ABSTRACT
Developing safety and health “competence” at work is analogous to learning and developing expertise in, through, and at work. To understand the journey of workers becoming knowledgeable practitioners and their exercise of agency, it is necessary to understand the context at specific work sites, in relation to industry, occupational practices, national law, and legislative requirements. Workplaces provide rich learning experiences, where individual perceptions are continuously negotiated and shaped by competing discourses within the physical and social contexts of workplaces. Learning as experienced by different workers suggests it is determined by how individuals interact with and respond to those institutional and social imperatives in the workplaces, as well as their personal histories and epistemologies. Developing competence can be about being and becoming, about engagement and increasing capacity to act differently in various and varied work settings. The lack of trust between groups is a workplace culture issue and a cultural issue.
