Adoption of Multimedia Ohse Inductions

Occupational Health, Safety and Environment (OHSE) inductions are used to ensure that employees and stakeholders understand OHSE policies. Despite research suggesting the superiority of face-to-face communication in the transmission of vital information and contrary to the lack of productivity/profitability evidence for information technology in general and multimedia in particular, classroom style OHSE inductions are increasingly being replaced by interactive multimedia. The research described in this paper considers a number of theoretical platforms relating to innovation, marketing, adoption and the productivity-profitability paradox (PPP) and explores the influences behind the shift to multimedia OHSE inductions. Case study data was collected from 21 adopting organizations. Adoption by others, Demonstratability, Job Relevance, Image and Output Quality were identified as important change factors. The PPP was both contradicted and supported – multimedia was found to be very cost effective, but on the other hand ‘profits’ were traded away before they hit the bottom line. Major factors in influencing enterprises to adopt were transaction efficiency and the superior consistency of multimedia delivery.