• Korean Journal of Labor Studies
• /
• v.23 no.2
• /
• pp.1-45
• /
• 2017

This study aims at explaining organizational mechanisms of inequality that has been rising rapidly alongside the proliferation of irregular employment in the post-crisis Korean labor market. It argues that inequality is not sufficiently explained by individual gap in human capital or widespread marketization as such. Social categories into which each individual worker falls seems more important as a source of labor market inequality. Employment types that are composed of regular and irregular employment do not simply indicate the different economic meanings of employment contracts but have rather been institutionalized as a social category of status in the context of inequality over the past two decades. They are also often matched with other social categories such as gender that have created and reproduced greater labor market inequality. We pay attention to the organizational practice of dominant incumbents who make claims for advantages of return based on their exclusive accessibility to limited organizational resources and explain how that particular practice plays a role to increase relational inequality between those insiders who achieve advantageous returns and outsiders mostly irregular workers who are excluded from those resources because of the social categories that they belong to. In this study, we identify seniority based pay as the key organizational practice that justifies categorical differences within the workplace and examine how that particular practice contributes to organizational level segmentation and income ineqaulity.

• Journal of dental hygiene science
• /
• v.21 no.4
• /
• pp.233-242
• /
• 2021

Background: The importance of infection with COVID-19 is being emphasized in dentistry with high risks such as aerosols. The purpose of this study is to investigate the knowledge and practice of infection control, stress and coping, and turnover of dental hygienists. Methods: Questionnaire was conducted knowledge and practice of infection control, occupational stress and coping, turnover. Survey data was investigated about 149 dental hygienists from February to March 2021 Data were analyzed t-test, ANOVA, Pearson's correlation using statistical programs of PASW Statistics ver. 21.0. Results: Regarding occupational stress, relationship conflict was higher in the group with less than 2 years of experience (p<0.05). Job anxiety, organizational system, inadequate compensation, and workplace culture were highly surveyed in the 3 to 5 year of experience. The group with more than 6 years of experience had the highest perception of lack of job autonomy (p<0.05). The group with higher knowledge of infection control had lower mean inappropriate rewards and stress (p<0.05). The group with high infection control performance had a lower average in items such as job instability, organizational system, inadequate compensation, workplace culture, and stress. And problem-focused coping ability was found to be high (p<0.05). Infection control knowledge and performance were positively correlated (r=0.251, p<0.01), infection control practice and stress were negatively correlated (r=-0.264, p<0.01), and stress and emotional coping were positively correlated (r=0.367, p<0.01). Stress was positively correlated with turnover rate (r=0.549, p<0.01). Conclusion: Infection control training was required to reduce occupational stress. Occupational stress was highly correlated with turnover, a holistic and systemic organizational operation and improvement of the quality of medical care were required to reduce stress.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
• /
• v.32 no.6
• /
• pp.125-130
• /
• 2017

The government operates autonomous safety management activities in the regulated safety management in order to prevent industrial accidents. On the other side, companies are promoting safety management in the workplace, such as improving the safety level of the safety system, but the major reason for the accidents is safety ignorance in the event of big accidents. This study aims to improve the safety culture level by analyzing the difference in safety culture among six workplace sites in the manufacture of food products and drawing the improvement point. The main result is as follows. In order to enhance the safety level of the safety system, it is necessary to minimize the number of systems to be implemented, and to strengthen the small safety management activities that workers participate directly in the workforce, and the incentive policy for the promotion of the safety management activities should be coordinated by each group. Due to the high proportion of female workers, the proportion of female workers should be encouraged to actively participate in the safety of women, thereby improving safety culture levels and improving safety awareness through customized safety education. By learning work procedures through theory and practice, the level of safety culture should be increased. Employees voluntary safety participation activities should increase the level of mutual safety culture. Depending on spontaneous safety participation activities, one should promote safety culture enhancement activities by enhancing the safety level of the safety culture and enhance safety culture through safety awareness, and promote safety culture and procedures for improving safety culture.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
• /
• v.25 no.4
• /
• pp.362-372
• /
• 2016

