Professional societies and occupational health policy reform

Earl Edward Wysong, Purdue University

Abstract

The objective of this dissertation is to explicate the structural and contextual bases of the policy and resource commitment decisions of seven health and safety professional associations concerning: "The High Risk Occupational Disease Notification and Prevention Act" (1985-88). The project also includes a descriptive overview of the background of risk notification as a policy and program issue. The research is grounded in organizational theory and guided by a political-choice model. The concepts of sponsorship, interpenetration, and resource dependency are posited as crucial causal/analytic interorganizational factors which (via varying levels/types) link the focal actors to the public or private economic sectors. Connections via these factors are expected to predispose the organizations' policy and resource commitment decisions in the direction of either support for (public sector) or opposition to (private sector) the High Risk legislation. Contextual events/circumstances are also considered to determine whether, or the extent to which these factors modify or reinforce the anticipated effects of the interorganizational linkage factors. A case-comparative, qualitative methodology is employed to assess the expected effects of the causal/analytic factors. The data are drawn from interviews with senior staff members affiliated with the focal actors and several other relevant organizations; archival and secondary source data are also utilized. As expected, those associations with close connections to the private sector (via members, leadership, and association income) are found (for the most part) to oppose the legislation; they also tend to deploy association resources in ways which weaken the proposed bills and/or facilitate their defeat. By contrast, those associations closely connected to the public sector are found to support the legislation and deploy organizational resources (in varying degrees) in ways which enhance the bills' chances for passage. Contextual factors are found to produce both reinforcing and modifying effects upon the causal/analytic factors. The overall results provide strong support for the view that the involvement of professional associations in the development of occupational health policy reform legislation is shaped in important ways by interorganizational linkages to the public or private sectors which thus predispose and condition the policy preferences and related political activities of these organizations.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Perrucci, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Sociology|Occupational safety

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