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Exploration of safety climate in Nigeria: a study of organizations in Onne oil and gas free zone
Get PDFBackground: In Nigeria, issues of occupational safety and health (OSH) practice are still in early infancy and hence, apparently poor OSH behaviours are common coupled with an underlying varying safety climate. Work-related accidents and death rate in Nigeria are reported to be among the highest in the world, with Onne Oil and Gas Free Zone (OGFZ)hosting most of the organizations with high-risk operations. This critical safety climate is affected by a range of internal and external factors. This study seeks to understand the nature of the safety climate, within the Nigerian context, through an exploration of the Onne Oil and Gas Free Zone, which is the largest conglomerate of multinational companies in Nigeria and a host to 170 oil and gas companies together with construction companies. The nature of work within this site is recognised as being high-risk and therefore the underlying safety climate has increased criticality. More so, there is no known safety climate study on the organisations, thus the study would help close the gap of limited or lack of data on workplace safety, and guide safety policy decisions which are needful and vital for building a good safety climate profile for organizations in the OGFZ, and other organisations in Nigeria.
Aim: The study aimed to identify internal and external factors that influence the safety climate and in so doing explore the overarching climate of the OGFZ.
Methods: Organizations were selected from the 170 companies operating within the OGFZ based on past and current health, safety and environment(HSE) performance data; and were divided into 2 distinct groups of peak and low performing companies. The companies were identified using the OGFZ annual safety assessment reports. A qualitative methodology was employed involving focus group discussion and in-depth interview techniques with employees drawn from twelve (12) companies comprising six (6) good and six (6) poor safety performers. The qualitative data for the study, mainly data from focus group and interviews, were analysed using thematic analysis procedures. The thematic analysis involves identification of key concepts or themes, grouping or categorization of similar concepts or comments, and coding of identified themes or concepts. Data were analysed using NVivo software, which enabled coding of texts and identification of themes in the data from participants’ responses. Results of the thematic analysis are presented in tables and appendices showing identified themes and participant responses from which the themes emanate.
Results/Findings: The study found that compliance to safety rules and procedures, employee (personal) commitment and competence are among the factors that keep employees safety at work. Major causes of workplace safety risks and injuries were found to include employee-specific factors such as poor communication of safety information among workers and negligence; management-specific factor such as poor staff training, poor supervision, and provision of inadequate safety equipment and work materials; job-specific factors such as unsafe mechanical and physical conditions and equipment failure; natural factors such as unfavourable weather or climatic conditions.
The findings indicate major internal factors that characterize workplace risks and injury within an organization; such as ineffective safety management in the study area, particularly, poor management commitment to safety standards, especially when involving organization’s finances or other resources; and identify negligence or conscious violation of safety standards by organizations’ management, employee attitude to safety directives and equipment failure. With highlight on cultural issues, poor motivation or incentives, job insecurity and employee attitude as one of the critical factors that directly influence organizational safety climate and safety performance; the study also identified various factors that influence employee attitude to include: management factor, employee decisions, welfare, experience, belief system, family concerns and health condition of employees. The findings also show that client pressure, economic situation, government policies, insecurity, community influence and family issues are among the most prominent external factors influencing safety climate in the organizations under study. The organizational characteristics affecting safety climate in the study area include management commitment, finance, supervision, disciplinary measures and incentives. However, factors identified as part of the measures taken by organizations to keep people safe at work included training, safety management systems and standard operational procedures and communication as well as motivation, supervision, monitoring, incentives for work performance and policy enforcement.
Conclusion: This study has identified that safety issues in the OGFZ, and by extension, Nigerian organizations, are influenced by local “Nigerian Factors”, especially culture and belief system, as well as various internal and external factors that shape the behavioral pattern of their workers. The possible ways to improve the existing safety climate in the OGFZ are thus suggested to include broadly improved management commitment towards safety; employees proper management of stress factors and adherence to laid down safety policies, regulations and procedures; government improved oversight function of ensuring compliance with standard safety regulations by organizations; and non-interference of host communities with organization’s safety climate
Bank regulation, supervision and financial stability: An empirical study
Get PDFThis PhD thesis explores the relationship between banking regulations and supervision, and financial stability. In terms of the financial stability, I focus on the banking industry and, particularly, on the role of foreign banks in the transmission of shocks through the lending channel. Additionally, I investigate the banking stability through several indicators of a bank’s stand-alone risk, such as the bank’s z-score and the Merton’s (1974) distance to default, among others. With respect to the banking supervision and regulations, I examine two underexplored topics: the role of supervisory cooperation agreements and bank culture for banking stability. Therefore, this study contributes to the banking literature by expanding the empirical evidence in three ways. These are briefly mentioned below.
