Course Learning Outcomes for Unit II Senior leadership at Sun Coast has identified several areas for concern that they believe could be solved using business research methods. The previous director was tasked with conducting research to help provide information to make decisions about these issues. Although data were collected, the project was never completed. Senior leadership is interested in seeing the project through to fruition. The following is the completion of that project, and includes statement of the dilemmas, literature review, purpose statements, research methodology, design, and methods, research questions and hypotheses, data analysis, and findings.
Running head: SUN COAST’S DILEMMA Sun Coast’s dilemma Dang Dinh Hong Columbia Southern University SUN COAST’S DILEMMA Sun Coast’s dilemma Introduction Senior leadership at Sun Coast has identified several areas for concern that they believe could be solved using business research methods The previous director was tasked with conducting research to help provide information to make decisions about these issues Although data were collected, the project was never completed Senior leadership is interested in seeing the project through to fruition The following is the completion of that project, and includes statement of the dilemmas, literature review, purpose statements, research methodology, design, and methods, research questions and hypotheses, data analysis, and findings Statement of the Problems/Dilemmas There were six business dilemmas identified Particulate Matter (PM) There is a concern that job-site particle pollution is adversely impacting employee health Although respirators are required in certain environments, particulate matter (PM) varies in size depending on the project and job site PM between 10 and 2.5 microns can float in the air for minutes to hours (e.g asbestos, mold spores, pollen, cement dust, fly ash), while PM less than 2.5 microns can float in the air for hours to weeks (e.g bacteria, viruses, oil smoke, smog, soot) Due to the smaller size of PM less than 2.5 microns, it is potentially more harmful than PM between 10 and 2.5 since the conditions are more suitable for inhalation PM less than 2.5 are also able to be inhaled into the deeper regions of the lungs, potentially causing more deleterious health effects It would be helpful to understand if there is a relationship between PM size and employee health Air quality data have been collected from 103 job sites, which is reflected in PM size Data is also available for average annual sick days per employee per job-site SUN COAST’S DILEMMA Safety Training Effectiveness Health and Safety training is conducted for each new contract that is awarded to Sun Coast Data for training expenditures and lost-time hours were collected from 223 contracts It would be valuable to know if training has been successful in reducing lost-time hours and, if so, how to predict lost-time hours from training expenditures Sound-Level Exposure Sun Coast’s contracts generally involve work in noisy environments due to a variety of heavy equipment being used for both remediation and the clients’ ongoing operations on the job sites Standard ear-plugs are adequate to protect employee hearing if the decibel levels are less than 120 decibels (dB) For environments with noise-levels exceeding 120 dB, more advanced and expensive hearing protection is required, such as ear-muffs Data have been collected for the primary variables that are believed to contribute to excessive noise It would be important if these data could be used to predict the dB levels of work environments before placing employees on site New Employee Training All new Sun Coast employees participate in general health and safety training The training program was revamped and implemented six months ago Data is available for two Groups; a) Group A employees who participated in the previous training program, and b) Group B employees who participated in the revised training program It is necessary to know if the revised training program is more effective than the prior training program Lead Exposure Employees working on job sites to remediate lead must be monitored Lead levels in blood are measured as micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood (μg/dL) A base-line is taken pre-exposure, then post-exposure at regular intervals, and at the conclusion of the remediation Data are available for 49 SUN COAST’S DILEMMA employees who recently concluded a two-year-long lead remediation project It is necessary to determine if blood lead levels have increased Return-On-Investment Sun Coast would like to know if all lines of service provide the same return-on-investment Return-on-investment data is available for air monitoring, soil remediation, water reclamation, and health and safety training If return-on-investment is not the same for all lines of service, it would be helpful to know were differences exist Literature Review Lung cancer, cardiopulmonary mortality, and long-term exposure to fine particulate air pollution C Arden Pope III, Richard T