psychotherapy. Conclusions: Insights from these reviews included the importance of culturally specific group therapy, the central role of survivor empowerment, and the overwhelming focus on mental health. These key features provide guidance for the development of interventions to improve the health of human trafficking survivors.

Major public health emergencies would have a negative influence on the psychology of the public, and an effective psychological intervention can help them to relieve some emotions, such as tension and panic. However, differences in individual environments affect people’s psychological intervention demands and intervention mode choices. Therefore, it is of great theoretical and practical value to analyze and identify the key factors affecting these demands and choices. Based on a nationwide sample of 24,188 respondents from the “Internet Survey of Residents’ Behavioral Changes and Psychological Conditions during the Epidemic”, the different characteristics of public psychological intervention demands and choices under different factors are explored in this paper. The results demonstrate that: (1) the psychological status of Chinese people was relatively stable during the epidemic period, and there were 1016 respondents who had subjective demands for a psychological intervention, (2) age, gender, occupation type, residence, family size, risk perception, psychological status, education level, and fixed expenditure all significantly affect public psychological intervention demands, and (3) risk perception, psychological status, age, gender, and family size will impact the choice of psychological intervention methods. The above results can provide a decision-making basis for the construction of a psychological intervention system in psychological crisis management during the post-epidemic prevention and control period, as well as reference and suggestions for handling psychological stress of similar sudden crisis events in the future.

Despite an increasing number of studies focusing on leadership at Vietnamese small and medium sized enteprises (SMEs), there is a lack of empirical research on collective leadership and development of effective top management team (TMT). The purpose of this paper is to review the literature with a view of characteristics forming an effective TMT. Taking the team effectiveness theory, upper echelons theory and behavioral theory of the firm, theoretical characteristics of effective TMT was created, and then an empirical research was conducted on a sample of 141 SMEs. The common characteristics of an effective TMT are identified, including shared vision, optimal team size, role clarity, age diversity, functional background diversity, regular communication, solidarity and collective decision making. The study makes several contributions to the existing literature on effective TMT development at SMEs.
 Keywords
 Collective leadership, top management team, effective top management team, SMEs
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Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menguji dan menganalisa pengaruh konflik peran dan ambiguitas terhadap kinerja melalui kepuasan kerja pada tenaga fungsional RSUD Sekadau. Metode penelitian yang digunakan merupakan jenis penelitian non-eksperimental dengan pendekatan kuantitatif, deskriptif korelasi dan desain cross-sectional. Populasi dalam penelitian ini adalah seluruh tenaga fungsional RSUD Sekadau yang berjumlah 181 orang dengan sampel yang diambil adalah 123 orang tenaga fungsional RSUD Sekadau. Alat analisis yang digunakan adalah analisis jalur (path analysis) dengan metode SEM (structural equation modelling) menggunakan WarpPLS versi 6.0. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan terdapat pengaruh positif signifikan konflik peran terhadap kinerja, terdapat pengaruh negatif signifikan ambiguitas terhadap kinerja, terdapat pengaruh negatif signifikan antara konflik peran dan ambiguitas terhadap kepuasan kerja, terdapat pengaruh negatif signifikan kepuasan kerja terhadap kinerja, terdapat pengaruh positif signifikan antara konflik peran dan ambiguitas terhadap kinerja melalui kepuasan kerja. Nilai profesionalisme menjadi penting untuk variabel konflik peran, tanggung jawab menjadi faktor penting untuk variabel ambiguitas, hubungan yang baik dengan profesi lain di Rumah Sakit menjadi penting untuk variabel kepuasan kerja dan karyawan memahami harapan pekerjaan dan tetap melaksanakannya sesuai dengan tanggung jawab merupakan nilai penting untuk variabel kinerja. Kata kunci : Konflik Peran, Ambiguitas, Kepuasan Kerja, KinerjaDAFTAR PUSTAKAAhmed, S., Manaf, N.H.A., & Islam, R. (2017). 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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to study how employee representatives in European Works Councils (EWCs) treat confidential information and how such strategies might improve the EWC functioning. Design/methodology/approach Building on interviews of several case studies of EWCs, this paper brings together insights from industrial relations and occupational psychology literature. Findings The results show that through actively challenging the management, an EWC can reduce the amount of information labelled as confidential and become freer to communicate with their rank and file. Actively challenging management, however, does not seem to impact the openness of the management to give early and complete information. Research limitations/implications The paper is based on several case studies, which limits the generalisability of the findings. The results, however, indicate that research is required on how challenging confidentiality can incite managements to provide earlier information. Practical implications The research show clearly the potential but also limitations for employee representatives in actively challenging the management over what information is confidential. Social implications This study studies a universally difficult topic for employee representatives: how to handle confidential information. The findings show that EWCs have little levers to force management to provide early information. For this, more structural change is needed. Originality/value This study is the first to focus exclusively on the issue of confidentiality in EWCs. This is a central concern for employee representatives, but research, until now, has not given much insight in which strategies work.