Firstly, Chapter 2 expands the recent studies on bank lending (e.g., Allen et al. 2017; Adams-Kane et al., 2017) by investigating how lending behaviour of foreign banks is affected through cross-border banking supervision during the global financial crisis. I use a hand-collected data on bilateral and multilateral cooperation agreements at the country-level from central banks and supervisory authorities’ websites, and apply a difference-in-differences (DiD) methodology. I find that a statistically significant relationship exists and that lending by foreign banks decreased in Central and Eastern Europe and Latin America during the crisis. In particular, the foreign banks whose home and host countries supervisors have an agreement on banking supervision reduced their lending less, between 3.6% and 9.9%, than the banks that did not have such type of agreement amid the crisis. This mitigating effect is positively related to the level of supervisory power and the number of on-site inspections, and negatively associated with the level of supervisory consolidation. My findings have important policy implications. My results suggest that to mitigate the international transmission of shocks, the national and international regulators need to enhance supervisory coordination and cooperation among central banks, supervisory authorities, and banking institutions.
Secondly, Chapter 3 expands the existing literature by examining how board attributes such as gender diversity, CEO power and CEO age influence the bank risk-taking behaviour through the bank’s culture. To investigate the research question in this chapter, I create a culture dictionary using 5,813 quarterly earnings call transcripts and a machine learning technique (following Li et al., 2021a). I score the five cultural values of innovation, quality, integrity, respect and teamwork for a sample of 180 US BHCs over the period 2006-2019. To answer the research question, I employ a system of simultaneous equations using the three-stage least squares (3SLS) estimation method among others panel data estimators (i.e., Ordinary Least Square, 2-Stage Least Square and GMM-system estimator).
The findings suggest that banks with cultures of innovation, quality, and integrity help mitigating the default risk for the banks. In addition, the results show that boards with higher gender diversity are positively associated with the innovation, quality, and integrity. It means that more gender-diverse boards exhibit and foster these cultural values in banks I also provide evidence of an economically significant influence of CEO age and CEO power on these culture variables. Thus, this study reveals that the board characteristics of banks influence their risk mitigation through the culture of innovation, quality, and integrity. My analysis in this chapter contributes to the practitioners, policy makers and regulators as it provides evidence to increase the gender diversity in banks, which in turn would improve the bank culture resulting in better bank stability.
Finally, Chapter 4 examines whether and how bank culture helps to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on banks’ default risk. As mentioned before, I use 2,328 quarterly earnings calls transcripts to measure the corporate culture for a sample of 161 US BHCs over the pre-pandemic period. The number of earnings calls transcripts used in this chapter differs from Chapter 3 due to differences in the sample period. Using a difference-in-differences (DiD) approach, I show that, although the COVID-19 shock increased banks’ default risk, banks with a strong culture exhibit a lower default risk than their peers without a strong culture. In the next step, I group the five cultural values underlying a strong culture into two subcultures: technology-oriented culture comprised of innovation and quality, and people-oriented culture comprised of integrity, respect and teamwork. I find that banks with a strong technology-oriented culture show a lower default risk than their counterparts during the pandemic crisis. Among the three components of people-oriented culture, I find that only integrity helps to mitigate the impact of COVID-19. The results suggest that supervisors’ assessment of culture should focus on encouraging and aligning technology-oriented cultural values with a bank’s strategic goals
The evolving loci of new music
Get PDFThis thesis argues that the nature of the performance of new music has evolved. Its arguments and evidence are taken from case-studies, presented by a performer, that reflect on recent and historical practices. The focus of the research is on the development of performance practices in contemporary music over recent decades, following the innovations of composers such as Stockhausen, Boulez and Xenakis since the 1950s, particularly in the field of writing for percussion. It acknowledges that musical performance has many dimensions and is determined by a complex configuration of conditions and factors such as musical materials, local and geographical physical location, cultural context and technologies. These dimensions offer perspectives for understanding the multivalent site of music performance, as a configuration of practical and theoretical ideas grouped under the headings practice, technology and community. This thesis proposes the notion of the locus of performance generated by a set of such conditions. My experiences as a performer are the basis for an auto-ethnographic methodology and central to the articulation of this notion. My creative work contributes to a model of practice-based research, and establishes my perspective as the performer, able to witness how the locus of performance has evolved. The roles of the composer, performer and audience, and their identity and presence in the musical performance, are considered in relation to factors such as new musical practices, technologies and communities. The relationship between these contributing factors is considered in an attempt to create a model of musical performance. The critical perspectives gained from this process will contribute to an evolved notion of the loci for new music
The defiled self: towards a theological response to the experiential phenomenon of defilement amongst adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse
No full textThe sense of being defiled after childhood sexual abuse (CSA) is ubiquitous in professional and autobiographical literature. First, this thesis aims to explore the psychological nature of this phenomenon referred to as the Defiled Self. Analysis of the empirical research and theoretical literature related to CSA and shame, defilement, mental contamination and disgust/self-disgust pointed to the conclusion that the Defiled Self is an emotion schema whereby the emotions of shame and self-disgust and the cognitions associated with perceiving oneself to be defiled interact synergistically. Secondly, this thesis aims to develop a hypothetical narrative of how the Defiled Self might evolve; this revealed many potential triggers of shame and disgust/self-disgust in the context of CSA. Thirdly, this thesis aims to argue for a theological conceptualisation of the Defiled Self which is developed using the sub-categories of human nature and the imago Dei, and personhood. It concludes that the impact of CSA as seen in the Defiled Self can cause a profoundly disordered personhood in terms of relationality, embodiment, sexuality and agency. The fourth aim is to determine how sin operates in the development of the Defiled Self; after discussions of sin as defilement and original sin it is concluded that the perpetration of CSA is fully the sin and responsibility of the abuser but that the personal sin of the survivor may be involved in the development of the abused identity although this cannot be empirically tested. The final aim is to test the efficacy of three models of atonement in resolving the difficulties of the Defiled Self. Anselmian Satisfaction, Penal Substitutionary Atonement and Christus Victor are examined using criteria informed by the psychological and theological conceptualisations of the Defiled Self. This showed that none of these models met all criteria but Christus Victor proved to be the most helpful
Anti-fascist activities amongst women artists in the 1930s in Britain
No full textBook chapter from a conference paper given in Zaragoza in September 2021. This chapter looks at the rationale in feminist art history for selecting certain artists over others as subjects of interest. It looks at 6 women artists from the period as case studies who were connected to the Artists International Association and examines their commitment to Communism/feminism: Pearl Binder, Felicia Browne, Nan Youngman, Edith Tudor-Hart, Peggy Angus
Development and evaluation of a haptic framework supporting telerehabilitation robotics and group interaction
Get PDFTelerehabilitation robotics has grown remarkably in the past few years. It can provide intensive training to people with special needs remotely while facilitating therapists to observe the whole process. Telerehabilitation robotics is a promising solution supporting routine care which can help to transform face-to-face and one-on-one treatment sessions that require not only intensive human resource but are also restricted to some specialised care centres to treatments that are technology-based (less human involvement) and easy to access remotely from anywhere. However, there are some limitations such as network latency, jitter, and delay of the internet that can affect negatively user experience and quality of the treatment session. Moreover, the lack of social interaction since all treatments are performed over the internet can reduce motivation of the patients. As a result, these limitations are making it very difficult to deliver an efficient recovery plan.
This thesis developed and evaluated a new framework designed to facilitate telerehabilitation robotics. The framework integrates multiple cutting-edge technologies to generate playful activities that involve group interaction with binaural audio, visual, and haptic feedback with robot interaction in a variety of environments.
The research questions asked were:
1) Can activity mediated by technology motivate and influence the behaviour of users, so that they engage in the activity and sustain a good level of motivation?
2) Will working as a group enhance users’ motivation and interaction?
3) Can we transfer real life activity involving group interaction to virtual domain and deliver it reliably via the internet?
There were three goals in this work: first was to compare people’s behaviours and motivations while doing the task in a group and on their own; second was to determine whether group interaction in virtual and reala environments was different from each other in terms of performance, engagement and strategy to complete the task; finally was to test out the effectiveness of the framework based on the benchmarks generated from socially assistive robotics literature. Three studies have been conducted to achieve the first goal, two with healthy participants and one with seven autistic children. The first study observed how people react in a challenging group task while the other two studies compared group and individual interactions. The results obtained from these studies showed that the group interactions were more enjoyable than individual interactions and most likely had more positive effects in terms of user behaviours. This suggests that the group interaction approach has the potential to motivate individuals to make more movements and be more active and could be applied in the future for more serious therapy. Another study has been conducted to measure group interaction’s performance in virtual and real environments and pointed out which aspect influences users’ strategy for dealing with the task. The results from this study helped to form a better understanding to predict a user’s behaviour in a collaborative task. A simulation has been run to compare the results generated from the predictor and the real data. It has shown that, with an appropriate training method, the predictor can perform very well.
