OSH knowledge and its management.

The OSH Landscape project was completed as part of the IOSH research programme, “Health and Safety in a Changing World”. The programme was developed to aid in the understanding of health and safety in more complex environments. The aim of the OSH Landscape project was two-fold, firstly to review and characterise the OSH landscape in the UK and secondly to identify how OSH knowledge is currently used within the workplace by both professional practitioners and non-professional workers tasked with OSH within different organisational models. To achieve this, the project aimed to address the following questions: a) Who provides information about OSH interventions and is this in the public domain? b) How is the quality of the information controlled by the provider, both in terms of relevance and accessibility? c) Does the provider assess who accesses the information and how it is used? d) What evidence is available on the successful transfer of knowledge from research to information providers, OSH practitioners and nonprofessionals involved in implementing OSH? e) What lessons can be learned from other fields and disciplines in relation to successful knowledge transfer between research and practice and accessible evidence for a lay audience? The approach taken by the research team involved a number of different methodologies. In stage one of the project this included a review of knowledge transfer methods applicable to OSH, identification and collation of sources providing information in the UK and a questionnaire survey of those tasked with OSH to identify the sources that they used. Stage two involved the development of a methodology to evaluate knowledge transfer and knowledge flow for OSH interventions which was then used in 12 organisational based case studies evaluating the impact of different OSH interventions. Who is providing OSH Knowledge in the UK? OSH knowledge in the UK was found to be created via a variety of sources which differed in their reasons for carrying out research into safety and/or health. A total of 303 online sources of OSH knowledge were identified within the UK including government sources, professional societies, trades unions, employer organisations, charitable organisations and other groups not directly related to OSH. The knowledge provided by these organisations included guidance, legislation, print and electronic publications, primary research reports, systematic reviews, training materials and presentations. A large variety of topics were covered by the sources including hazards and health outcomes. However, gaps were identified in relation to health outcomes and this was perceived to be an understanding of “knowing what” in health but “knowing how” in safety. Sixteen information providers were asked how they quality assessed the information and knowledge sources that they provided. All providers did have processes in place to evaluate information and knowledge before it was made public. Although providers did record how many times a web site was accessed or time spent on the page, due to anonymity, data were not generally collected on who the end-user was. It was appreciated by participants that there is little control over how knowledge is used once it reaches the public domain. However, there are a number of ways of following this up including feedback after training or OSH intervention. Who is using what sources of OSH Knowledge? To identify who is using which particular sources of OSH knowledge in the UK, a questionnaire survey was developed and administered among participants who have a responsibility for OSH. In total 386 individuals responded with 302 OSH employees and 84 external OSH consultants. The most frequent sources used by participants were government sources (HSE, NHS) and this was due to them being trusted, easy to access and free to access. In relation to accessing websites, HSE and IOSH were used most frequently. The types of material accessed most frequently were guidance and legislation. When asked about updating knowledge, the use of guidance, legislation and internet searches were reported. Knowledge Transfer and OSH After identification of who provides OSH information and the sources used by OSH Practitioners, the research team then examined knowledge transfer and its relationship with OSH. Using the Diffusion of Innovations Theory as a framework it was identified that adoption of new knowledge occurs in five stages including knowledge, persuasion, decision, implementation and confirmation. However, there are five constructs that can influence the adoption of knowledge; relative advantage, compatibility, difficulty, trialability and observability. When examining knowledge transfer in OSH a number of difficulties have been identified in that researchers and practitioners are different in the way they consider knowledge, with researchers focusing on one issue, whereas practitioners often deal with multiple issues including current and immediate problems. However, the involvement of the end-user is key through the knowledge development process in giving context to the knowledge transfer. Furthermore, increased levels of resources applied to both the dissemination process and linkage with end users, have a positive impact on knowledge transfer. This therefore suggests that having involvement of end users in knowledge production is a vital part of knowledge transfer. How is OSH Knowledge Used and Transferred in Industry? To find out how knowledge was used and transferred in industry, 12 organisational based case studies were carried out with companies who had carried out an OSH intervention in the previous 12 months (n=8) or were preparing to carry out an OSH intervention (n=4). A KT evaluation methodology was developed using the Diffusion of Innovations theory as a framework. Using structured interviews with stakeholders and questionnaire surveys with employees, data were collated to evaluate the knowledge flow, the methods used to transfer and the impact of this. The results identified that key skills required by the knowledge broker (mostly OSH Practitioners) included being able to identify and source authoritative knowledge on particular risks or hazards, understanding of the importance of choice of medium for KT (face-to-face or virtual); the OSH practitioners ability to translate knowledge to local level (language, literacy, technical ability); using existing information frameworks and the ability to evaluate any interventions carried out. Conclusions The OSH Landscape project has identified that there are key processes involved in transferring OSH information and knowledge from its source to the end-user. These include having skills to identify authoritative knowledge or seek it out when necessary, understanding that different techniques (virtual or face-to-face) may be more relevant to different groups of staff, having the ability to translate knowledge for particular endusers and ensuring that the groups are at the same level of readiness to adopt new knowledge. Finally being able to evaluate the impact of OSH interventions is also a required skill whether that is through walkthroughs, risk assessments, observation or the use of other data sources.