This project explores the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into public services to modernise administrations, improve efficiency and transparency, and increase the legitimacy of public policies. Digitalisation plays a key role in these reforms, although its impact varies depending on the context and the nature of the tasks. In Switzerland, despite advanced economic development, the adoption of e-government is still lagging behind, held back by structural and cultural obstacles. The aim of this project is to study how AI influences interactions between public officials and users in a cantonal administration, taking into account contextual factors and officials' perceptions of digitalisation.

Research team within HES-SO: Weissbrodt Rafael , Bürki Florian , Cimmino Francesco Maria , Hannart Stéphanie

Durée du projet: 01.10.2024 - 30.06.2025

Montant global du projet: 79'900 CHF

Statut: Ongoing

Completed

Bidirectional data flow to prevent natural hazards on roadways: a bottom-up approach (VIALEA)

Role: Main Applicant

Financement: HES-SO Valais-Wallis

Description du projet :

Mountain roads are particularly vulnerable to gravity-related phenomena (rock falls, landslides, subsidence, etc.). Damage to the road surface can endanger users, including bus drivers and their customers. This paper presents the results of a pilot project aimed at assessing the relevance for bus drivers of a system that would provide them with information on events and risk areas and enable them to share their own observations. The analysis focused on a team of around fifteen people working in a valley in the Swiss canton of Valais. It was based on observation, a focus group and self-confrontation interviews. The results show the value of such a system, as a complement to the professional knowledge and informal exchange networks that have been established between the drivers and other local stakeholders.

Research team within HES-SO: Weissbrodt Rafael , Marques Pisoeiro Jessica , Fragniere Emmanuel , Bianchi Christophe

Partenaires académiques: Bardou Eric, Haute école d'ingénierie, HES-SO Valais-Wallis

Partenaires professionnels: Comby François, CarPostal

Durée du projet: 15.05.2024 - 31.12.2024

Montant global du projet: 20'000 CHF

Statut: Completed

Resilient healthcare: a response to the consequences of global warming on health and healthcare institutions?

Role: Main Applicant

Financement: HES-SO Health domain

Description du projet :

Climate change increases morbidity and mortality, accentuating the imbalance between care needs and healthcare resources. While publications have addressed specific public health consequences, they do not provide a comprehensive framework encompassing the wide diversity of impacts on the operation of healthcare institutions, nor of the adaptation and mitigation measures needed to face these challenges. Although the concept of resilient healthcare has been used to study responses to various threats, its potential to analyze institutional responses to climate change remains underexplored. Significant gaps also exist in understanding changing healthcare needs and ethical issues in the context of global warming. Using a Delphi approach involving ten international climate experts and three steps (semi-structured interviews and thematic analysis, prioritization, and final consensus), this study developed a holistic model of climate change impacts, mitigation, and adaptation for healthcare institutions in Switzerland. The Delphi approach was supplemented by interviews with 19 representatives of healthcare institutions and public health services in French-speaking Switzerland, to assess their perceptions and preparedness.

Research team within HES-SO: Weissbrodt Rafael , Hannart Stéphanie , Fournier Claude-Alexandre , Roos Pauline

Partenaires académiques: Juvet Typhaine, Haute école Arc santé

Durée du projet: 01.11.2021 - 31.01.2024

Montant global du projet: 99'000 CHF

Statut: Completed

The transmission of tacit skills between generations in the workplace: a study of new employees and retirements

Role: Co-applicant

Financement: HES-SO Valais-Wallis

Description du projet :

The project aimed to study the tacit knowledge developed within organisations. This rich knowledge is generally undervalued during job transitions. Particularly in an increasingly digitalised world, many skills disappear when long-serving employees retire. This issue of knowledge transfer was studied within this project through multidisciplinary and intergenerational research. Specifically, the focus was on the transmission of knowledge between recent retirees and new employees taking over their positions. Pairs of recent retirees and new employees doing the same activities were interviewed individually, in order to highlight their knowledge of the activity. Interviews were compared pairwise, based on two methods of language process analysis, one using AI and another involving manual coding. Collective self-confrontations interviews with both interviewees were also conducted, to deepen the understanding of the transmission processes. The analysis highlighted knowledge gaps between the two generations, as well as enabling and hindering factors affecting the transmission of knowledge.

