Another extract from Pupulidy and Vesel’s book ‘Human and Organizational Potential’. This part looks at counterfactual thinking in investigations: · “Counterfactuals are statements that are contrary to what actually happened” · Counterfactuals “expresses what could have, would have, or should have happened… but didn’t” · Problematically, counterfactuals as normative judgements during investigations describe a reality that did not… Continue reading The harm of counterfactual normative judgements in investigations – book ‘Human and Organizational Potential’
Year: 2025
What are we to make of safe behaviour programs?
A 2006 article from Andrew Hopkins, discussing some merits and limitations of behavioural approaches to safety. A lot of research has been done on behavioural safety approaches since 2006, but still a pretty reasonable article. Note: This is broader than BBS, but that’s a well-known iteration. Tl;dr – Hopkins argues: · “Safe behaviour programs run… Continue reading What are we to make of safe behaviour programs?
Safety Management Systems, safety clutter and illegitimate tasks (“BS work”)
Safety Management Systems and the problem of clutter and illegitimate core tasks (“bullshit tasks”). I’ve posted this paper before (see links), but here’s another extract. I don’t have much to say, as it doesn’t need explaining. The paper is worth a read, though. Author: Størkersen, K. V. (2024). Auditism: Symptoms, Safety Consequences, Causes, and Cure.… Continue reading Safety Management Systems, safety clutter and illegitimate tasks (“BS work”)
Leadership, followers’ mental health and job performance in organizations: A comprehensive meta-analysis from an occupational health perspective
This meta-analysis studied the links between leadership and mental health and job performance indices of followers. [NB. Look out for next week’s compendium on leadership research] No real surprises with the findings. They note that leadership, of course, “is not a neutral element”, and may influence both positive and negative effects. Extracts: · “results reveal that… Continue reading Leadership, followers’ mental health and job performance in organizations: A comprehensive meta-analysis from an occupational health perspective
Confirmation bias and priming in investigations: ‘Human & Organizational Potential’
Here’s one of (prob) several upcoming posts about Ivan Pupulidy, PhD and Crista Vesel, MSc’s book ‘Human and Organizational Potential’. This part looks at confirmation bias within investigations and uses the US Forest Service’s then current Investigation Guide: · “Confirmation bias is a tendency to search for information that confirms one’s preconceptions. When discussing confirmation bias… Continue reading Confirmation bias and priming in investigations: ‘Human & Organizational Potential’
Throwing caution to the wind: the effect of CEO stock option pay on the incidence of product safety problems
Do CEO stock options negatively affect product safety? Possibly, according to this study. They compared CEO stock options and product safety recalls on FDA regulated companies between 2004 – 11. PS. Keep an eye out for next week’s compendium on leadership research 👍 Background: · “A central premise of agency theory is that organizations can align… Continue reading Throwing caution to the wind: the effect of CEO stock option pay on the incidence of product safety problems
New site name: SafetyInsights.org
Woot, time to celebrate: I finally created a proper domain name: SafetyInsights.org Unfortunately, this doesn’t make any key quality of life upgrades to the site. But, whatever. However, as a thanks to everybody for the support – have a balloon:
Magistrate critical of wordy, ineffective paper systems for helping workers
Really interesting appeal discussing the limits of documented safety processes, like SWMSs. Thanks to Robert Allan for sharing this (link to his post below) Extracts: Ref: Nicholson v GCMR Project Services Pty Ltd [2024] QDC 58 Shout me a coffee Report link: https://archive.sclqld.org.au/qjudgment/2024/QDC24-058.pdf Rob’s post: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/robertallan3_safety-whs-safetydna-activity-7324976142170411008-sN-u?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAAeWwekBvsvDLB8o-zfeeLOQ66VbGXbOpJU LinkedIn post: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/benhutchinson2_really-interesting-legal-appeal-discussing-activity-7326421978083401728–zi8?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAAeWwekBvsvDLB8o-zfeeLOQ66VbGXbOpJU
Nothing to fear: strong corporate culture and workplace safety
Are ‘strong’ corporate cultures a blessing or curse for workplace safety? This study explored the question. Interestingly, they used machine learning to extract ‘cultural’ cues from CEO earnings calls. Cultural cues were scored based on the frequency of words relating to innovation, integrity, quality, respect and teamwork. They then compare company performance to the number… Continue reading Nothing to fear: strong corporate culture and workplace safety
LLMs Are Not Reliable Human Proxies to Study Affordances in Data Visualizations
This was pretty interesting – it compared GPT-4o to people in extracting takeaways from visualised data. They were also interested in how well the LLM could simulate human respondents/responses. Note that the researchers are primarily interested in whether the GPT-4o model acts as a suitable proxy for human responses – they recognise there are other… Continue reading LLMs Are Not Reliable Human Proxies to Study Affordances in Data Visualizations
SafetyInsights.org 