Burnett, Michael J Thun, Eugenia E Calle, Daniel Krewski, Kazuhiko Ito, George D Thurston Jama 287 (9), 1132-1141, 2002 Context Associations have been found between day - to - day particulate air pollution and increased risk of various adverse health outcomes, including cardiopulmonary mortality However, studies of health effects of long-term particulate air pollution have been less conclusive Objective To assess the relationship between long-term exposure to fine particulate air pollution and all-cause, lung cancer, and cardiopulmonary mortality Design, Setting, and Participants Vital status and cause of death data were collected by the American Cancer Society as part of the Cancer Prevention II study, an ongoing prospective mortality study, which enrolled approximately 1.2 million adults in 1982 Participants completed a questionnaire detailing individual risk factor data (age, sex, race, weight, height, smoking history, education, marital status, diet, alcohol consumption, and occupational exposures) The risk factor data for approximately 500 000 adults were linked with air pollution data for metropolitan areas throughout the United States and combined with vital status and cause of death data through December 31, 1998.Main Outcome Measure All-cause, lung cancer, and cardiopulmonary SUN COAST’S DILEMMA mortality Results Fine particulate and sulfur oxide–related pollution were associated with all-cause, lung cancer, and cardiopulmonary mortality Each 10-µg/m3 elevation in fine particulate air pollution was associated with approximately a 4%, 6%, and 8% increased risk of all-cause, cardiopulmonary, and lung cancer mortality, respectively Measures of coarse particle fraction and total suspended particles were not consistently associated with mortality Conclusion Long-term exposure to combustion-related fine particulate air pollution is an important environmental risk factor for cardiopulmonary and lung cancer mortality Length of occupational noise exposure and blood pressure Thierry Lang, Christiane Fouriaud, Marie-Christine Jacquinet-Salord International archives of occupational and environmental health 63 (6), 369-372, 1992 A cross-sectional study was performed in the Paris area, with a total of 7901 subjects; 432 of them were exposed to occupational noise ≥ 85 dBA Noise was measured by the worksite physicians, and length of exposure was collected through interview The subjects exposed to noise were mainly workers, their body mass index was higher and their job characteristics different from the other subjects, assembly line, shift-work and job under time pressure being more frequent Blood pressure (BP) was higher among the exposed subjects; this was no longer the case after adjustment for age, body mass index and alcohol intake Taking length of exposure into account, BP and the prevalence of hypertension increased for durations ≥ 25 years This relationship was still significant after adjustment for age, body mass index and alcohol intake These results suggest that a long occupational noise exposure is a risk factor for high blood pressure Chronic occupational exposure to lead and its impact on oral health Khaled F El-Said, Amina M El-Ghamry, Nehad H Mahdy, Nagwa A El-Bestawy J Egypt Public Health Assoc 83, 451-466, 2008 SUN COAST’S DILEMMA Chronic Lead exposure favours the formation of cheilitis, fissures, ulcers and epithelial desquamation of the tongue, palate and other parts of the oral mucous membranes The tissues of oral cavity may be affected by toxic agents either by direct action as in exposure to sulfuric acid fumes or through systemic exposure as in poisoning with heavy metals eg lead The Present study aimed to investigate the oral health condition of industrial workers exposed to lead in Alexandria governorate The samples included all workers chronically exposed to lead fumes or dust in a storage battery plant (400 workers) and working in seven departments where lead exposure was present These departments were evaluated environmentally for lead in air and their workers for lead in blood Oral medical examinations were carried out according to the items of WHO sheet designed for oral health survey with some modifications Results of the present study revealed that chronic exposure to lead significantly affects oral health condition among exposed workers and strongly correlates with increasing level of blood lead among them It can be concluded that the most common adverse effects of lead on dental health of exposed workers were the significant increase in the prevalence of periodontal diseases (gingivitis and periodontitis expressed as PI) and in the prevalence of decay (caries), missed and filled teeth (expressed as DMFT index) and dental An empirical analysis of the effectiveness of occupational health and safety management systems in SMEs Pablo Arocena, Imanol Núñez International Small Business Journal 28 (4), 398-419, 2010 This article analyses the effectiveness of occupational health and safety (OHS) management in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) In particular, we (1) provide an