Purpose: This study intended to grasp real context of Cardiovascular disease (CVD)-related factors of Korean blue-collar workers, especially CVD-related knowledge, perception, beliefs, benefits and barriers of behaviors according to the health belief model. Methods: We interviewed twenty two workers working in two small-sized companies and performed two series of focus group interviews. Data were analyzed by deductive content analysis approach based on Elo & $Kyng{\ddot{a}}s$. Results: Excepting participants who have CVD risk factors, most participants had lower level of CVD risk perception. The level of CVD knowledge was low but there was difference by gender. CVD-related beliefs were 'fatal disease', 'caused by lifestyle' and 'difficult to prevent by themselves'. The risk reduction behaviors were motivated by current or family history of hypertension. But there were barriers to interfere practice of preventive behaviors such as poor quality of food provided by cafeteria in the workplace, frequent overtime, victim mentality as one of vulnerable social group, housework and financial burden, lack of facilities for rest and physical activity in the workplace. Conclusion: To develop intervention for reducing CVD risks in Korean blue-collar workers, we need to focus on improving CVD knowledge and perception and modifying work-related environments such as low quality of food and lack of facilities for rest and physical activity in the workplace.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
• /
• v.17 no.3
• /
• pp.515-526
• /
• 2017

Objectives: This study was carried out for the purpose of examining the levels of vocational awareness and the professional ethics recognition in the clinical dental hygienists. Methods: A survey was conducted targeting 500 members who participated in the supplementary education program for dental hygienists in the first half of 2017. Total 328 subjects' materials were analyzed. Results: A reason for working in terms of the occupational identity was very high with 81.4% in 'aiming to earn money'. A goal of working was the highest with 41.5% in 'financial independence'. The professional ethics approach level was indicated to be the highest with 3.33 points in the domain of human relation. It was shown to be in order of the job satisfaction level with 3.21 points, followed by the lifelong working with 3.17 points, the vocational ethics observance with 2.95 points, the workplace satisfaction level with 2.82 points, and the job anxiety level with 2.65 points. The domain in the job anxiety level according to general characteristics was indicated to be significantly high in the higher age and work career in case of the married and in case of Seoul as a workplace. The domain in the professional ethics observance was shown to be significantly high in the higher work career in case of the married and in case of Gyeonggi Province as a workplace. The domain in the lifelong working was indicated to be significantly high in case of the married. Conclusions: For the establishment of the right professional ethics as a dental hygienist and for the securement of its practice starting from the education for the dental hygiene department, the development of educational program will be needed aiming at the approach to the professional ethics and the reinforcement in the vocational ethics recognition.

• Safety and Health at Work
• /
• v.3 no.2
• /
• pp.123-129
• /
• 2012

Objectives: The study was conducted with the aim of evaluating applied occupational health teaching for final-year medical students at Hacettepe University, Faculty of Medicine. Methods: The study included all sixth grade medical students (n=293) during one academic year. Pre- and post-training tests were used to assess the magnitude of change in knowledge and attitude of students on occupational health, whereas the opinion of students on several aspects of the quality of teaching sessions were assessed by using post-training questionnaires. Results: Post-training tests revealed that the level of knowledge on all aspects of occupational health increased among medical students. An evaluation of the teaching sessions showed favorable results for the overall quality of the sessions: 81.3% of the students stated that the sessions were well organized, 81.7% remarked the workplace/factory visit was a valuable experience, and 91.0% stated feeling more competent on occupational health issues. Conclusion: There was a greater increase in students' knowledge on technical precautions than their knowledge on issues related to medical practice in the workplace. Visiting a workplace was found to contribute to the overall aim of knowledge and attitude change on occupational health issues. The scope of undergraduate medical education should be extended by improving occupational health education with respect to educational content, duration, and methods.