Research team within HES-SO: Weissbrodt Rafael , Cimmino Francesco Maria , Bürki Florian

Durée du projet: 01.01.2023 - 31.12.2023

Montant global du projet: 15'200 CHF

Statut: Completed

Developing trust in interprofessional care teams: dimensions, facilitators and obstacles

Role: Co-applicant

Requérant(e)s: Corbaz-Kurth Sandrine, Haute école Arc santé

Financement: HES-SO Health domain

Description du projet :

Interprofessional collaboration in healthcare is defined by the WHO as effective collaboration and the optimisation of shared competencies among professionals from different fields, all in the service of patient health. A high level of trust appears essential to initiate collaborative processes. This study explored the importance, essence, and essential components of interprofessional trust, as well as its determinants and consequences on professionals, activities, organisation, and patients. Our results show that the level of interprofessional trust in healthcare settings is crucial because professionals often face risky and complex situations where errors in judgement can have serious consequences for patients. Aligned with theories of workplace trust, the emergence of interprofessional trust is based on both affective components that help build relationships and cognitive components that enable the resolution of complex problems and appropriate patient care. The level of trust influences the health, well-being, activities, and performance of professionals, as well as patient care, experiences, and safety. A dynamic model of interprofessional trust was developed, along with the foundations of a future evaluation questionnaire designed to assess the determinants of interprofessional trust.

Research team within HES-SO: Weissbrodt Rafael , Salamin-Plaschy Isabelle , Hannart Stéphanie

Partenaires académiques: Corbaz-Kurth Sandrine, Haute école Arc santé; Juvet Typhaine, Haute école Arc santé

Durée du projet: 01.09.2021 - 31.05.2023

Montant global du projet: 101'500 CHF

Statut: Completed

Analysis of the perception of risks related to permafrost degradation to guide prevention (RISKFROST)

Role: Co-applicant

Requérant(e)s: Caroly Sandrine, Université Grenoble-Alpes

Financement: Alliance Campus Rhodanien

Description du projet :

Mountain permafrost warming resulting from climate change increases gravitational hazards. This interdisciplinary study compared the networks of actors involved in managing such hazards in three regions of the European Alps. Interviews were conducted with 40 people (members of local authorities, mountain professionals, and private citizens) at the foot of Mont Blanc (Chamonix, France), in the Vanoise massif (France), and in the canton of Valais (Switzerland). Data were analysed qualitatively and quantitatively using interaction matrices and network diagrams. Communal authorities played a central role but partnered with many other public and private actors. In Valais, collaboration to protect infrastructure and inhabited areas was centred around communal and cantonal authorities. In Chamonix, the network of actors gave a significant role to mountain professionals. In Vanoise, the network was less dense and less well-defined, although actors had high expectations regarding awareness-raising and prevention. Sources of tension existed in all three networks, particularly between authorities and mountain professionals. To strengthen community resilience, authorities should develop more mechanisms for citizen participation in risk management.

Research team within HES-SO: Weissbrodt Rafael , Marques Pisoeiro Jessica

Partenaires académiques: Caroly Sandrine, Université Grenoble-Alpes

Durée du projet: 01.04.2021 - 31.05.2022

Montant global du projet: 13'400 CHF

Statut: Completed

Preventing and managing the risk of electricity blackouts in Valais: Representations and practices of institutional and private stakeholders

Role: Main Applicant

Description du projet :

This interdisciplinary action research project (ergonomics, psychology, work psychology, economics, public management and policy) focussed on the management of the risk of power outage. It aimed at analysing the risk perceptions of a set of actors representing public institutions, electricity production and distribution companies, and citizens. By immersing themselves in a probable blackout scenario during an individual interview, these people were led to verbalise their experiences and knowledge, as well as the role they would play and the behaviours they would adopt, if this scenario were to materialise. A content analysis revealed recurring aspects common to several actors, but also specificities linked to their activity. The results underline the need to develop exchanges and coordination between these actors, so as to develop a common operational reference framework for the various institutions involved in the prevention and management of a power outage.

