Assessing the organization of health and safety at work: the development of a measuring tool within the French occupational risk prevention institution.

In an international scientific and legal context advocating primary prevention of safety and health hazards, the French network of prevention of occupational risks of the Social Security System has set up an assessment tool called "Grilles de Positionnement en Santé et Sécurité au Travail" (known by its French acronym as GPS&ST). This paper presents the results of a study designed to explore the design, dissemination, uses, and transformations of the GPS&ST matrix. The study showed that this tool encapsulates different types of assessment that have gradually diversified and now add up: the assessment of the way occupational health and safety is currently managed in a company to that of a professional branch and, more recently, the assessment of public policy on prevention. The paper also discusses the process of forming a public policy instrument used to enunciate and legitimize the evaluation of public policies on OSH.