Here’s another interesting read on the theme of learning, language and barriers from Crista Vesel, MSc and Ivan Pupulidy, PhD, discussing the background of the Learning Review. The Learning Review first came about after adoption by the U.S. Forest Service, being “designed to facilitate the understanding of the factors and conditions that influence human actions… Continue reading The Learning Review: Adding to the accident investigation toolbox

A banger from Cristia Vesel exploring how language can hinder or facilitate organisational learning following events. I put this summary off for a long time due to the challenge of summarising – virtually every line in the paper is something I want to repeat. Hence, I can’t do this justice – worth checking out the… Continue reading Agentive Language in Accident Investigation: Why Language Matters in Learning from Events

This 2014 paper from Sid Dekker may interest you. Sid argues that accident investigations serve different purposes – epistemological, preventative, moral and existential. This isn’t a light read – you may want a coffee. Some points: For lessons, two suggestions are: It’s argued that “Accident investigation has a societal license to distort a messy aftermath… Continue reading The psychology of accident investigation: epistemological, preventive, moral and existential meaning-making

Good safety is good business: Or, do more injuries increase the risk of business insolvency? Yes, according to this 2023 Spanish study. This studied 344 Majorca construction firms over seven years to understand the relationship between reported incidents and organisational survival. They found: Now, I expect many people will immediately think “well, duh”. But two… Continue reading Linking occupational accidents and construction firm survival

This study explored the precursors and a suggested paradigm shift in the management of SIFs. They drew on data from seven multinational organisations: monthly injury data (fatal and non-fatal), comprehensive narratives for all serious injuries over the past 2 years and a sample of non-SIFs. Providing background: ·         “Over the past decade, the rates of… Continue reading Preventing Serious Injuries & Fatalities: Study Reveals Precursors & Paradigms

Are workplace accidents bad for business? Not necessarily for the economics, according to this spanking new open access study. A large Spanish sample of construction company reported incidents was evaluated. Exploring previous work, they highlighted: ·        One study of profitability of 300 companies in Catalonia over six years found that accidents reduced a company’s profitability, particularly… Continue reading Good safety is ‘bad’ business: how construction accidents are profitable (until a critical tipping point)

Does language, like used in investigations, affect organisational learning following events? This banger from Crista Vesel, MSc discusses the role of language and causal assignment of agency and how it can hinder learning. Summary posted next week. I can’t do it justice, but gave it a go. From the paper: ·        People naturally want to know… Continue reading Blame, guilt and punishment and the language of investigations

This was interesting – it studied 95 severe naval aviation mishaps. The incidents were evaluated using the DoD HFACS model, the applicability of HFACS was then evaluated , and then a sample of events thematically evaluated a sample of events. They drew on the delineation of errors into performance-based (PBE) and judgement/decision-making (JDME), as per… Continue reading Understanding Human Error in Naval Aviation Mishaps

This was a really cool—albeit challenging—read. They explored variation in US commercial airline learning, namely whether airlines learn more from incidents with heterogeneous or homogeneous causes. Caveat – this is from 2002 and the data 1983 – 1997. Some work indicated that exposure to heterogeneous experiences may be more effective for learning via: 1) variance… Continue reading Learning from Complexity: Effects of Prior Accidents and Incidents on Airlines’ Learning

This meta-analysis explored the links between supply chain complexity and firm performance. 102 independent samples from 123 studies were examined. Key findings: ·        While supply chain complexity is generally detrimental to firm performance, it isn’t always ·        Hence, supply chain complexity “can be both dysfunctional and strategic” ·        It negatively impacted operational performance, primarily in terms of cost… Continue reading Order from chaos: A meta-analysis of supply chain complexity and firm performance