O-253 Constituting Synergtic Interplay Between Osh Regulations Adminstration and Work Environment Management and Development

Introduction Regulation administration is OSH authorities’ prerogative, while work environment management lies on employers shoulders, seemingly different work areas, with regulation administration as a way to control work environment management. How differently from traditional inspection outcome assessment can regulations enforcement benefit and change work environment management, and improve management strategies and practices? Method Cognitive work analysis (CWA), a formative framework focusing on changing behaviour by addressing the work domain constraints, was used to constitute critical interplay between enforcement and management practices. Three of the five dimensions of CWA, i.e. the work domain analysis; activity analysis and strategy analysis were employed. Data from workplace inspections was used together with input from interviews and other interactions with different subject matter experts (workplace inspectors, OSH professionals, workers and workplace management). Results Three aspects of critical interplay were identified. The first was effectiveness of workplace inspections viewed from inspectors performance, deviating from the traditional inspections’ outcome analysis which is subject to different external influences without any relevance to the inspections. Secondly, boundaries of work environment management were determined, and finally work environment development decision-making content was established. Discussion Building work environment management paradigms from regulations enforcement ensures both compliance and effective work environment management practices, since inspections provide wide empirical foundation on workplace challenges. Addressing constraints allows for effective implementation across work areas in different sectors, yet permitting specificity and dealing with situations unforeseen a priori. Conclusion Using CWA effectively provided for comprehension of workplace inspection and work environment management that allowed for constructive work environment management and development.