A variety of psychological traditions and methodological approaches formed a body of human error research in different parts of Europe. This book overviews some of the traditions that have grown in West European countries and Russia, with a strong emphasis on contextual approaches. For the very first time, West European readers will have access to a Russian literature in this area. Western and Eastern psychologists are linked by common psychological roots but disciplines evolved in completely different conditions regarding the material possibilities to collect data, diffuse ideas, and finance research, not to mention the respective political, legal, and socioeconomic frameworks. Authors outline and illustrate the convergence that emerged between the two traditions. This book is a unique reference text for graduate students and university libraries. Its rich content, and its empirical approaches will also be of interest to those who are undertaking research and practising in the fields of human error, safety, reliability, human factors, industrial hygiene, safety and health at work, and the legal profession.

This book investigates four core characteristics of occupational health and safety legal systems in order to provide a comparative and critical analysis of the similarities and differences in protecting the health and safety of workers at the workplace. In addition to analysing the health and safety regulations, the book addresses corresponding oversight and enforcement mechanisms. It compares and contrasts five different legal systems, namely those of the EU, the Netherlands, the UK, Sweden and China. Beyond offering an overview of the modes of OHS regulation, instruments and legal enforcement practices, the book helps to answer the question of how to improve working environments in order to protect workers from all kinds of dangers encountered at the workplace. The intended readership includes researchers with a background in labour law, comparative law, Chinese law and/or European Union law.

The concept of usability has become an increasingly important consideration in the design of all kinds of technology. As more products are aimed at global markets and developed through internationally distributed teams, usability design needs to be addressed in global terms. Interest in usability as a design issue and specialist area of research and education has developed steadily in North America and Europe since the 1980’s. However, it is only over the last ten years that it has emerged as a global concern. Global Usability provides an introduction to the important issues in globalizing design and an insight into the development of usability expertise around the world. The book is divided into two sections. The first section deals with the general issues in cross-cultural design and the methods for conducting usability design and evaluation across geographical boundaries. The second section describes the state of usability development in fifteen countries. The descriptions include a history and review of activities and include some unique perspectives that have developed in relation to usability work. Researchers and practitioners from a variety of design-related disciplines will find the book a useful guide for understanding the issues and an excellent reference source for working in any of the countries covered.

The discipline of Safety Management and Human Factors is a cross-disciplinary area concerned with protecting the safety, health and welfare of people engaged in work or employment. Injury prevention is a common thread throughout every workplace, yet keeping employee safety and health knowledge current is a continual challenge for all employers. This books offers a platform to showcase research and for the exchange of information in safety management and human factors. Mastering Safety Management and Human Factors concepts is fundamental to the creation of products and systems that people are able to use, avoidance of stresses, and minimization of the risk for accidents.

Accident prevention is a common thread throughout every aspect of our society. However, even with the most current technological developments, keeping people safe and healthy, both at workplaces and at other daily activities, is still a continual challenge. When it comes to work environments, ergonomics and human factors knowledge can play an important role and, therefore, must be included in, or be a part of, the safety management as a cross-disciplinary area concerned with the understanding of actual work situations and potential variables. This multidisciplinary approach will ultimately ensure the safety, health, and well-being of all collaborators. The main goal of this book is to present theories and models, and to describe practices to foster and promote safer work and working environments. This book offers: · Examples of field practices that can be reproduced in other scenarios · Applications of new methods for risk assessment · Methods on how to apply and integrate human factors and ergonomics in accident prevention and safety management · Coverage of human factors and ergonomics in safety culture · New methods for accident analysis This book is a compilation of contributions from invited authors organized in three main topics from eleven countries and is intended to cover specific aspects of safety and human factors management ranging from case studies to the development of theoretical models. Hopefully, the works presented in the book can be an inspiration for translating research into useful actions and, ultimately, making a relevant and tangible contribution to the safety of our daily and work settings.