Brazilian version of an assessment tool for the evaluation of work organizational aspects (AOT) by the NIOSH WMSD Research Consortium: Translation and application in industrial sectors

Abstract

Work organization affects the production of a company as well as the health of employees. It is a challenge to create sustainable production systems with the least harm to the health. An observational assessment tool was developed by the NIOSH – WMSD Research Consortium and adapted by the SHARP study. The objectives were to translate this assessment tool into Brazilian Portuguese (as the Avaliação de Aspectos Organizacionais do Trabalho - AOT) and to evaluate its applicability in an industrial setting. The AOT final translated version was obtained after a consensus by the research team. Difficulties arose in applying the translated version due to technical terms with no direct equivalents in Portuguese, nonexcluding or similar alternatives, and questions that gave room for various interpretations, besides the great complexity of the tasks performed in the sectors. Despite that, the results suggest that AOT was sensitive for discriminating differences between sectors. Nevertheless, for better application of this tool in complex industrial environments, it is necessary: training and consensus among evaluators, familiarity with organizational aspects of the occupational settings evaluated. Also for assuring the internal validity of the analysis, might be necessary, the creation of subdivisions in the sectors evaluated if the tasks vary significantly intra-sector. The present report can help to understand the difficulties inherent to the evaluation of organizational aspects on a collective level and also the possible implications related to the translation of this assessment into other languages.