• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.71-77
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• 2010

According to the Korea National Statistical Office data in 2008, the population over ages of 65 years would possess to 10.7% whole population of Korea in 2009 denoting Korea is already in the aging society. In addition, the office also expected that Korea would enter in the aged population over 65 years: 14.3% and post-aged 20.8% society in 2019 and 2026 respectively, and which suggests that an averaged age of workers in Korean industries may increase rapidly in future. The main purpose of this study is to assess the work ability and the job stress of each age group in order to identity the influential factors on those items. To this end, Questionnaires about work ability and job stress were distributed to practitioners in shipbuilding industry and statistical analysis was performed to assess work ability and the job stress based on the responses from the practitioners.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.171-176
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• 2012

Objective: The goal of this study was to assess work ability of Korean workers in the shipbuilding industry. Background: Old age is associated with inevitable time-dependent losses in physical capabilities. However the maintenance of physical capabilities is essential for continuing independence in old age. The work ability index(WAI) was constructed to reveal how well a worker is able to perform his or her work. Method: The WAI is a kind of survey methods developed to estimate the work capacity of aged workers by the Finish Institute of Occupational Health(FIOH) in 1998. The difference of the WAI between groups in each category was tested using the Kruskal-Wallis test, and the relationship between the WAI and the workers' ages was tested by the Correlation test. Results: This study surveyed 2,709 persons working in the shipbuilding industry in Korea. The average WAI score for all workers was 40.0 denoting a Good Level. Also, workers in the shipbuilding industry had lower work ability, as compared to the results of other industries. The WAI was analyzed for different age groups(${\leq}29$; 30~34; 35~39; 40~44; 45~49; 50~54; ${\geq}55$). The results of Kruskal-Wallis test showed that significant difference was identified on the effect of aging(p<0.05). Conclusion: Advanced countries like the Finland showed decreasing tendency in good and excellent levels as aged, but there was no decreasing tendency in Korean population. The results may be attributable to the general characteristics of Korean society, such as poor social security and burden caused by role of the patriarch. It may bring forth higher work ability in aged population even their physical condition is getting worse. Application: This finding could be used for developing more accurate assessment tool of work ability for working environment.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.125-130
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• 2012

According to the Korea National Statistical Office data in 2010, the population over ages of 65 years would possess to 11.3% whole population of Korea in 2011 denoting Korea is already in the aging society. Old age is associated with inevitable time-dependent losses in physical capabilities. However the maintenance of physical capabilities is essential for continuing independence in old age. The work ability index(WAI) was constructed to reveal how well a worker is able to perform his work. This study focused on the discovery of an industrial and age-related influences on the work ability and job stress of workers in the shipbuilding, house managing, apartment construction industry. For this, the study conducted a job stress test using the Korean Occupational Stress Questionnaire Short Form, and employee performance evaluations using the Work Ability Index (WAI) of the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health (FIOH) on 3,228 workers in the shipbuilding, house managing and apartment construction industry. SPSS 12.0 K statistics program was used for statistics analysis and significance was verified with the Kruskal-Wallis test, a corporate body of nonparametric statistical analysis. As a result, employee performance had significant differences, depending on age, an industrial and years of service. The mean WAI score of the shipbuilding industry was lower than that of the other industry. Additionally, it was found that employee work ability decreased more as job stress increased.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.43-48
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• 2016

Background: Work Ability Index (WAI) is a well-known and valid self-report tool that has been widely used in various studies to identify and avoid early retirement and work-related disability. Nevertheless, very few studies have been carried out to evaluate work ability in Iran. We aimed to investigate the WAI and the effect of work-related stress on it among Iranian workers. Methods: A cross-sectional, descriptive and analytic study was carried out among 449 workers from five working sectors in three big cities of Iran. Work ability and work-related stress were measured using the Persian version of WAI and the Persian version of Health and Safety Executive Stress Indicator Tool. Results: More than a third of the workers surveyed (34.70%) did not have an appropriate level of work ability (WAI < 37). There was a significant correlation between subscales of work-related stress and the mean score of WAI. Furthermore, the variables of body mass index, sleep quality, exercise activity, job tenure, and three subscales of work-related stress including demands, supervisor support, and role were significant predictors of WAI. Conclusion: According to the results of this study, the interventional programs must be focused on improving supervisors support, eliminating ambiguity and conflicts in the role of workers in their job and organization, reducing job demands, improving sleep quality, and increasing exercise activity.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.285-294
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• 2013

