This study explored the links between production pressure, cognitive failures and injuries within an insecure job climate (JIC) environment. Data came from 1-month lagged survey data from 176 US workers. Extracts: · “Production pressure refers to an organizational emphasis on production to increase corporate profits and efficiency” · While intending to “eliminate wasteful contingencies of material, people,… Continue reading Production Pressure, Cognitive Failures, and Injuries Under an Insecure Job Climate
Tag: leadership
The Twenty Foot Rule and Safety Leadership
This brief conference paper discussed the ‘twenty foot rule’ of leadership. I’ve only covered a few points, as much of it reads as an instructional piece on key items to set up the process, whereas I’ve focused more on the general gist and rationale (so easier you just read the paper if you’re interested). The… Continue reading The Twenty Foot Rule and Safety Leadership
Safety Culture or: How cultures can both sensitise or blind us to danger
I’ve long been critical of the construct, and application of, ‘safety culture’ (at best, I’d probably be described as from the interpretive camp—e.g. ‘culture-as-metaphor’). I’ve covered lots of articles why – and others have argued far more nuanced reasons. So, I’m not covering that now. But in saying that, I’ve always found the following definition… Continue reading Safety Culture or: How cultures can both sensitise or blind us to danger
Escaping Failures of Foresight
An interesting discussion paper from David Woods, in response to a paper from Andrew Hopkins discussing process safety indicators (see my article from a few weeks back). ** I haven’t done a good job of this – so suggest you read the original paper. You might want a strong coffee. Woods takes a bit of… Continue reading Escaping Failures of Foresight
Assessing the Quality of Safety-Focused Leadership Engagements
This paper developed a leadership engagement assessment scorecard, aiming to gauge the quality of the interaction. Providing background: · Safety performance has “long been measured using lagging indicators such as total recordable incident rate (TRIR) that involve counting the number of injuries” · However, “recent research has shown that these metrics suffer from severe limitations… Continue reading Assessing the Quality of Safety-Focused Leadership Engagements
Why regulators Should Stay away from Safety Culture and Stick to Rules Instead
This banger chapter comes from an equally slapping book ‘Trapping Safety into Rules’. The authors argue why “regulators should stay away from safety culture”. Too much to cover, so just a few points. They open with “Ever since the Chernobyl catastrophe, safety culture has been invoked as a crucial discriminator between good and bad ways… Continue reading Why regulators Should Stay away from Safety Culture and Stick to Rules Instead
A Systems Thinking Approach to Leading Indicators in the Petrochemical Industry
I’m putting together the next Research Compendium, covering indicator definitions, frameworks and examples. Showing my own bias is a focus on Nancy Leveson’s work. This post has some extracts from her article ‘A Systems Thinking Approach to Leading Indicators in the Petrochemical Industry’. This is based on what Leveson calls “assumption-based indicators”. That is, developing… Continue reading A Systems Thinking Approach to Leading Indicators in the Petrochemical Industry
From individual behaviour to system weaknesses: The re-design of the Just Culture process in an international energy company. A case study
This 2018 paper explored the effects of a re-designed Just Culture (JC) process in an international energy company. It’s a solid read and worth your time – I’ve had to skip heaps. Providing background: · This organisation started using the James Reason JC framework in 201, but collective experience in the organisation “indicated that the… Continue reading From individual behaviour to system weaknesses: The re-design of the Just Culture process in an international energy company. A case study
Interventions and measurements of highly reliable/resilient organization implementations: A literature review
This reviewed literature on High Reliability Organisations (HRO) and similar approaches in Resilience Engineering (RE) from 1981 to 2020 to determine its impact. 34 articles out of 1400 met inclusion. For background: · “There is a class of organizations that can do catastrophic harm to themselves and a larger public” and within this set, there’s… Continue reading Interventions and measurements of highly reliable/resilient organization implementations: A literature review
Management walk-arounds: Lessons from the Gulf of Mexico oil well blowout
This 2011 paper from Andrew Hopkins discusses the function of management walkarounds, and their role in the genesis of major accidents, using the Macondo blowout accident. *** Note: This type of description is replete with counterfactuals and the clarity of hindsight, so keep that in mind. Overall, Hopkins argues that despite the best intentions of… Continue reading Management walk-arounds: Lessons from the Gulf of Mexico oil well blowout