The basic purpose of the current study was to explore the occupational health stress reasons, consequences, and job outcomes in the service sector as well as to suggest stress management techniques to overcome stress. This research used a mixed qualitative research methodology, which included a collective case study method as well as a narrative inquiry method. Respondents (both males and females) were selected from two of the most important service sectors -- the banking industry where working hours are long, and the education sector where working hours are comparatively short. A total of eight case studies were taken through focus group discussions in which respondents were requested to write a one-page report about their work experiences, problems faced at their workplace, whether they were facing any stressful challenge and threat, and how their health was affecting them due to stressful situations at the workplace. The data was reported from the words of respondents as it was written on their response forms. From the list of responses, the following themes emerged and were derived in Figure 1: stressors (reasons), consequences (change in physical, psychological, and behavioral response), and outcomes (job outcomes). Stress management techniques were suggested from an organizational and individual point of view.

BACKGROUND: Poor management of universities results in public health emergencies, causing panic and psychological and behavioral abnormalities. OBJECTIVE: It aims to effectively handle public health emergencies and study students’ emotional and psychological stress response. METHODS: Influencing factors and time series prediction are analyzed. Conflict between university and students in public health emergencies is analyzed. Evolutionary mechanism of collective psychological trauma (CPT) is clarified, which is fitted from four main factors. Collected data is utilized to predict CPT changing trend, which is analyzed by Markov model. RESULTS: The fitting coefficients of CPT factor analysis models are above 0.8, indicating good consistency of model. Prediction results show that the more serious the mass public health incident, the greater the impact on CPT. Moreover, the higher the personal cognition, the more assuasive the CPT trend. Public opinion has a great impact on CPT, while college emergency management has little impact on CPT trend. CONCLUSIONS: This research provides a reference for the emergency management of students’ mental health in universities in terms of the severity of the incident, the cognition level of the students, and the public opinion environment.

In the contemporary urban environment of mass transit, it falls to a small group of public officers to keep large number of travellers safe. The small size of their force and the often limited powers they exert mean that these public safety ‘transit officers’ must project more authority and control than they really have. It is this ambience of authority and control which, in most situations they encounter and seek to influence, is enough to keep the public safe. This paper examines the ambience of a group of transit officers working on the railway lines of an Australian capital city. We seek to show how transit officers are both influenced by, and seek to influence, the ambience of their workplace and the public spaces they inhabit whilst on duty, and here we take ambience to apply to the surrounding atmosphere, the aura, and the emotional environment of a place or situation: the setting, tone, or mood. For these transit officers to keep the public safe, they must themselves remain safe. A transit officer who is disabled in a confrontation with a violent offender is unable to provide protection to his or her passengers. Thus, in the culture of the transit officers, their own workplace safety takes on a higher significance. It affects not just themselves. The ambience exuded by transit officers, and how transit officers see their relationship with the travelling public, their management and other organisational work groups, is an important determinant of their work group’s safety culture. Researching the Working Lives of Transit Officers in Perth Our discussion draws on an ethnographic study of the working lives and communication cultures of transit officers (TOs) employed by the Public Transport Authority (PTA) of Western Australia (WA). Transit officers have argued that to understand fully the challenges of their work it is necessary to spend time with them as they undertake their daily duties: roster in, roster out. To this end, the research team and the employer organisation secured an ARC Linkage Grant in partnership with the PTA to fund doctoral candidate and ethnographer Christine Teague to research the workers’ point of view, and the workers’ experiences within the organisation. The two-hundred TOs are unique in the PTA. Neither of the other groups who ride with them on the trains, the drivers and revenue protection staff (whose sole job is to sell and check tickets), experiences the combination of intense contact with passengers, danger of physical injury or group morale. The TOs of the PTA in Perth operate from a central location at the main train station and the end stations on each line. Here there are change lockers where they can lock up their uniforms and equipment such as handcuffs and batons when not on duty, an equipment room where they sign out their radios, and ticket-checking machines. At the main train station there is also a gym, a canteen and holding cells for offenders they detain. From these end stations and central location, the TOs fan out across the network to all suburbs where they either operate from stations or onboard