Risk assessment: A regulatory strategy for stimulating working environment activities?

This article analyzes the Danish approach to workplace assessment (WPA) following European requirements to establish legislation on occupational health and safety. Quantitative studies show that WPA can be interpreted as a success within the larger Danish firms. However, data from qualitative studies modify this picture by showing how attention has been focused on physical working environment problems while wider psychosocial problems have been ignored. The article claims there is no evidence from either the quantitative or the qualitative studies that WPA - even though positively evaluated - has become a recurrent activity within firms.