Starting with theory

In this chapter we consider the value of theory in guiding our approaches to safety and health improvement. You will see how a vision for a Total Safety Culture is a necessary guide to achieve safety excellence. A basic principle here is that safety performance results from the dynamic interaction of environment, behavior, and person-based factors. Achieving a Total Safety Culture requires attention to each cf these. I make a case for integrating person-based and behavior-based psychology in order to address most effectively the human dynamics of injury prevention. 

As you know, some safety efforts suffer from a flavor of the month syndrome. New procedures or intervention programs are tried seemingly at random, without an apparent vision, plan, or supporting set of principles. When the mission and principles are not clear, employees acceptance and involvement suffer. 

Without a guiding theory or set of principles, it is difficult to design and refine procedures to stay on course. This was the theme of Deming s four-day workshops on Quality, Productivity, and Competitive Position. Covey (1989,1990) emphasizes the same point in his popular books The Seven Habits cf Highly Effective People, Principle-Centered Leadership and First Things First co-authored by Merrill and Merrill (1994). 

A theory or set of guiding principles makes it possible to evaluate the consistency and validity of program goals and intervention strategies. By summarizing the appropriate theory or principles into a mission statement, you have a standard for judging the value of your company s procedures, policies, and performance expectations. 

It is important to develop a set of comprehensive principles on which to base safety procedures and policies. Then teach these principles to your employees so they are xmder-stood, accepted, and appreciated. This buy-in is certainly strengthened when employees or associates help select the safety principles to follow and summarize them in a company mission statement. 

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The format for presenting a written design report differs from that of a laboratory report. A laboratory report is more of a scholarly endeavor in which a scientific story is told starting with theory, proceeding through results, discussion, and conclusion. It is usually assumed that the reader will read the entire report. In a design report, the most inportant conclusions should appear early in the report, with more detail presented for the reader who reads further into the report. Such is the way of business, where you must effectively convey the bottom line to someone who may not have the time to read the entire report. 

I have heard questions like these at each of the Deming workshops 1 attended. They seemed to disappoint Deming (1991,1992), who would assert that the purpose of the seminar was to teach theory and principles, not specific procedures. It was up to the participants to return to their own organizations and devise specific methods and procedures that fit their culture. Deming stressed the need to start with theory and then customize practices. 

It all starts with theory. In this final chapter, I pull together 50 important principles that summarize the psychology of safety and lay tire groxmdwork for building a Total Safety Culture. I know 50 soxmds like a long list, but do not worry, I shall be brief. The principles will be familiar to you, having come from information already covered. 

When a system is not in equilibrium, the mathematical description of fluctuations about some time-dependent ensemble average can become much more complicated than in the equilibrium case. However, starting with the pioneering work of Einstein on Brownian motion in 1905, considerable progress has been made in understanding time-dependent fluctuation phenomena in fluids. Modem treatments of this topic may be found in the texts by Keizer [21] and by van Kampen [22]. Nevertheless, the non-equilibrium theory is not yet at the same level of rigour or development as the equilibrium theory. Here we will discuss the theory of Brownian motion since it illustrates a number of important issues that appear in more general theories. 

A fiill theory of micleation requires a dynamical description. In the late 1960s, the early theories of homogeneous micleation were generalized and made rigorous by Langer [47]. Here one starts with an appropriate Fokker-Planck... 

These quartic equations are solved in an iterative maimer and, as such, are susceptible to convergence difficulties. In any such iterative process, it is important to start with an approximation reasonably close to the final result. In CC theory, this is often achieved by neglecting all of tlie temis tliat are nonlinear in the t amplitudes (because the ts are assumed to be less than unity in magnitude) and ignoring factors that couple different doubly-excited CSFs (i.e. the sum over i, f, m and n ). This gives t amplitudes that are equal to the... 

In a non-Abelian theory (where the Hamiltonian contains noncommuting matrices and the solutions are vector or spinor functions, with N in Eq. (90) >1) we also start with a vector potential Af, [In the manner of Eq. (94), this can be decomposed into components A, in which the superscript labels the matrices in the theory). Next, we define the field intensity tensor through a covaiiant curl by... 

The optimization of a transition structure will be much faster using methods for which the Hessian can be analytically calculated. For methods that incrementally compute the Hessian (i.e., the Berny algorithm), it is fastest to start with a Hessian from some simpler calculation, such as a semiempirical calculation. Occasionally, dilficulties are encountered due to these simpler methods giving a poor description of the Hessian. An option to compute the initial Hessian at the desired level of theory is often available to circumvent this problem at the expense of additional CPU time. 

Twentieth century theories of bonding m benzene gave us a clearer picture of aromatic ity We 11 start with a resonance description of benzene... 

Although the inadequacy of the one-dimensional model [Goldanskii 1959, 1979] is well by now understood, we start with discussing the simplest one-dimensional version of the theory, since it... 

The original Rate Theory which describes dispersion in packed beds evolved over a number of years, probably starting with the work of Lapidus and Amundson [6] in 1952, extended by that of Glueckauf [7] and Tunitski [8] in 1954. The final form of the equation that described dispersion in packed beds as a function of the linear... 

The theory of crystal growth accordingly starts usually with the assumption that the atoms in the gaseous, diluted, or hquid mother phase will have a tendency to arrange themselves in a regular lattice structure. We ignore here for the moment the formation of poly crystalhne solids. In principle we should start with the quantum-mechanical basis of the formation of such lattice structures. Unfortunately, however, even with the computational effort of present computers with a performance of about 100 megaflops... 

The geometry from step 2 is now used in a number of single-point calculations at higher levels of theory, starting with MP4/6-31IG. This energy is now systematically improved, and the improvements are assumed to be additive. 

One can also obtain the theory of synchronization by the stroboscopic method. If one starts with the differential equation... 

It is appropriate to start with BaN6 since this compound has been studied particularly intensively and has been regarded as a model in the development of the theory of kinetics of decompositions of solids. The sigmoid a—time curves for BaN6 pyrolyses, Fig. 15, are typical examples of solid state autocatalytic behaviour. 

State the assumptions made in the penetration theory for the absorption of a pure gas inlo a liquid. The surface of an initially solute-free liquid is suddenly exposed to a soluble gas and the liquid is sufficiently deep for no solute to have time to reach the bottom of the liquid. Starting with Hick s second law ol diffusion obtain an expression for (i) the concentration, and (ii) the muss transfer rate at a time t and a depth v below the surface. 

The theory of the separation of geometric isomers on stationary phases that have a number of sterogenic centers has not been developed to the point where a particular stationary phase together with an appropriate mobile phase can be deduced for the separation of a specific pair of isomers. A number of theories have been put forward to explain the resolution of geometric isomers (some of which have been quite "imaginative" and "colorful") yet a reliable theory to help in phase selection for a hitherto unresolved chiral pair is still lacking. Unfortunately, the analyst is left with only two alternatives. The first is to search the literature for a model separation similar to the problem in hand and start with that phase system or, alternatively, resort to the technique of the early days of LC, namely, find the best phase system by a trial-and-error routine. 

In order to understand the Earth s character as a planet, it also is helpful to have an understanding of how the elements in our solar system were formed. Chapter 2 starts with the Big Bang theory and continues with how very small grains eventually came together and accreted to form the beginnings of what would eventually become the Earth and other planets, about 4.5 X 10 years ago (4.5 Gyr). The initial processes of the Earth s evolution involved heat... 

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