This older (2007) paper with Sid Dekker as co-author may interest you. It’s a quick read (link in comments). This paper studied four different organisations over 2 years in their efforts to learn from failure. They distinguished six stages in an organisation’s “growth to embracing the ‘new view’ of human error and system safety’. They… Continue reading Six stages to the New View of human error

This interesting study has already done the rounds – but worth a read. Via survey of >46k workers in 233 organisations in the UK, it explored the evidence behind individual-level workplace mental health interventions. Providing background: ·       Promotion of workers’ well-being is common in contemporary British workplaces, with recent data suggesting over half of UK… Continue reading Employee well-being outcomes from individual-level mental health interventions: Cross-sectional evidence from the United Kingdom

Oof, this is a tad awkward for the conspiracy movements. This study found that people with more negative attitudes and trust towards science were more likely not to actually understand the science (in this case, genetically modified foods). Key findings: The study is open access so you can read it for yourself. Of course, there’s… Continue reading People with more extreme attitudes towards science have self-confidence in their understanding of science, even if this is not justified

How does leading eyewitness statements influence and shift attributions of blame after incidents? This upcoming study explored this question. Participants watched a video of an incident between two people and read eyewitness statements that either blamed somebody for the incident or blamed nobody. A key intention was to study if blame conformity occurred in response… Continue reading How does leading eyewitness statements influence attributions of blame in investigations? Does blame shift between people?

What is the quality of suicide investigations, limitations of investigation approaches, and their potential for organisational learning? This upcoming paper explored these questions in adult community mental health services, drawing on a safety-II lens. Key findings: Root cause analysis–·        >80% of the studies placed root cause analysis (RCA) as the dominant approaches for suicide investigation ·        The… Continue reading Root Cause Analysis investigation tools inadequate for suicide risk and prevention

This explored the relationship between paperwork, management and safety by way of a web-based survey of 187 offshore managers from the same oil company. It’s argued that various industries, like oil & gas, face increasing degrees of administrative & bureaucratic tasks compared to earlier time periods and this affects managers’ abilities to perform hands-on leadership.… Continue reading Paperwork, management, and safety: Towards a bureaucratization of working life and a lack of hands-on supervision

A fascinating read from Carl Macrae (his work is always good – I’ve covered a few of his papers), exploring the sociotechnical sources of risk of autonomous and intelligent systems (AIS). Reanalysis of the 2018 fatal Uber self-driving car crash via multiple reports was used as a case. Five sources of sociotechnical risk were conceptualised:… Continue reading Learning from the failure of autonomous and intelligent systems: Accidents, safety, and sociotechnical sources of risk

This was a fascinating read, arguing and evidencing that positive leadership styles aren’t representations of leadership behaviours but rather “subjective evaluations of leaders”. They empirically tested this idea over four studies. Providing background: ·         While valid constructs are necessary in science – they need to be defined, measurable and causally linked to other constructs. However,… Continue reading A fatal flaw: Positive leadership style research creates causal illusions

What is the role of communication in the incubation of major accidents? Barry Turner explored these themes, among many others, in his seminal man-made disasters work across 84 major accidents. Turner found that communication was implicated as: ·        Completely unknown prior information ·        Prior information noted but not fully appreciated ·        Prior information noted by someone, but not… Continue reading Man-made disasters: the role of communication failures in the incubation of disasters

This studied communication in the operating room with the aim to classify the types of communication failures and their effects. 94 healthcare personnel were observed by trained observers; 09 hours of observations were collected. 421 communication events were noted. Although it’s a niche area (operating room staff) and from 2004, the findings are still pretty… Continue reading Communication failures in the operating room: an observational classification of recurrent types and effects