This thesis has demonstrated the feasibility of group interaction via the internet using robotic technology which could be beneficial for people who require social interaction (e.g. stroke patients and autistic children) in their treatments without regular visits to the clinical centres
BIM Academy: Future Learning Interviews
No full textAll training has the same common, business-critical objective: to equip learners with the skills necessary to be successful and, therefore, to enable organisations to reach their full potential.
For some time, as an industry, we have discussed “skills-gaps”. There is a clear lack of skill in the application of digital construction methodologies. With international standards in place instructing the use of BIM and digital construction processes on construction and infrastructure projects, we clearly have the what to do in place, but lack the expertise on how to deliver it!
That is why it is important to educate the benefits of digital working practices and how to apply them to projects from a young age. We need to not only tap into their curiosity of young people, but actively encourage creativity and innovation, then provide a platform to express this.
By introducing digital working methods and practices to our young generations now will future proof construction for the next set of innovators and forward thinkers to create even further progressive technologies and have the ability to apply these tools. Businesses are in desperate need of workers skilled in this area, educators need to realise they have the ability to close the skills gap
Flood risk management through a resilience lens
Get PDFTo prevent floods from becoming disasters, social vulnerability must be integrated into flood risk management. We advocate complementing conventional risk analysis by adopting a resilience lens in which the welfare of different societal groups is considered by adding recovery capacity, impacts of beyond design events, and distributional impacts
Below the parapet: a phenomenological exploration of adult inter-personal relationships for individuals who grew up with a sibling with a severe mental illness
Get PDFSiblings of those with severe mental health illness (SMI) have long been overlooked in research and, what interest there has been, seems to have been borne out of the desire to establish how best to engage them in providing care and support for their mentally ill brother or sister when their parents are no longer able to. The present study looks beyond this to how siblings themselves may have been impacted by their childhoods and what support they may need outside of any caregiving role. In particular, the current study focuses on how their childhood experiences may impact their inter-personal relationships in adulthood. Six adult participants gave accounts of their experiences, participating in semistructured interviews. The interview transcripts were then analysed, using Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis. Four superordinate themes are identified: The Stabiliser, The “Me,” The “I” and Surviving and Striving. The superordinate themes explore the experiences of the participants in regards to self and relationships. Many of the siblings in this study display signs of chronic anxiety and insecure avoidant attachment style. In addition, they display a very real difficulty in holding compassion for themselves, having recognition of their needs or managing conflictual situations. Furthermore, an entirely new finding has come out of this research, that these siblings display signs of defence mechanisms of binary thinking, omnipotent control and the creation of a false-self. The present study draws on attachment theory, parentification and post traumatic growth, to highlight clinical and research implications for Counselling Psychology. These include suggestions for supporting siblings in addressing their own suffering in order to restore trust in themselves, in their inter-personal relationships and in the life process itself
Wind Energy and the just transition. Political and socio-economic pinch points in wind turbine manufacturing and windfarm communities in Europe and South Africa
Get PDFThis report has been funded by the British Academy under the call the ‘Just Transition within Sectors and Industries Globally’(grant COVJT210011, October 27th, 2021 – March 22nd, 2022). It presents our finding from the research project ‘Wind energy and the Just Transition: Political and socio-economic pinch points in wind turbine manufacturing and windfarm communities in Europe and South Africa’. In this project, we explored four key pinch-points of the Just Transition: community outcomes leading to either acceptance or resistance to windfarms and skill formation, job quality and social dialogue in the wind turbine manufacturing industry.
This report presents our findings regarding four research questions:
1. How is the Just Transition defined by workers, managers, social partners, and community stakeholders in the industry?
2. What are the political and socio-economic pinch points at windfarm manufacturing sites and in communities where windfarms are located?
3. How are work intensification and intensified use of the natural environment resulting from the political imperative to deploy wind turbines quickly and at large scale dealt with?
4. How can the process of structural change, meaning here the expansion of the wind turbine industry, be managed equitably so that communities and workers benefit more broadly?
Our findings are based on data from windfarm communities and the wind turbine industry in Germany, Denmark, South Africa and the UK, which we collected between the years 2012 and 2022. The bulk of our data consists of semi structured interviews and focus groups with in total 156 participants including industry experts, local citizens, activists, trade union and industry representatives, managers in the industry and workers, managers and instructors from skill formation providers, and municipal policy makers. We complemented this data with secondary sources, news clippings and policy documents to develop community and industry case studies for each country