the trains. The TOs also do ‘delta van’ duty providing rapid, mobile back-up support for their colleagues on stations or trains, and providing transport for arrested persons to the holding cell or police lock up. TOs are on duty whenever the trains are running–but the evenings and nights are when they are mainly rostered on. This is when trouble mostly occurs. The TOs’ work ends only after the final train has completed its run and all offenders who may require detaining and charging have been transferred into police custody. While the public perceive that security is the TOs’ most frequent role, much of the work involves non-confrontational activity such as assisting passengers, checking tickets and providing a reassuring presence. One way to deal with an ambiguous role is to claim an ambience of power and authority regardless. Various aspects of the TO role permit and hinder this, and the paper goes on to consider aspects of ambience in terms of fear and force, order and safety, and role confusion. An Ambience of Fear and Force The TOs are responsible for front-line security in WA’s urban railway network. Their role is to offer a feeling of security for passengers using the rail network after the bustle of the work day finishes, and is replaced by the mainly recreational travels of the after hours public. This is the time when some passengers find the prospect of evening travel on the public transport rail network unsettling–so unsettling that it was a 2001 WA government election promise (WA Legislative Council) that every train leaving the city centre after 7pm would have two TOs riding on it. Interestingly, recruitment levels have never been high enough for this promise to be fully kept. The working conditions of the TOs reflect the perception, and to an extent, the reality that some late night travel on public transport involves negotiating an edgy ambience with an element of risk, rubbing shoulders with people who may be loud, rowdy, travelling in a group, and or drug and alcohol affected. As Fred (all TO names are pseudonyms) comments: You’re not dealing with rational people, you’re not dealing with ‘people’: most of the people you’re dealing with are either drunk or under the influence of drugs, so they’re not rational, they don’t hear you, they don’t understand what you’re saying, they just have no sense of what’s right or wrong, you know? Especially being under the influence, so I mean, you can talk till you’re blue in the face with somebody who’s drunk or on drugs, I mean, all you have to say is one thing. ‘Oh, can I see your ticket please’, ‘oh, why do I need a fucking ticket’, you know? They just don’t get simple everyday messages. Dealing with violence and making arrest is a normal part of this job. Jo described an early experience in her working life as a TO:Within the first week of coming out of course I got smacked on the side of the head, but this lady had actually been certified, like, she was nuts. She was completely mental and we were just standing on the train talking and I’ve turned around to say something to my partner and she was fine, she was as calm as, and I turned around and talked to my partner and the next thing I know I ended up with her fist to the side of my head. And I went ‘what the hell was that’? And she went off, she went absolutely ballistic. I ended up arresting her because it was assault on an officer whether she was mental or not so I ended up arresting her.Although Jo here is describing how she experienced an unprovoked assault in the early days of her career as a TO, one of the most frequent precursors to a TO injury occurs when the TO is required to make an arrest. The injury may occur when the passenger to be arrested resists or flees, and the TO gives chase in dark or treacherous circumstances such as railway reserves and tunnels, or when other passengers, maybe friends or family of the original person of concern, involve themselves in an affray around the precipitating action of the arrest. In circumstances where capsicum spray is the primary way of enforcing compliance, with batons used as a defence tool, group members may feel that they can take on the two TOs with impunity, certainly in the first instance. Even though there are security cameras on trains and in stations, and these can be cued to cover the threatening or difficult situations confronting TOs, the conflict is located in the here-and-now of the exchanges between TOs and the travelling public. This means the longer term consequence of trouble in the future may hold less sway with unruly travellers than the temptation to try to escape from trouble in the present. In discussing the impact of remote communications, Rubert Murdoch commented that these technologies are “a powerful influence for civilised behaviour. If you are arranging a massacre, it will be useless to shoot the cameraman who has so inconveniently appeared on the scene. His picture will already be safe in the studio five thousand miles away and his final image may hang you” (Shawcross 242). Unfortunately, whether public aggression in these circumstances is useless or not, the daily experience of TOs is that the presence of closed circuit television (CCTV) does not prevent attacks upon them: nor is it a guarantee of ‘civilised behaviour’. This is possibly because many of the more argumentative and angry members of the public are dis-inhibited by alcohol or other drugs. Police officers can employ the threat or actual application of stun guns to control situations in which they are outnumbered, but in the case of TOs they can remain outnumbered and vulnerable until reinforcements arrive. Such reinforcements are available, but the situation has to be managed