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The purpose of the research paper is to analyse the factors affecting remote work in terms of the selected socio-economic criteria and to determine which elements contribute the most to the development of sustainable work. In addition, the study describes the issues of remote education at the academic level and the challenges faced by academic teachers during the COVID-19 pandemic. The whole is embedded in the issues of occupational health and safety, with particular emphasis on the psychosocial aspects of the occupational safety of academic teachers in Poland. In the research process, the TOPSIS multi-criteria analysis tool (technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution) was used, as well as AHP (analytical hierarchy process), as an auxiliary method. The use of these methods made it possible to select the most important variable and to determine the ranking of factors affecting the analysed problem. Findings: According to the conducted research, the most important factor affecting the safety of remote work—in relation to the selected sustainability criteria—is overwork/workload. An equally important element was stress during remote work, as well as the organization of time, with consideration to the balance between work and home duties. The research has shown that the selected aspects of remote work can have a significant impact on the achievement of sustainable development goals by a given organization, and in relation to individuals, on the quality of life and the sense of safety and health at work.

Purpose: The article's main aim is to evaluate and analyze effective factors that motivate employees of family businesses in the industrial processing sector to work. Design/Approach/Methodology: The research results presented in the study were carried out in Poland. The research tool was a self-questionnaire containing socio-demographic questions and statements regarding opinions about the workplace and factors motivating to work. The survey research was preceded by a series of in-depth, unstructured expert interviews. The questionnaire was developed using the Delphi method. Findings: Employees of family production companies are to the greatest extent motivated by non-material motivation factors, the certainty of receiving remuneration on time, no mobbing and no discrimination, and job security. Among the material factors, the respondents are most motivated by non-monetary factors, participation in training and holiday vouchers, and monetary factors: salary increase and receiving cash prizes. The results of this survey provide important information for owners and managers of family businesses and researchers interested in the topic of employee motivation. They refute the previous (and usually stereotypical) approaches to motivating, according to which Polish companies' employees positively assess only material motivation factors. Practical Implications: The results can be used to build effective incentive systems in manufacturing family businesses. The achieved results may turn out to be particularly important for companies in crises (such as, for example, the global COVID-19 epidemic), during which the business continuity is disturbed and limited financial liquidity results in the inability to use material motivating factors. Originality/Value: The research provides practical answers to encourage further research and summary research globally about the family business., peer-reviewed

The psychosocial risks in working environment can and must be coped with just like it would if they were physical, chemical or biological hazards. Yet the employer awareness in this field seems relatively small. One should recognize this as a fault because a working environment free of stress overload favors not only the workers' health but also may generate reasonable profit as enhanced productivity and increased quality of work may be noticed (Merecz, Potocka, Wężyk and Waszkowska, 2012). Ergonomic quality in contrast to previous does not depend on few strictly identified factors that may be influenced by user, but is a result of a number of elements of macro environment (Butlewski and Tytyk, 2012). It becomes necessary to better one's understanding of the concept of psychosocial hazard and risk connected with it to be able to evaluate and lessen the risks. In subject literature one can find many titles that suggest usage of risk managing paradigm to successfully manage psychosocial risk. According to this paradigm the correct identification of danger is most important and must be legible, simple and easy to apply. It seems so that the described in this paper checklists proposed by International Labor Office (ILO) meet these requirements.

The aim of the publication is to emphasize the role of effective communication practices in shaping and maintaining a high level of occupational safety in production processes. Theoretical considerations were supported by a synthetic review of research results and supplemented by a case study of a manufacturing company. The study exploits the author’s questionnaire for the Communication Performance Assessment in the area of Health and Safety (CPA-OHS). The results of the research clearly indicate deficits in vertical communication - between employees and supervisors. The main problems are related to the lack of freedom in daily communication between employees and management and a low level of mutual understanding. The survey showed that the consequences of the current problems in the area of interpersonal communication may be intensified in the near future as a result of a deep reconstruction of the human-machine relationship, based for the first time in the history of civilization on cooperation with non-human intelligence.

Objectives This paper presents the results of research on the scale of psychosocial risks among miners. A comparative analysis was made, comparing the research results with the data obtained from workers in the following industries: metal, energy, chemical and construction - along with an indication of the relationship between stressful working conditions and the occupational functioning of the respondents. Material and methods The study involved 483 adults employed in mines in Poland. The study on psychosocial risks in the workplace was performed using Psychosocial Risk Scale, developed by the Department of Health and Work Psychology of the Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine, Łodź, Poland. Psychosocial Risk Scale is the scientifically validated diagnostic tool and is characterized by high reliability and validity of coefficients. Results The analysis of differences in occupational functioning between miners and other workers in heavy industry provides that miners are in general more healthy, less stressed, more positive emotionally and normatively committed to work, more satisfied with work, and more stable in the employment (as opposite to turnover intention) than the other workers. The results suggest that miners with a lower level of stress functioned at work better - they evaluated their health and ability to work better than miners with a higher level of stress. Their intention to change a job was lower than among those experiencing more stress. The most pronounced effect was observed for the influence on this dimension of functioning by job context risks (the higher level of probability, and the higher t-test value). Conclusions Occupational functioning of miners in Poland is better than the other employees in heavy industry. The analysis of differences in occupational functioning dimensions provides that a lower level of psychosocial risk in a workplace is connected with a higher level of job satisfaction, positive affective and normative work commitment and a lower level of turnover intension. Int J Occup Med Environ Health. 2019;32(1):87-98.

