Citation

Legg S, Olsen K, Lamm F, Laird I, Harris LA, Hasle P. Pol. Pract. Health Saf. 2010; 8(2): 5-35.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2010, Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (Great Britain))

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Little is known about how knowledge of the particular features of small businesses can be transformed into national occupational safety and health programmes that can successfully prevent accidents and occupational diseases. This paper describes a theoretical framework for an analysis of occupational safety and health programmes aimed at small businesses, based on 'programme theory' - the fundamental rationale and driver(s) underlying what makes a programme work. It describes the existing programmes in New Zealand and an in-depth analysis of three specific types of programme - general (the Workplace Safety Discount scheme), sector (FarmSafe) and local (the Waitakere City Council Cleaner Production: Boat Building Project) - each representing a particular strategy for reaching out to small businesses. In doing so, the rationales and mechanisms underlying each programme were sought and described in order to make them transparent. The programme theory for each was further examined through analysis of nine illustrative cases, involving interviews with owner-managers so as to examine how the programmes worked in practice. This afforded the development of a model for the national effort to improve the working environment in small businesses, which will have implications for the future development of small business programmes and for research. Our programme theory analysis indicated that the general, sector and local programmes in New Zealand relied mainly on economic incentives or on the small business's desire to create a better working environment. None of the programmes was properly integrated into the ways of running a business. They were largely ad hoc add-on programmes. Also, there was very little evidence of programme evaluations for intervention effectiveness. The implications of this for the New Zealand model, and for the introduction of the concept of programme theory in analysing national occupational safety and health programmes for small businesses, lies in the potential to facilitate a more systematic way of developing a cohesive national programme in order to reduce occupational safety and health risks in small businesses. It is concluded that programme theory can be a useful new tool in this regard.