SafetyInsights.org

ABSTRACT The impact of stress on mental health in high-risk occupations may be mitigated by organizational factors such as leadership. Studies have documented the impact of general leadership skills on employee performance and mental health. Other researchers have begun examining specific leadership domains that address relevant organizational outcomes, such as safety climate leadership. One emerging… Continue reading Behavioral Health Leadership: New Directions in Occupational Mental Health

How well are critical risks being managed at the human interface? I think for many this is a question that continually plays in our mind. A couple of recent findings throw some light on this. In Sean Brady‘s review of all fatal mining and quarry accidents in Qld from 2000 – 19, they found that less… Continue reading Mini-post: Critical risk management as imagined vs as done

This systematic review evaluated 34 papers, exploring normalisation of deviance (NoD) in the context of its key themes and interactions. NoD was first described by Diane Vaughan in her work evaluating the 1986 NASA Challenger space shuttle accident. As per Vaughan’s definition, NoD describes “the gradual process through which unacceptable practice or standards become acceptable.… Continue reading A Qualitative Systematic Review on the Application of the Normalisation of Deviance Phenomenon Within High-Risk Industries

This open access paper from Kevin Geddart, Drew Rae and Sid Dekker is a very interesting read. It applied a new method for studying under-reporting of injuries in company data and for also revealing systematic biases. I feel like I haven’t done a good job explaining this, so I recommend just reading the paper. Company… Continue reading How Does Selective Reporting Distort Understanding of Workplace Injuries?

This is a very brief summary of research on educational design principles to develop training and non-technical skills, with the aim of increasing capacity for organisational resilience. Even if you’re critical of the contemporary resilience perspective, the concept of scenario-based training and simulations isn’t new and thus, this paper may still be of interest. Proposed… Continue reading Improving resilience in high-risk organizations: principles for the design of innovative training situations

How rational is an incident investigation process? It’s easy to believe it’s rational: you have an incident, investigate the contributing factors and then implement corrective actions to address those factors. There’s a concept called “what you look for is what you find”, highlighting that if you go looking for something (e.g. error or violations, cultural… Continue reading Mini-post: The rationality or not of incident investigations (what you find is not always what you fix)

This explored the use (or not) of established risk management practices and processes in 21 Information System (IS) projects in 10 organisations. Key questions were: To what extent do project managers adhere or disengage from prescribed risk management processes? Why do managers stop practicing risk management in projects that have significant risks that could affect… Continue reading Does risk matter? Disengagement from risk management practices in information systems projects

“Positive Self-Statements: Power for Some, Peril for Others” How useful are repeating positive self-statements (e.g. I’m a lovable person, I have the power to change my mind/life situation, I can do this if I don’t give up etc) in boosting mood and self-esteem? David McRaney on the You Are Not So Smart podcast spoke about… Continue reading Mini-post: Positive self-statements

This explored the association between CEO power and workplace injuries and illnesses. Power was modelled via 1) structural power (whether the CEO has a dual role as chairperson and president) and their pay proportional to the five highest paid executives, 2) expertise, 3) ownership, 4) prestige. They also looked at geographical proximity of the CEO… Continue reading Ruthless Exploiters or Ethical Guardians of the Workforce? Powerful CEOs and their Impact on Workplace Safety and Health

ABSTRACT Workers in the steel-manufacturing industry face many safety risks due to the nature of the job. How well safety procedures and regulations are followed within an organization is considered to be influenced by the reigning culture of the organization. The aim of this study was to investigate and describe safety culture and risk-taking at… Continue reading Safety culture and reasons for risk-taking at a large steel-manufacturing company: Investigating the worker perspective