Pojęcie kompetencji, choć stanowi przedmiot zainteresowań wielu dziedzin nauki, wciąż pozostaje terminem wieloznacznym. Nie budzi jednak wątpliwości stwierdzenie, że kompetencje interpersonalne - zwane także społecznymi - wpływają na sposób budowania i jakość relacji z innymi ludźmi oraz sposób wykonywania zadań związanych z takimi kontaktami. Poziom tych kompetencji decyduje o skuteczności współpracy, porozumiewania się i wywierana wpływu na innych. W opracowaniu zwrócono uwagę na deficyty w sposobie właściwego postrzegania roli specjalisty BHP w zakładzie pracy na przestrzeni ostatnich dziesięcioleci; ponadto podkreślono konieczność jego rozwoju zawodowego w kierunku kompetencji interpersonalnych, ze szczególnym uwzględnieniem umiejętności komunikacyjnych. Opracowanie powstało na podstawie wieloletnich obserwacji środowiska pracy specjalistów w zakresie bezpieczeństwa i higieny pracy a także w oparciu o osobiste doświadczenia autorów w obszarze budowania relacji interpersonalnych w różnych grupach pracowniczych.

This article shows the results of research on psychosocial risks for a group of machine and plant operators (n = 1014) from the construction, chemical, energy, mining, metal and food industries in Poland. The Psychosocial Risk Scale designed in Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine (NIOM) by Moscicka-Teske and Potocka was used to indicate the occurrence of general and specific occupational stressors and the level of their stressfulness. The results revealed that the studied machine and plant operators experience job context stress - related to working environment features concerning work organization - more frequently than job content stressors - related to the type of tasks they perform. Moreover, a correlation analysis between work features and the health and occupational functioning of the respondents revealed significant but weak relationships between the variables (from -0.08 to -0.23). Comparative analysis revealed the differences between the studied sectors. Such a comparison makes it possible to set goals for each sector and to attempt to improve the distinctive areas.

The hereby publication includes presentation of the results of research on stress of work features in a group of transport workers. Moreover, the paper shows the relationship between work features and indicators of the occupational commitment of the respondents, stressing the need to find optimal solutions concerning implementation of the logistics strategy in the context of supply, flow and transport processes. The research results show that transport workers more often experience occupational stress connected with the context of work, namely features of work environment generated by the method of organizing work, the opportunities of professional development and the relationships with other workers, that the stress connected with the content of work. Within the respondents group, it was found that the strongest relationship between organizational stress and occupational commitment is the result of inappropriate relations with supervisors, and the elevated level of stress results in the lack of affective commitment to work and hence, the commitment based on continuance.

Computers are more and more often used in training people. One of the most popular methods in this respect is e-learning. One of its biggest advantages is that the student may choose the best time and place to learn, as well as the pace of learning. Thanks to constant access to the material he may come back to difficult issues, analyze them again or comment on forums. It is a convenient solution for people who for some reasons cannot participate in traditional indoor training and therefore are unable to access the whole material. However, contemporary training didactics emphasizes teamwork skills. It is more and more often indicated that teamwork has an inspiring influence on the workers. It boosts their activity, co-operation, rational work management and responsibility for real effects. The article presents the score of an exam in Information Technology. The exam was taken by bachelor degree students of logistics. 160 students took part in the research. A part of the students learned the material with a teacher and the other part through e-learning. The research shows the diversification of stores of both groups. The aim of this article is to show that using not the whole e-learning system, but only its certain elements leads to lower effectiveness of education process.

The following paper presents an IT tool for aiding assessment of a safety culture level in an organization in a form of an application, providing fast and easy way to analyze data obtained from questionnaires. Traditional data analysis often turns out to be time-consuming and labor-intensive. To make the process faster, more detailed and to find all the possible links among all the available data there is a need for an IT tool. The presented application has been developed with publicly available and completely free tools and technologies. It is a complete piece of software, fully flexible which can be modified or equipped with new functions (modules). The presented solution eliminates the time consuming process of “copying” data from paper questionnaires, and allows to get information about the safety culture level right after adding a questionnaire to a questionnaire database. The presented tool can function as a mobile questionnaire which can be used in any place with Internet access and to fill it in only a browser is required.

