Does the skillset of the CEO influence workplace safety? Yes according to this study. In the lead-up to next week’s leadership research compendium, this study evaluated whether generalist or specialist CEOs have a greater impact on OSHA reported safety incidents (note the limitation). Generalists are CEOs with wider industry experience (worked in more industries) whereas… Continue reading Leading safely: The impact of generalist CEOs on workplace safety
Year: 2025
Barrier systems and human performance expectations
I’ve shared this white paper before, but, whatever. Interesting enough to re-share. The CIEHF whitepaper for barriers covers a lot of ground, but here’s some selected extracts: · Controls “means all of the measures expected to be in place to prevent incidents”, and includes barriers and safeguards · Barriers are “controls that are assessed as being sufficiently… Continue reading Barrier systems and human performance expectations
Shameless plug: Next week’s compendium on leadership and leaders behaving badly
Shameless plug – but a teaser for next week’s research compendium exploring leadership, safety leadership, followership, and leaders behaving badly. Also includes some works which are critical of the ‘leadership style’ concepts, and more. This stretched my artistic skills in Microsoft Paint (had to go for the 90s workplace training video décor). In the meantime,… Continue reading Shameless plug: Next week’s compendium on leadership and leaders behaving badly
Strategies and tools to learn from work that goes well within healthcare patient safety practices: a mixed methods systematic review
This systematic review covers strategies and tools used in healthcare patient safety for learning from normal work and Safety-II. 22 articles met inclusion. For background: · In healthcare “underreporting is highly prevalent, and is linked to, among other things, shaming and blaming mentality, insufficient visible measures and inadequate communication about errors” · “most reporting systems… Continue reading Strategies and tools to learn from work that goes well within healthcare patient safety practices: a mixed methods systematic review
Compendium: Cultural approaches to safety / Safety Culture / Safety Climate / Org Culture
It’s no secret that I’m relatively cautious of ‘Safety Culture’. (** At least, I fall more into the interpretative, than functionalist, camp). Nevertheless, I get the question of evidence often, so here it is. A compendium of studies focused on organisational culture, culture of safety, safety culture and safety climate. Because there’s so many studies… Continue reading Compendium: Cultural approaches to safety / Safety Culture / Safety Climate / Org Culture
Achieving a safe culture: theory and practice
A 1998 paper from James Reason discussing complex system failures and cultures of safety (which he calls safety cultures, SC—note he often, but not always, says cultures as plural). Way too much to cover, so worth checking out the original paper. First Reason points out the lack of a single definition of SC, but one… Continue reading Achieving a safe culture: theory and practice
‘Safety’ is not a war to be won but an endless guerilla struggle – James Reason
“Cognisant organizations understand the true nature of the ‘safety war’. They see it for what it really is – a long guerilla struggle with no final conclusive victory” I’ve always loved this quote from James Reason (Managing Org Accidents). I know some people dislike war metaphors regarding safety (which I can understand and respect). But… Continue reading ‘Safety’ is not a war to be won but an endless guerilla struggle – James Reason
The Pursuit of Success & Averting Drift into Failure – YT vid from Sidney Dekker
Here’s a 30 min YT presso from Sid Dekker on complex system failures and drift. Some extracts: · “this fascination with counting and tabulating little negative events, as if they are predictive of a big bad event over the horizon, is an illusion” · “We should be doing something quite different if we want to understand how your complex system… Continue reading The Pursuit of Success & Averting Drift into Failure – YT vid from Sidney Dekker
Failure modes analysis of organizational artefacts that protect systems
Really interesting 2004 paper discussing how to study the failures associated with organisational artefacts. Artefacts are “rules, procedures, instructions, authority structures and so on that are designed, like physical devices, but have organizational rather than physical functions”. It’s argued that studying failures of artefacts, like in FMEA, isn’t the same as physical failure modes, and… Continue reading Failure modes analysis of organizational artefacts that protect systems
Complex systems and drifting into failure – further extracts from Dekker 2013
More extracts from Dekker’s 2013 paper ‘Drifting into failure’. These parts focus on some properties of complex systems (image 1), and how systems drift to failure (image 2). Extracts:· “Open systems mean that it can be quite difficult to define the border of a system. What belongs to the system, and what doesn’t? This is known… Continue reading Complex systems and drifting into failure – further extracts from Dekker 2013
SafetyInsights.org 