Research team within HES-SO: Weissbrodt Rafael , Marques Pisoeiro Jessica , Hannart Stéphanie

Durée du projet: 01.01.2020 - 31.03.2022

Statut: Completed

Healthcare staff and the COVID-19 crisis: Organisational resilience, coping, and collective self-regulation strategies

Role: Main Applicant

Financement: HES

Description du projet :

The project focused on the organisational resilience of healthcare institutions during the COVID-19 pandemic. It aimed to explore the processes implemented by staff to address problematic work situations caused by this crisis. The investigations covered both the individual level (coping strategies) and the collective level (anticipation and adaptation processes within teams). The study also aimed to identify the effects of these processes on work performance and constraints. It was based on a longitudinal protocol, with a questionnaire administered three times to the same sample, in spring and summer 2020, and then during winter 2020-2021.

The study enabled the construction and testing of a measurement instrument for organisational resilience. It produced novel insights into the anticipation, detection, and adaptation processes implemented by teams in the context of the pandemic. The results helped to better highlight the role of frontline professionals in organisational resilience, in order to optimise crisis management systems in healthcare institutions. Theoretically, the study enriches the developing field of ‘resilient healthcare’. Finally, it provides interesting results on a little-studied theme: the relationships between individual coping and organisational resilience processes.

Research team within HES-SO: Weissbrodt Rafael , Roos Pauline

Partenaires académiques: Corbaz-Kurth Sandrine, Haute école Arc santé

Partenaires professionnels: Jacques Pralong, Hôpitaux universitaires de Genève

Durée du projet: 01.05.2020 - 15.09.2021

Montant global du projet: 117'500 CHF

Statut: Completed

Promoting women among prison officers: An organizational analysis

Role: Co-applicant

Requérant(e)s: Giauque David, IDHEAP, Université de Lausanne

Description du projet :

This action research project was carried out in correctional institutions in a Swiss canton. The aim was to identify organisational, managerial, and individual measures to feminise the profession of prison officer. After conducting about 50 semi-directed interviews with senior and middle management, as well as with male and female prison officers, several obstacles to this feminisation were identified. Subsequently, a questionnaire was sent to all employees to better identify the obstacles and the levers to the feminisation of this profession. Recommendations were then proposed at the structural, organisational, and individual levels. This study emphasises the importance of structural measures, such as changes in working hours or childcare support, as well as cultural measures, such as a change in the role of the profession and in mentality.

Research team within HES-SO: Weissbrodt Rafael , Hannart Stéphanie

Partenaires académiques: Giauque David, IDHEAP, Université de Lausanne

Durée du projet: 01.04.2019 - 30.06.2020

Montant global du projet: 125'900 CHF

Statut: Completed

2025

La liste actualisée de mes publications est consultable sur https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7220-6145

Scientific paper

Weissbrodt Rafael

Diverses revues scientifiques, 2025

Achievements

PEOPLE@HES-SO
Directory and Skills inventory

Weissbrodt Rafael

Professeur-e HES Ordinaire

Main skills

Méthodes mixtes

Ergonomie et facteurs humains

Psychologie du travail

Démarches participatives

Professeur-e HES Ordinaire

PEOPLE@HES-SO Directory and Skills inventory

Weissbrodt Rafael

Professeur-e HES Ordinaire

Main skills

Méthodes mixtes

Ergonomie et facteurs humains

Psychologie du travail

Démarches participatives

Professeur-e HES Ordinaire

PEOPLE@HES-SO
Directory and Skills inventory