SafetyInsights.org

What is the influence of organizational factors on worker behaviour and subsequent accidents? Quite a lot, according to this upcoming summary.

This study evaluated 305 Iranian mining accidents via HFACS, exploring the relationship between organisational factors, supervision, preconditions for acts and worker acts via structural equation modelling.

If you look past the rather normative frame of trying to categorise things via loose concepts like “unsafe” acts/preconditions etc., you’ll find a pretty progressive and sympathetic paper towards human and organisational performance. [NB. That language is part of HFACS.]

They found that:

·        ”organizational deficiencies were found to be the main causes of mining accidents” and these “deficiencies have both direct and indirect effects on unsafe acts”

·        “Among the variables examined in the current study, organizational influences had the strongest impact on worker actions”

·        Organisational deficiencies were also related to unsafe supervision and preconditions for unsafe acts

·        While supervision is critical, they argue that “the lack of a supportive environment is a sign of poor management commitment to safety. In other words, when safety is important for managers, it is important for supervisors too”

·        Moreover, “managerial lack of attention towards solving environmental and technological problems, such as lack of funding for the necessary technological tools for the workplace, can lead to workers’ unsafe acts”

They argue that, while “Workers’ unsafe acts are usually considered to be the main cause of industrial accidents”, in complex systems, “humans are only one of multiple mutually-interacting system components”.

And as found in this study, organisational factors are more strongly associated with worker action than are worker-factors (as explored in this study).

Authors: Aliabadi, M. M., Aghaei, H., Kalatpour, O., Soltanian, A. R., & SeyedTabib, M. (2018). Epidemiology and health, 40.

Study link: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6060340/

LinkedIn post: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/benhutchinson2_what-is-the-influence-of-organizational-factors-activity-7182497948033859584-FLHG?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop