SafetyInsights.org

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

Does participation in workplace individual-level well-being interventions improve subjective well-being? Not so much according to this study. This study has already done the rounds, so there’s a good chance you’ve seen it. It surveyed >46k workers across 233 organisations in the UK. They included interventions like resilience and stress training, mindfulness, well-being apps, EAPs, counselling.… Continue reading Workplace well-being initiatives not found to improve worker well-being

Are positive leadership styles—e.g. authentic ethical, servant etc.—valid representations of leadership behaviours? Perhaps not, according to this upcoming study. This interesting study argued and empirically supported their hypothesis that positive leadership styles “conflate behaviors with subjective evaluations of leaders”. They found that: ·        “positive leadership styles are outcomes that depend on non-behavioral, evaluative factors, such as… Continue reading Positive leadership styles and causal illusions

What can moles & birds teach us about why organisations struggle to learn the contextually relevant lessons and prevent major accidents? A 1966 accident provides insights. A huge mining spoil tip collapsed (~33 m tall & 229k cubic meters), following heavy rain. The spoil tip was located on a mountain slope next to the Welsh… Continue reading Mini-post: Moles, birds and major accidents: The story of Aberfan

This inquiry covers the drowning death of a motorist as he drove off a vehicle ferry about 20m away from the bank. I’ve skipped a lot of the detailed findings to focus on a few of the SMS-related items. The coroner observed that: Finally, previous AMSA (the marine regulator) report findings were cited, including SMSs… Continue reading Coronial inquiry and drift into failure: a “rule based approach to driver behaviour was fraught with risk”

This paper examined the run-up to the Macondo blowout from a barrier element perspective, drawing on Andrew Hopkins’ account. NB. I found this a challenging and tad confusing paper to summarise; I just couldn’t always follow the logics from start to finish. So, if you’re confused by what I’ve written – I probably was too.… Continue reading Safety barriers: Organizational potential and forces of psychology

This preprint study may be of interest – it surveyed European pilots (n = 4,546) on their reasons for underreporting incidents and for presenteeism; also comparing atypically employed versus typically employed. They found: ·      Those in atypically employment showed higher frequencies of presenteeism and underreporting ·      Atypically employed were more likely to cite fear of disciplinary action… Continue reading Is it safe to be safe? Examining Underreporting and Presenteeism Among European Pilots: The Role of Employment Type

This study explored two different approaches to explain failure in an organisation: ·     The first is an individual blame logic – this seeks to find a guilty individual ·       The second is an organisational function logic – this aims to identify org. factors that favoured the event. The paper discusses both logics and their consequences… Continue reading A Review of Literature: Individual Blame vs. Organizational Function Logics in Accident Analysis