Conference award for safety specialist

Chao Nkhungulu Mulenga (right in picture), a lecturer in organisational psychology in UCT's School of Management Studies, picked up an award for best paper - and $250 in prize money - at the 10th International Symposium in Organisational Design and Management.

The conference, held at Rhodes University, looked specifically at the human factors in organisational design and management. Mulenga's paper was based on her doctoral research, which investigated the relationship between leadership, work pressure, and health and safety behaviour in the South African construction industry.

She found that although top management were key in the development and framing of health and safety policies and procedures, it was the proximal supervisors who really shaped the health and safety behaviour of workers. Mulenga's paper was co-authored with her PhD supervisors, UCT's Prof Jeffrey Bagraim (in picture with Mulenga) and John Smallwood of the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University.