through the communication of authority until the point where the train arrives at a ‘manned’ station, or the staff on the delta vehicle are able to support their colleagues. An Ambience of Order and Safety Some public transport organisations take this responsibility to sustain an ambience of order more seriously than others. The TO ethnographer, Christine Teague, visited public transport organisations in the UK, USA and Canada which are recognised as setting world-class standards for injury rates of their staff. In the USA particularly, there is a commitment to what is called ‘the broken windows’ theory, where a train is withdrawn from service promptly if it is damaged or defaced (Kelling and Coles; Maple and Mitchell). According to Henry (117): The ‘Broken Windows’ theory suggests that there is both a high correlation and a causal link between community disorder and more serious crime: when community disorder is permitted to flourish or when disorderly conditions or problems are left untended, they actually cause more serious crime. ‘Broken windows’ are a metaphor for community disorder which, as Wilson and Kelling (1982) use the term, includes the violation of informal social norms for public behaviour as well as quality of life offenses such as littering, graffiti, playing loud radios, aggressive panhandling, and vandalism.This theory implies that the physical ambience of the train, and by extension the station, may be highly influential in terms of creating a safe working environment. In this case of ‘no broken window’ organisations, the TO role is to maintain a high ‘quality of life’ rather than being a role predominantly about restraining and bringing to justice those whose behaviour is offensive, dangerous or illegal. The TOs in Perth achieve this through personal means such as taking pride in their uniforms, presenting a good-natured demeanour to passengers and assisting in maintaining the high standard of train interiors. Such a priority, and its link to reduced workforce injury, suggests that a perception of order impacts upon safety. It has long been argued that the safety culture of an organisation affects the safety performance of that organisation (Pidgeon; Leplat); but it has been more recently established that different cultural groupings in an organisation conceive and construct their safety culture differently (Leith). The research on ‘safety culture’ raises a problematic which is rarely addressed in practice. That problematic is this: managers frequently engage with safety at the level of instituting systems, while workers engage with safety in terms of behaviour. When Glendon and Litherland comment that, contrary to expectations, they could find no relationship between safety culture and safety performance, they were drawing attention to the fact that much managerial safety culture is premised upon systems involving tick boxes and the filling in of report forms. The broken window approach combines the managerial tick box with managerial behaviour: a dis-ordered train is removed from service. To some extent a general lack of fit between safety culture and safety performance endorses Everett’s view that it is conceptually inadequate to conceive organisations as cultures: “the conceptual inadequacy stems from the failure to distinguish between culture and behavioural features of organizational life” (238). The general focus upon safety culture as a way of promoting improvements in safety performance assumes that compliance with a range of safety systems will guarantee a safe workplace. Such an assumption, however, risks positioning the injured worker as responsible for his or her own predicament and sets up an environment in which some management officials are wont to seek ways in which that injured worker’s behaviour failed to conform with safety rules or safety processes. Yet there are roles which place workers in harm’s way, including military duties, law enforcement and some emergency services. Here, the work becomes dangerous as it becomes disorderly. An Ambience of Roles and Confusion As the research reported here progressed, it became clear that the ambience around the presentation of the self in the role of a TO (Goffman) was an important part of how ‘safety’ was promoted and enacted in their work upon the PTA (WA) trains, face to face with the travelling public. Goffman’s view of all people, not specifically TOs, is that: Regardless of the particular objective which the individual has in mind and of his motive for having this objective, it will be in his interests to control the conduct of the others, especially their responsive treatment of him. This will largely be through influencing the perception and definition that others will come to formulate of him. He will influence them by expressing himself in such a way that the kind of impression given off will lead them to act voluntarily in accordance with his own plan. (3)This ‘influencing of perception’ is an important element of performing the role of a TO. This task of the TOs is made all the more difficult because of confusions about their role in relation to two other officers: police (who have more power to act in situations of public safety) and revenue project officers (who have less), as we now discuss. The aura of the TO role borrows somewhat from those quintessential law and order officers: the police. TOs work in pairs, like many police, to support each other. They have a range of legal powers including the power of arrest, and they carry handcuffs, a baton and capsicum spray as a means of helping ensure their safety and effectiveness in circumstances where they might be outnumbered. The tools of their trade are accessibly displayed on