• Safety and Health at Work
• /
• v.2 no.2
• /
• pp.87-96
• /
• 2011

In 1967, the problem of occupational lead exposure came to public attention in Korea. Since then, regular progress has been made in lowering workplace lead exposures, instituting new workplace controls, and implementing health examinations of exposed workers. Past serious lead poisoning episodes made it possible to introduce biological monitoring programs on a voluntary basis in high-lead-exposure facilities in Korea. Industry-specific occupational health services for lead workers in Korea during the last 22 years can be categorized into three phases. During the first phase (1988-1993), efforts were directed at increasing awareness among workers about the hazards of lead exposure, biological monitoring of blood zinc protoporphyrin began, and a respiratory protection program was introduced. During the second phase (1994-1997), a computerized health management system for lead workers was developed, blood-lead measurement was added to biologic monitoring, and engineering controls were introduced in the workplace to lower air-lead levels to comply with air-lead regulations. Finally, during the third phase (1998-present), a new biomarker, bone-lead measurement by X-ray fluorescence, was introduced. Bone-lead measurement proved to be useful for assessing body burden and to demonstrate past lead exposure in retired workers. Occupational health service practice for lead workers, including the industry-specific group occupational health system, has brought considerable success in the prevention of lead poisoning and in reducing the lead burden in Korean lead workers during the last several decades. The successful achievement of prevention of lead poisoning in Korea was a result of the combined efforts of lead workers, employers, relevant government agencies, and academic institutes.

• Journal of Industrial Convergence
• /
• v.17 no.3
• /
• pp.1-8
• /
• 2019

This study examined the constructivist perspective and the characteristics of informal learning in relation to work place learning of sports center leaders through a theoretical approach. For this reason, informal learning has important learning meaning because sports center leaders based on informal learning enable them to develop their professionalism through workplace learning in terms of experience and practice in promoting the process of growth and learning. Can be. In addition, the leaders in the sports center coaching sites lack formal learning opportunities in workplace learning compared to office workers in general companies. Therefore, the type of informal learning and the way to improve learning should be presented. This part is considered to be an educational element as an important factor for the professionalism of sports center leaders. In addition, the establishment of a workplace learning environment in personal, environmental, institutional and organizational aspects will help sports center leaders to increase their professionalism.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
• /
• v.38 no.1
• /
• pp.55-61
• /
• 2023

Although corporate punishment-related systems are being implemented in several countries, such as South Korea's Serious Accidents Punishment Act (SAPA), related research has mainly focused on legal issues. This study aimed to compare and analyze the SAPA and Singapore's Workplace Safety and Health Act (WSHA) and Code of Practice on Chief Executives' and Board of Directors' Workplace Safety and Health Duties (WSHD). In addition, it was attempted to draw implications to enhance the effectiveness of the CEO's safety and health duties. For this study, a comparative analysis was conducted in 3 steps. In step 1, similar overseas systems were investigated. In step 2, the system contents were classified into four viewpoints (DUTY, RESOURCE, Other factors, and Main contents), and comparison items were derived from each viewpoint. In step 3, the viewpoints were compared, and implications were derived. The following three implications were derived through comparative analyses. 1) In WSHD, additional explanation and calibration of measures clarify the CEO's role, and 2) It is easy to use for the CEO's duties by providing the resources directly. 3) Penalties for violating the proposed duties are entrusted to the existing higher-level laws. Considering this, providing detailed content and related information for the CEO would possibly improve the SAPA to fulfill his/her duties through announcements from related organizations in the future.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
• /
• v.28 no.5
• /
• pp.376-391
• /
• 2023

Objectives: Our previously published study showed that a workplace nutrition intervention program with personalized goal setting and smartphone-based nutrition counseling improved dietary habits and physical activity in city bus drivers who were overweight/obese. This study explored the facilitators and barriers that participants faced in achieving their dietary and physical activity goals six months after the intervention. Methods: The study included bus drivers and dietitians who participated in the intervention program. Three focus group interviews were conducted with 10 bus drivers (divided by two groups based on their achievement of set goals) and five dietitians who had provided nutrition counseling. Results: Willpower was the most important intrapersonal facilitator for drivers to achieve their goals. Other factors that promoted behavioral changes were nutrition counseling by dietitians, trackable physical activity using smartwatches, and setting of practical and achievable goals. Meanwhile, the most important barriers identified were occupational factors such as long driving hours, short breaks, and shift work. Other barriers were environmental factors such as availability of snackable food, accessibility to convenience stores, and cold weather. Family and colleagues were perceived as both facilitators and barriers. In addition, dietitians identified a lack of knowledge about healthy diet as one of the barriers. Conclusions: Our results suggested that the workplace environment should be improved and that nutrition intervention programs at the workplace could encourage bus drivers to practice healthy eating habits. The facilitators and barriers identified in this study should be considered when planning a nutrition intervention program for bus drivers.