The article presents results of a safety climate research in a production facility. Assuming that work safety is correlated with safety climate it can be argued that by shaping the climate, which includes worker's comfort and beliefs regarding work safety management, one can efficiently manage organization's safety. So far it has been stated several times that workers’ tiredness and their mood can be a cause of their mistakes and in effect it can decrease their efficiency and the quality of their work. Safety level has been researched with author's questionnaire. The devised questionnaire allows to analyze the level of safety culture on many different layers, depending on company's needs and specificity. The results of the research has been presented both in a collective form, of a radar chart or safety climate index, with regard to researched group - i.e. depending on age, education, etc. The possibility of multi - aspect data analysis allows to adjust tools and methods increasing safety level depending on what is required. For example, adjusting safety training to workers’ age, or focusing on those safety aspects which in the questionnaire turned out to be the weakest points of the whole safety management system.

The article presents the problem of evaluation of safety climate in a production facility. It shows selected, most popular and available tools for measuring its level. On the basis of that there has been presented author's questionnaire for evaluation of safety climate level which includes, among other, the following issues: I. Knowledge of work safety, II. Values and beliefs regarding work conditions, III. Clear communication regarding health and safety at work, IV. Attitudes towards health and safety services - personal influence on health and safety at work, V. Superiors’ approach to health and safety problems, VI. Evaluation of training in the area of health and safety, VII. Stress resilience, VIII. Motivation to safe behavior, IX. Making use of cultural offer. To each of the issues there have been assigned five-question modules, to achieve clarity and legibility of the questionnaire. There has also been used five-point Likert scale. To confirm the validity of the above assumptions there has been carried out a piloting research which allowed to simplify and modify the questionnaire. The obtained results can be referred to age, education and job experience of workers. The final result is a collective comparison in a form of a radar chart, which shows general level of safety climate in the analyzed production facility, and allows for an indicator approach to the problem.

Background: Although there is still a lot to do as far as prevention and elimination of traditional health and work safety hazards is concerned, the problem of psychosocial risk prevention is extremely important nowadays. It is crucial to take into consideration the health of workers and promotion of health in the workplace, as the occupational stress epidemics is getting more and more widespread. Methods: The article is based on the statistic analysis of accidents at work as well as the analysis of health problems resulting from the job itself. The latest work safety reports have been reviewed and special attention has been paid to psychosocial risk analysis. The author has tried to explicate the terms of new and emerging risks as regards storage work. Results: Various threat aspects of storage work have been evaluated. Deficits in psychosocial hazard identification have been indicated. What is more, no correlation between occupational tasks of storage workers and their knowledge about psychosocial risks has been emphasized. An exemplified approach to warehouse psychosocial threat identification has been presented. The approach is based on the diagnosis of the current situation. Conclusions: The psychosocial risk of storage work may lead to health deterioration, greater accident risk and worse performance at work. Such consequences mean that the psychosocial risks affect both an individual and the organization. Therefore, we should expect more intense efforts to increase psychosocial risk awareness of both employers and employees.

A systemic approach to the issue of safety which participation of both workers and managerial staff is a part of is a trusted way of creating safety culture. The implementation of safe work in everyday practice is not easy, but possible. The OSH specialist plays a key role here, as changing workers’ attitudes and values is an effective way to improve safety at the workplace. The OSH specialist must have high professional qualifications, including social competence. He most often acts as a safety educator or safety instructor. The article presents results of the research conducted on a group of 215 workers. The workers underwent the obligatory OSH training, after which the increase of their knowledge was analysed. What is more, their subjective preferences as to the form of OSH training were later determined.

The article presents a developed Analytic Platform - Direct Safety, which can be helpful, especially for small enterprises, in determining own policy in the field of occupational safety. Small companies need indicators, on the basis of which they could anticipate and undertake actions aimed at weak sides of the occupational safety. The developed application provides means for analysing a series of aspects, variants and compilations between particular data. One can conduct an analysis anytime, arbitrarily changing selected criteria. The developed tool allows a complex analysis of collected data, considering all values obtained during the analysis of the company’s occupational safety state. The article describes the possibilities of the developed Analytic Platform - Direct Safety, on the basis of an analysis of results of the research in the field of measuring the level of the occupational safety culture conducted at a small manufacturing company

The paper presents a computer application ePiórkowski, which allows to carry out psychomotor efficiency tests using a computer. The software enables to measure the response time of mental skills such as: psychomotor response time, resistance to fatigue and stress, concentration and decision making time. The application is a precise mapping of standard measurement equipment called Piorkowski apparatus. The paper describes the rule of operation and the way of operating the application. It also includes a comparison of the application with the standard equipment and a presentation of additional functions, not offered by the traditional apparatus. What is more, the paper describes the construction, interface and technology used for the software development.

Safety at work is a combination of three basic factors which shape the general framework of doing a job. It is created by the specifications of machines and devices operated by employees, administrative and legal regulations which must be observed when doing a job and psychosocial conditioning of employees. In this context, more and more talk about the safety culture at work. The basis of the desired safety culture is the high value attributed to health and life. Assuming that work safety is correlated with safety climate it can be argued that by shaping the climate, which includes worker’s comfort and beliefs regarding work safety management, one can efficiently manage organization’s safety. The article presents the relationship between the promotion of OHS, safety climate and safety culture at work.