Emily (Yueng-hsiang) Huang, Ph.D.

  • Associate Professor, Oregon Institute of Occupational Health Sciences

Biography

Dr. Emily (Yueng-hsiang) Huang received her Ph.D. in Industrial-Organizational Psychology/Systems Science from Portland State University. During her more than 20 years as an occupational safety and health researcher and consultant, she has published over 80 peer-reviewed journal articles, 6 book chapters, more than 100 worldwide conference presentations/proceedings and has provided recommendations to numerous occupational safety and health practitioners. In a systematic network analysis of the first 4 decades of safety climate research globally, Dr. Huang was identified as one of the most prolific authors of safety climate literature. More recently since joining OHSU, Dr. Huang is engaging in research for Total Worker Health (TWH), and promotes occupational safety, health, and well-being. She is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association (APA) and the Society for Industrial-Organizational Psychology (SIOP) and has held a position as Associate Editor for the journal of Accident Analysis and Prevention since 2009.

While conducting research in both the laboratory and the field, Dr. Huang has led multidisciplinary efforts in investigating safety perceptions, and in developing and evaluating safety climate measures for a variety of industries. Most notably, she and her team developed a safety climate scale for lone workers in the trucking industry, a group plagued by accidents that had long been ignored because they were not a traditional work group. In recent years, safety climate has captured the attention of companies and scientists looking to reduce accidents and injuries. Companies that understand and monitor safety climate can identify where problems may lie and take appropriate steps to proactively improve safety. Dr. Huang has assisted a consulting unit of a worker-comp insurance company in implementing safety climate surveys with numerous companies across various industries to help improve the safety of these clients workers.

At the Institute, Dr. Huang will continue studying and finding solutions to improve occupational safety and health. Her plans include continuing to develop various organizational climate scales, implementing occupational safety climate scales with companies, and building various industry database/benchmarks. She plans to bring in the holistic view/systems approach to the study of what is next after conducting organizational climate surveys and to develop and validate various organizational climate and culture and other safety interventions. I hope my work can help build a better, healthier, and safer workplace.

Education and training

    • B.A., 1994, National Chengchi University
    • M.S., 1996, San Francisco State University
    • Ph.D., 2000, Portland State University

Memberships and associations:

  • Society of Occupational Health Psychology (SOHP): Member, Member-at-Large, Conference Committee Chair, Education and Training Committee Chair
  • Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP): Member, Fellow
  • American Society of Safety Engineers Foundation (ASSEF): LMRIS representative on the Research Committee, 2005-2008
  • American Psychological Association: Member, Fellow

Areas of interest

  • Safety Climate
  • Total Worker Health
  • Safety Culture
  • COVID-19 Safety Climate
  • Tradeswomen Safety, Health, and Well-being

Honors and awards

  • 2016 President’s Award winner, Liberty Mutual CI President’s Award for contributions to safety climate research and impact on the field
  • 2015 2nd place, Work Stress and Health Conference 2015: Best Intervention Paper Award
  • 2015 APA Fellow, awarded American Psychological Association (APA) Fellow status in recognition
  • 2015 SIOP Fellow, Awarded Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) Fellow
  • 2014 Winner, Liberty Mutual Research Institute Best Paper Award
  • 2012 Winner, Liberty Mutual Research Institute Best Paper Award
  • 2011 International Outstanding Scholar, Outstanding international research scholar travel award (from Taiwanese’s government).
  • 2011 3rd place, Best paper competition: Development of the return-to-work self-efficacy (RTWSE-19)
  • 2010 Winner, Liberty Mutual Research Institute Bravo (Diamond) Award

Publications

Selected publications

  • A systematic review of the safety climate intervention literature: Past trends and future directions. Lee J, Huang YH, Cheung JH, Chen Z, Shaw WS. J Occup Health Psychol. 2019: 10.1037/ocp0000113. PMID: 29697992
  • Does talking the talk matter? Effects of supervisor safety communication and safety climate on long-haul truckers' safety performance. Huang YH, Sinclair RR, Lee J, McFadden AC, Cheung JH, Murphy LA. Accid Anal Prev. 2018 Aug;117:357-367. doi: 10.1016/j.aap.2017.09.006. Epub 2018 Feb 28. PMID:29500055
  • A sociotechnical systems approach to enhance safety climate in the trucking industry: Development of a methodology. Murphy LA, Robertson MM, Huang YH, Jeffries S, Dainoff MJ. Appl Ergon. 2018 Jan;66:82-88. doi: 10.1016/j.apergo.2017.08.001. Epub 2017 Aug 29. PMID: 28958433
  • A sociotechnical systems approach to enhance safety climate in the trucking industry: Results of an in-depth investigation. Murphy LA, Huang YH, Robertson MM, Jeffries S, Dainoff MJ. Appl Ergon. 2018 Jan;66:70-81. doi: 10.1016/j.apergo.2017.08.002. Epub 2017 Aug 29. PMID: 28958432
  • Improvements in musculoskeletal health and computing behaviors: Effects of a macroergonomics office workplace and training intervention. Robertson MM, Huang YH, Lee J. Appl Ergon. 2017 Jul;62:182-196. doi: 10.1016/j.apergo.2017.02.017. Epub 2017 Apr 6. PMID: 28411728
  • An item-response theory approach to safety climate measurement: The Liberty Mutual Safety Climate Short Scales. Huang YH, Lee J, Chen Z, Perry M, Cheung JH, Wang M. Accid Anal Prev. 2017 Jun;103:96-104. doi: 10.1016/j.aap.2017.03.015. Epub 2017 Apr 7. PMID: 28391093
  • Individual employee's perceptions of " Group-level Safety Climate" (supervisor referenced) versus " Organization-level Safety Climate" (top management referenced): Associations with safety outcomes for lone workers. Huang YH, Lee J, McFadden AC, Rineer J, Robertson MM. Accid Anal Prev. 2017 Jan;98:37-45. doi: 10.1016/j.aap.2016.09.016. Epub 2016 Sep 28. PMID: 27685174
  • Beyond safety outcomes: An investigation of the impact of safety climate on job satisfaction, employee engagement and turnover using social exchange theory as the theoretical framework. Huang YH, Lee J, McFadden AC, Murphy LA, Robertson MM, Cheung JH, Zohar D. Appl Ergon. 2016 Jul;55:248-257. doi: 10.1016/j.apergo.2015.10.007. Epub 2015 Nov 21. PMID: 26611987
  • Development and validation of safety climate scales for lone workers using truck drivers as exemplar. Y Huang, D Zohar, MM Robertson, A Garabet, J Lee, LA Murphy. 2013. Transportation research part F: traffic psychology and behaviour 17, 5-19
  • Development and validation of safety climate scales for mobile remote workers using utility/electrical workers as exemplar. Huang YH, Zohar D, Robertson MM, Garabet A, Murphy LA, Lee J. Accid Anal Prev. 2013 Oct;59:76-86. doi: 10.1016/j.aap.2013.04.030. Epub 2013 May 10. PMID: 23764880

Publications

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