Practices, preferences, and understandings of rewarding to improve safety in high-risk industries.

INTRODUCTION: This article examines employers' practices and employees' experiences of incentive programmes that aim to encourage and reward safe behavior in high-risk industries, focusing particularly on the oil and gas sector. Little qualitative research has been carried out that explores how employees would like to be recogniz ed and rewarded within such programs in the oil and gas sector and why, and what their understandings of safety and rewarding are. METHOD: Drawing on 41 semi-structured interviews and observation research across eight sites in three countries, we examine safety incentivization practices, preferences, and understandings. The use of Hazard Identification cards is also being discussed. RESULTS: One of our findings is that, contrary to the assumptions of managers and supervisors that material awards are particularly motivational, many employees preferred symbolic recognition, care by the company, the provision of training and professional development, and investment into improving their wellbeing. We also identify a preference for collective recognition over individual rewards and discuss the values of certificates. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that rewarding practices of large multinational companies should become more responsive to the individual wishes of employees and their specific socio-economic contexts and highlight the importance of employee involvement in reward programs.

Landscape and well-being: A conceptual framework and an example.

This article explores why landscape is a crucial element in researching the relationship between environment and well-being. The main point we make is that human social agents are embedded in particular landscapes, and it is in landscapes that environmental changes are experienced, which can have implications for well-being. We draw from a variety of perspectives on landscape that understands a fundamental creative relation between humans and landscape and recent developments in neo-materialism theorising. Landscape is understood here as an assemblage of different forms of matter, animate and inanimate objects, as well as symbolic and cultural processes. A case study is also presented to indicate how landscape can be studied in relation to environment and change. Using the conceptual ideas laid out in the first section of the article, we analyse landscape, environment and well-being in Xuan Thuy National Park in North Vietnam. The area is part of a precarious coastal region where extreme weather events have impacted on the well-being of both humans and other matter. This article concludes with suggestions on the use of this landscape approach in researching environment and well-being.