overview of the implementation of occupational risk preventive activities in a sample of SMEs; (2) characterize alternative approaches of OHS management systems; (3) assess the effectiveness of the identified OHS systems in occupational safety outcomes; and (4) analyse the factors affecting the adoption of such SUN COAST’S DILEMMA OHS systems The study is based on primary data obtained by means of a survey on OHS management in 193 Spanish manufacturing SMEs The analysis disentangles differences between the OHS activity of small-sized enterprises (SSEs) — those under 50 employees — and medium-sized enterprises (MSEs) — 50—250 employees We find evidence that the effort and type of OHS management system does significantly affect the injury rate More specifically, firms that complement traditional technical preventive activities with people and organization-oriented procedures are the most effective in reducing occupational accidents Such advanced OHS systems are significantly less developed in SSEs Our results also reveal that the choice of OHS system is determined by the quality of industrial relations, rate of unionization, intensity of price-based competition, access to public aid and training activities provided by the OHS public agencies, technology intensity, and the manual nature of workers’ tasks Research Objectives Sun Coast is facing a lot of problems These issues are affecting the operations of the company such as: personnel, cost, revenue, performance Specifically, the issues that Sun Coast encountered were: Noise, Particles matter, Safety, Training, Lead exposure, Return - on - Investment The focus of this study was on employees' illness-related absences and sought opportunities for the company to reduce costs and employee absenteeism due to working conditions Research Question and Hypotheses The study answers research question as well as a null and alternative hypothesis as below: Research Question One RQ1: Is there a relationship between size of PM and number of employee’s sick day? H01: There is a relationship between size of PM and number of employee’s sick day HA1: There is not a relationship between size of PM and number of employee’s sick day SUN COAST’S DILEMMA Research Question Two RQ2: Is there a predictive/causal relationship between lost time hour and training expenditure? H02: There is not a predictive/causal relationship between lost time hour and training HA2: There is a predictive/causal relationship between lost time hour and training expenditure Research Question Three RQ3: Is there a predictive/causal relationship between primary variables (velocity…) and dB levels of work environment? H03: There is not a predictive/causal relationship between primary variables (velocity…) and dB levels of work environment HA3: There is a predictive/causal relationship between primary variables (velocity…) and dB levels of work environment Research Question Four RQ4: : Is the revised training more effective than prior training? H04: The revised training is no more effective than the prior training HA4: The revised training is more effective than the prior training Research Question Five RQ5: Is there a positive effectiveness of the revised training in comparison to the prior training? H05: There is no effectiveness of the revised training in comparison to the prior training HA5: There is a positive effectiveness of the revised training in comparison to the prior training Research Question Six RQ6: Whether the blood lead level increase after 2-year-long lead remediation project? - Is there an increase of blood lead levels after 2-year-long lead remediation project? H06: The blood lead level does not increase after 2-year-long lead remediation project HA6: The blood lead level increase after 2-year-long lead remediation project SUN COAST’S DILEMMA References Creswell, J W., &Creswell, J D (2018) Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed method approaches (5th ed.) Los Angeles, CA: Sage C Arden Pope III, Richard T Burnett, Michael J Thun, Eugenia E Calle, Daniel Krewski, Kazuhiko Ito, George D Thurston (2002) Jama 287 (9), 1132-1141 Khaled F El-Said, Amina M El-Ghamry, Nehad H Mahdy, Nagwa A El-Bestawy.( 2008) J Egypt Public Health Assoc 83, 451-466 Pablo Arocena, Imanol Núñez (2010) International Small Business Journal28 (4), 398-419 Thierry Lang, Christiane Fouriaud, Marie-Christine Jacquinet-Salord (1992) International archives of occupational and environmental health 63 (6), 369-372 ... cardiopulmonary mortality, and long-term exposure to fine particulate air pollution C Arden Pope III, Richard T Burnett, Michael J Thun, Eugenia E Calle, Daniel Krewski, Kazuhiko Ito, George D... Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed method approaches (5th ed.) Los Angeles, CA: Sage C Arden Pope III, Richard T Burnett, Michael J Thun, Eugenia E Calle, Daniel Krewski, Kazuhiko Ito, George D... approximately 500 000 adults were linked with air pollution data for metropolitan areas throughout the United States and combined with vital status and cause of death data through December 31, 1998.Main