Near-miss events in the workplace serve as important signals for occupational accident prevention, and organizational responses to near-miss reports may influence employees’ perceived organizational support (POS). the association between organizational response patterns to near-miss reports and POS has not been sufficiently examined. This longitudinal study used data from an online cohort study of Japanese workers conducted at baseline (March 2023) and follow-up (December 2023). The analysis included 1,168 non-managerial workers who had experienced at least one near-miss event. Participants were categorized into four groups based on reporting behavior and the adequacy of organizational responses: reporting with adequate response, reporting with partial response, reporting with no response (reference), and no reporting. Associations between response patterns and POS at follow-up were examined using linear regression analysis. Employees in the reporting with adequate response (B = 2.16, 95% CI: 0.71–3.61) and reporting with partial response (B = 1.68, 95% CI: 0.12–3.23) groups showed significantly higher POS at follow-up compared with the reporting with no response group. The no reporting group also showed significantly higher POS (B = 1.63, 95% CI: 0.13–3.12). No significant moderating effect of company size was observed. These findings suggest that the quality of organizational responses to near-miss reports is associated with POS regardless of company size. Employees who reported near-miss events but received no organizational response showed the lowest POS, even lower than those who did not report. These findings highlight the importance of adequate follow-up and communication after near-miss reporting.
Avoiding loss-of-control events will be key to industry and society as AI technology is employed in various critical processes. In this article, we assess a hypothetical instability situation of an AGI − a singularity event − from a safety science standpoint. We present one way to describe the process of how a real time Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) in its interaction with the environment may set it in a runaway condition. Our goal is clarifying general and structural control issues of strong real time AI for design, safeguarding and legislation. In cybernetics, instability and hence, the risk of loss-of-control, is a core trait of all highly adaptive systems. Such adaptive behavior can manifest as radical reframing – a pivotal process of a system that enables it to solve very hard challenges, and which requires it to redefine its core concepts, goals, values, plans and procedures. What emerges is the AGI power dilemma ; a double-bind between performance and controllability of a real time system. We discuss the consequences for human control of AGI and prospects for safeguarding when optimizing for power and speed. Moreover, we conclude that the human in the loop approach gives an illusion of safety when the AI is optimized for power.
Most organisations generate travel and transport and thus influence traffic safety. Nevertheless, their roles and responsibilities for occupational road safety remain poorly understood. This study examines organisational readiness for occupational road safety with a particular focus on the relationship between organisations’ perceptions of traffic safety and the implementation of traffic safety measures. The study is based on a survey of organisational representatives in 109 companies in Sweden in 2025. The survey consists of two questionnaires capturing organisational commitment and reported measures to improve traffic safety in organisations’ roles as employers and transport buyers. An employer questionnaire focuses on traffic safety requirements for employees’ work-related travel and organisational vehicle fleets, while a transport procurement questionnaire captures the requirements on transport procurement. Organisational readiness for occupational road safety is analysed using Organisational Readiness for Implementing Change (ORIC), including perceived capacity to influence traffic safety, views on responsibility, and the integration of traffic safety into occupational health and safety (OHS) or sustainability practices. The results show that many organisations have policies for work-related travel and set traffic safety requirements for their vehicles, while such requirements in transport procurement remain limited. Regression analyses indicate that organisations with higher readiness are more likely to set traffic safety requirements, particularly regarding work-related travel. The findings highlight the need to strengthen organisations’ awareness of their roles and responsibilities, clarify expectations for organisations from authorities, and further integrate traffic safety into organisational management systems to reduce road traffic fatalities and injuries, in line with the global road safety agenda, often framed as “saving lives beyond 2025”.
