Determining the prerequisites for effective workplace inspection by the occupational safety and health regulatory authority using cognitive work analysis

Abstract

Objectives. Earlier attempts to understand inspection work and improve inspection effectiveness are based on how controls are conducted and the interactions between the inspectors and inspection subjects. This study aimed to determine workplace occupational safety and health inspection effectiveness prerequisites using cognitive work analysis, an approach for design and evaluation of work domains, focusing on activities and work constraints. Methods. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and a survey with labour inspection authority inspectors, and by reviewing inspection reports and earlier studies on workplace inspections. These were used in the first three cognitive work analysis phases to identify the prerequisites of effective workplace inspection and designing inspection strategies. Results. An abstraction hierarchy showing the affordances was prepared, with purpose-related functions identified as the inspection effectiveness prerequisites. A contextual activities template and a decision ladder for inspection work were prepared. Strategy maps for on-site control were created, allowing design of structured and organized workplace inspection strategies supporting the work domain’s purposes. Conclusion. The analysis dimensions served the study sufficiently, providing the purpose-related functions with their respective subgoals and subsidiary functions that provided the prerequisite for effective workplace inspections and allowed for designing structured and organized strategies for on-site workplace inspection.

Keywords:

• cognitive work analysis
• workplace inspection
• work domain
• occupational health
• effectiveness
• control strategy
• on-site control

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to Dr Gavan Lintern, Monash University Accident Research Centre, for providing some literature materials, feedback and advice on how to develop the work further. Thanks to senior inspectors Caroline Schønning-Andreassen, Frid Mikkola and Temenoujka Entcheva for their contributions on issues during the analysis process. Thanks to all of the other inspectors who participated in the study and for patience in the repeated interactions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.