We would like to invite you to participate in our research which is looking at providing a set of indicators which could be used to assess a manufacturing company’s OHS progress towards sustainability from an ergonomics/human factors perspective. We have approached you because we believe that you are an expert in a manufacturing company with knowledge of assessing human and/or manufacturing progress in your company.
Participation will involve us emailing you a copy of the 22 indicators (with descriptions) that we have identified. We will then ask for a short interview (no longer than 30 minutes) where we will ask you your view on each indicator, whether it is a suitable indicator, whether it can be refined, or whether there is an important indicator that we have missed. The interview will be online or in-person depending on your availability and preference. With your permission the interview will be recorded. The recordings will be kept on a password protected computer until they have been transcribed, checked, and anonymized. You can choose for the interview to not be recorded and we will take hand-written notes instead.
Your participation is voluntary. You may choose to only answer the questions that you feel comfortable answering. Should you wish to withdraw from the study, you may do so at any time without consequence. Demographic variables and general information about the type of organisation where you work will be collected to help describe the sample. However, no identifiable characteristics of you or your company will be presented in the write-up of the study. Your answers will be pooled together with answers from other participants and other anonymized participants from the UK, Poland, and Pakistan.
If you have any further questions or need any results of the study, please contact us using the details below. This research study will be written up as a part of a journal article. On request we will provide you with a summarised copy of our results and if you wish, we will invite you to participate further when we start collecting quantitative information on each of the final indicators.
If you have any concerns or complaints about the ethical procedures of this research study, you are welcome to contact the University Human Research Ethics Committee (Non-Medical), telephone +27(0) 11 717 1408, email hrecnon-medical@wits.ac.za.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Regards
Andrew and Sonto