Towards the next generation of LMRA instruments: the influence of generic and specific questions during risk assessment

Abstract

Last minute risk assessment (LMRA) is a well-known work method to support employees’ risk perception. However, little is known about the effectiveness of LMRA in providing this support. Here, we describe an eye-tracking experiment with which we attempted to gain more insight into the relationship between LMRA and risk perception and to assess the difference between generic and specific supporting questions. Employees from an international energy production and desalination company participated in this experiment by assessing photographs portraying a (staged) work situation and deciding whether it was safe enough to continue activities and which risk factors were present or absent. The results show a consistent interaction effect over several parameters between work experience and the type of supporting questions, indicating that generic and specific supporting questions should be considered complimentary to each other. Furthermore, the results revealed several other challenges concerning real-world application of the LMRA.

Keywords:

• last minute risk assessment
• eye tracking technology
• risk perception
• risk assessment

Acknowledgement

This research has been made possible thanks to the support of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment (SZW).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplemental data and research materials

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed at doi:10.1080/10803548.2019.1699335.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 The Storybuilder (version 2.3.0.11) database can be accessed and downloaded online: https://www.rivm.nl/en/storybuilder.

2 Incident factors in Storybuilder™ are factors that had an influence on why certain risk factors led to an incident.

3 Actual employees who on a daily basis potentially encounter work situations similar to the ones photographed.