This explored workarounds as a social phenomenon as opposed to just an individual one, arguing that they are influenced and propagated socially (socially contagious) and can result in a workaround climate. This paper involved a literature review and then two preliminary studies. Workarounds are informal and idiosyncratic approaches to circumnavigate a process block, e.g. an… Continue reading The Social Construction of Workarounds

Using discourse analysis of transcripts from 34 simulated incident interviews, this study explored the role of a “no blame ideology” on the investigation process. Providing background, they note: Note: For just an 11-page paper, it is packed to the brim with findings, so I can only provide a few key points. Results Some key findings… Continue reading The unintended consequences of no blame ideology for incident investigation in the US construction industry

This study explored how availability bias, outcome bias, and hindsight bias can influence pilots’ perceptions of past events, which in turn may affect their perception of events yet to occur. They also explored the influence of ‘close calls’ (near hits). Two separate study protocols were run, with 142 pilots in protocol 1 and 62 in… Continue reading Understanding the past: Investigating the role of availability, outcome, and hindsight bias and close calls in visual pilots’ weather-related decision making

Not a summary, but an interesting study exploring the role of outcome knowledge and hindsight bias on judgements towards a student who took her own life, and the efforts a professor should have taken to provide assistance to that student via hypothetical scenarios in college students and adults. This study found that outcome knowledge (of… Continue reading Outcome knowledge, hindsight bias and suicide victim blaming

I just summarised a really interesting paper exploring the role of “no blame” (if that’s ever truly a thing…) in construction investigations. Summary posted in the next week or two, but it’s open access so you can read the full paper yourself. Interestingly, they observed a phenomenon which they called ‘New blame’. New blame was… Continue reading No blame ideology in investigations and ‘New blame’ (and the potential influence of HOP)

Drawing on a grounded theory approach and a mental model focus, this explored why electricians work on energised apparatus. 60 electricians provided in-depth interviews. Results Data indicated that electrical work is cognitively demanding and working energised is not a simple yes/no choice, but rather strongly influenced by a range of factors. Including: the belief that… Continue reading Using grounded theory and mental modeling to understand influences on electricians’ safety decisions: Toward an integrated theory of why electricians work energized

These two studies explored the links between working in construction and exposure to construction dusts on respiratory cancer and COPD. The first study from Wang et al. looked at data from >25k US workers and including >5k deaths. After adjusting for smoking and demographics, construction workers were nearly twice as likely to die from respiratory… Continue reading Construction dust, silica, asbestos etc. and risk of respiratory cancer and COPD

This study examined the influence of an improvement program based on Management-By-Walking-Around (MBWA), where senior managers observe frontline employees, solicit ideas about improvements, and work with staff to resolve the issues. 19 hospitals in the US were randomly selected for the 18-month intervention, compared against 68 control hospitals not utilising the intervention. Providing background: Results… Continue reading The Effectiveness of Management-By-Walking-Around: A Randomized Field Study

This study explored the rates of suicide among male mining workers compared to those of three comparison groups: construction workers, mining and construction (combined), and all other workers. Providing background: ·        In 2019, 3,318 Australians died by suicide; 79% of those were of working age. This rate of about 80% has remained stable for the past… Continue reading Suicide in the Australian Mining Industry: Assessment of Rates among Male Workers Using 19 Years of Coronial Data

Just summarised a 2019 paper that explored the role of three biases on pilots’ subsequent judgements on encountering adverse weather conditions: 1) outcome bias, 2) availability bias and 3) hindsight bias. Summary posted in the coming week or two, but to the complete lack of surprise to, I think, everybody, they found evidence that both… Continue reading Pilot decision making and the effects of outcome bias, availability bias and hindsight bias