heavy leather belts around their waists and their uniforms have similarities with police uniforms. However, in some ways these similarities are problematic, because TOs are not afforded the same respect as police. This situation underlines of the ambiguities negotiated within the ambience of what it is to be a TO, and how it is to conduct oneself in that role. Notwithstanding the TOs’ law and order responsibilities, public perceptions of the role and some of the public’s responses to the officers can position these workers as “plastic cops” (Teague and Leith). The penultimate deterrent of police officers, the stun gun (Taser), is not available to TOs who are expected to control all incidents arising on duty through the fact that they operate in pairs, with capsicum spray available and, as a last resort, are authorised to use their batons in self defence. Furthermore, although TOs are the key security and enforcement staff in the PTA workforce, and are managed separately from related staff roles, they believe that the clarity of this distinction is compromised because of similarities in the look of Revenue Protection Officers (RPOs). RPOs work on the trains to check that passengers have tickets and have paid the correct fares, and obtain names and addresses to issue infringement notices when required. They are not PTA employees, but contracted staff from an outside company. They also work in pairs. Significantly, the RPO uniform is in many respects identical to that of the TO, and this appears to be a deliberate management choice to make the number of TOs seem greater than it is: extending the TO ambience through to the activities of the RPOs. However, in the event of a disturbance, TOs are required and trained to act, while RPOs are instructed not to get involved; even though the RPOs appear to the travelling public to be operating in the role of a law-and-order-keeper, RPOs are specifically instructed not to get involved in breaches of the peace or disruptive passenger behaviour. From the point of view of the travelling public, who observe the RPO waiting for TOs to arrive, it may seems as if a TO is passively standing by while a chaotic situation unravels. As Angus commented: I’ve spoken to quite a few members of public and received complaints from them about transit officers and talking more about the incident have found out that it was actually [RPOs] that are dealing with it. So it’s creating a bad image for us …. It’s Transits that are copping all the flak for it … It is dangerous for us and it’s a lot of bad publicity for us. It’s hard enough, the job that we do and the lack of respect that we do get from people, we don’t need other people adding to it and making it harder. Indeed, it is not only the travelling public who can mistake the two uniforms. Mike tells of an “incident where an officer [TO] has called for backup on a train and the guys have got off [the train at the next station] and just stood there, and he didn’t realise that they are actually [revenue protection] officers, so he effectively had no backup. He thought he did, but he didn’t.” The RPO uniform may confer an ambience of power borrowed from TOs and communicated visually, but the impact is to compromise the authority of the TO role. Unfortunately, what could be a complementary role to the TOs becomes one which, in the minds of the TO workforce, serves to undermine their presence. This effect of this role confusion is to dilute the aura of authority of the TOs. At one end of a power continuum the TO role is minimised by those who see it as a second-rate ‘Wannabe cop’ (Teague and Leith 2008), while its impact is diluted at the other end by an apparently deliberate confusion between the TO broader ‘law and order’ role, and the more limited RPO revenue collection activities. Postlude To the passengers of the PTA in Perth, the presence and actions of transit officers appear as unremarkable as the daily commute. In this ethnographic study of their workplace culture, however, the transit officers have revealed ways in which they influence the ambience of the workplace and the public spaces they inhabit whilst on duty, and how they are influenced by it. While this ambient inter-relationship is not documented in the organisation’s occupational safety and health management system, the TOs are aware that it is a factor in their level at safety at work, both positively and negatively. Clearly, an ethnography study is conducted at a certain point in time and place, and culture is a living and changing expression of human interaction. The Public Transport Authority of Western Australia is committed to continuous improvement in safety and to the investigation of all ways and means in which to support TOs in their daily activities. This is evident not only in their support of the research and their welcoming of the ethnographer into the workforce and onto the tracks, but also in their robust commitment to change as the findings of the research have progressed. In particular, changes in the ambient TO culture and in the training and daily practices of TOs have already resulted from this research or are under active consideration. Nonetheless, this project is a cogent indicator of the fact that a safety culture is critically dependent upon intangible but nonetheless important factors such as the ambience of the workplace and the way in which officers are able to communicate their authority to others. References Everett, James. “Organizational Culture and Ethnoecology in Public Relations Theory and Practice.” Public Relations Research Annual. Vol. 2. Eds. Larissa Grunig and James Grunig. Hillsdale, NJ, 1990. 235-251. 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