Purpose: This study aimed to explore professional autonomy, nursing work environment, and clinical decision making ability and to determine predictors of clinical decision making ability among clinical nurses. Methods: A cross-sectional design was used in this study and 263 clinical nurses were selected from advanced-level hospitals with over 500 beds located in D metropolitan city. Independent t-test, ANOVA, Pearson's correlation coefficients and hierarchical multiple regression analyses were done with the SPSS/WIN 20.0 program. Results: Clinical nurses reported moderate levels of professional autonomy, nursing work environment and clinical decision making ability. Marital status, professional autonomy and nursing work environment accounted for 25% of variance in clinical decision making ability required in various clinical settings. Importantly, being married, higher level of professional autonomy, and greater satisfaction with work environment were significantly associated with better decision making ability. Conclusion: Findings indicate that improving the quality of decision making in the healthcare settings requires awareness of the multiple effects of individual, occupational and environmental features. Nurses' ability to make effective clinical decisions may rely on personal characteristics, the degree of autonomy in their job, and nurses' satisfaction with their work environment.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.20 no.7
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• pp.35-46
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• 2022

Purpose: This study examines the effect of distribution knowledge sharing on innovation ability using work ethic as a variable that strengthens this effect. Research design, data and methodology: This research was conducted on 283 auditors who work at the Small Public Accounting Firm (SPAF) in Indonesia. The research method used is a verification method with a quantitative approach. The sampling technique used is a non-probability sampling technique with a purposive sampling type. Furthermore, the data analysis technique used is PLS-SEM. Results: The results of the tests that have been carried out show that distribution knowledge sharing has a significant effect on the auditor's innovation ability. Other test results show that work ethic has a significant effect on innovation ability and work ethic strengthens the effect of distribution knowledge sharing on auditors' innovation ability. Conclusions: Auditors in Indonesia have implemented distribution knowledge sharing activities optimally followed by a maximum work ethic to encourage high innovation abilities that will be able to create new methods and ideas that can be useful for clients. This research is expected to provide distribution knowledge to auditors to be able to improve their abilities, especially in the field of auditing to increase their competence as auditors.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.328-335
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• 2011

Objectives: Depressive disorder (DD) is a complex disease, and the assessment of work ability in patients with DD is also complicated. The checklist depression (CDp) has recently been developed to support such work ability assessments and has been recommended for implementation in insurance medicine, starting with an analysis of the organisational and social contexts. The aim of this study was to identify the potential facilitators and barriers in the use of the CDp by insurance physicians (IPs) during work ability assessments of employees on sick leave due to DD. Methods: A qualitative research was conducted based on semi-structured interviews. The participants were IPs with at least one year of work experience in performing work ability assessments. The interviews were audiotaped, transcribed and analysed qualitatively. Results: Ten IPs (7 males, 3 females; mean 53 years) were interviewed. Important facilitators, which emerged for use of the CDp, were an oral introduction for colleagues and staff, support from management, valuing the increased transparency in work ability assessments with using the CDp, having adequate time for assessments as well as modification of the appearance (colour, plasticised form) and content (clarifying aspects of the examples) of the assessment tool. The fear of the loss of autonomy, lack of added value of the CDp, high workload, inadequate instructions and lack of time were mentioned as barriers. Conclusion: Adequate introduction to the use of CDp and the fear of the loss of autonomy of IPs need special attention in planning its implementation.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Building Construction Conference
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• 2022.11a
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• pp.91-92
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• 2022

The construction industry is highly dependent on human resources and changes the degree of completion of construction work depending on the level of performance of engineers. As women's social advancement has recently expanded, the construction industry is also experiencing a large influx. Therefore, it can be seen that not only male engineers' ability to carry out work but also female engineers' ability to carry out work is important. Therefore, this study investigated the actual work conditions and work performance capabilities of female engineers and presented them as basic data for the construction of work capability improvement measures.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.504-513
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• 2011

The preservice elementary teachers' achievement goal orientations(mastery/ability-approach/ability-avoidance/work-avoidance goal) for science teaching were measured. The student teachers(91 males and 127 females) tended to have the mastery or ability-approach goals rather than the ability-avoidance or work-avoidance goals for science teaching. The male students were more learning focused than were the females, while the female students reported stronger work-avoidance goal orientation than did the males. This study also examined how the preservice teachers' achievement goal orientations were related to their science teaching efficacy beliefs(personal science teaching efficacy belief/science teaching outcome expectancy). As expected, the results showed that there were significantly positive relationships between the mastery or ability-approach goals and science teaching efficacy beliefs, while the significantly negative relationships were found between the ability-avoidance or work-avoidance goal and personal science teaching efficacy belief. The educational implications and future directions were discussed.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Dental Administration
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.62-69
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• 2023

This study aims to identify the impact of organizational culture on the work ability of dental hygienists and to analyze the factors that affect dental hygiene work ability. The survey was conducted from August 1 to August 30, 2022, and involved 193 dental hygienists from U and D cities. The data analysis method was conducted using the SPSS 18.0 software. The analysis revealed that age, work experience, and position were the demographic and sociological characteristics with statistically significant differences in dental hygiene work ability. Relationship-oriented culture (β=0.446), career (β=-0.439), age (β=0.358), position (β=0.280), and work-oriented culture (β=0.167) were the most influential factors in dental hygiene work performance. Therefore, it is necessary to work for an extended period to enhance dental hygiene work capabilities and to cultivate a culture focused on relationships.