Managing risk in hazardous conditions – improvisation is not enough

This brief opinion paper from Rene Amalberti may be of interest to my S-II network. It focuses on strategies that can be adopted to protect patients when healthcare systems are under stress but has good info across other industries. First they argue that healthcare systems are under stress as never before. To meet this stress,…

Evaluation of the validity of four hazard identification methods with event descriptions

This is interesting study from 1988 evaluated the capability of four hazard identification techniques. Using a collection of prior incidents and accidents, three groups were formed to evaluate which of the contributing factors to the incidents may have been identified if one of these methods had been used prospectively. Of the 157 contributing factors identified…

Occupational safety in the construction industry

This reviewed “scientifically significant” construction research to highlight the findings related to safety & risk within the industry. 326 scientific journals were included and divided under 11 categories. WAY too much to cover, so I’ll cover a few findings. Results: For accidents, falls represent the main fatal accident risk, with shocks, crushing or hit by…

To Get Vaccinated or Not? Psychological Safety as a Catalyst for the Alignment Between Individual Beliefs and Behavior

I haven’t really summarised this one fully, but I found some of its findings pretty interesting. Authors note that the vast majority of existing psychological safety literature “focuses on psychological safety’s beneficial impacts such as increased speaking up or learning behaviour”, and thus, “many team leaders may consider increasing psychological safety within their teams” (p26).…

How Near-Misses Influence Decision Making Under Risk: A Missed Opportunity for Learning

This is one of several awesome studies from these researchers (Dillon, Tinsley et al.) looking at how near misses influence decision making. It’s often stated that near miss reporting is an important facet of learning – but this body of research suggests that near misses can actually increase a company’s propensity for danger. Authors differentiate…

Risk shifting and disorganization in multi-tier contracting chains: The implications for public safety

Not sure if I’ve already posted this, but this study draws on qualitive data from 36 face-to-face interviews with personnel from a case study organisation (CSO), which is involved in large-scale infrastructure projects working around buried assets like high pressure gas pipelines. The study looks at how, specifically, contractual arrangements with subcontractors, economic pressures and…

A qualitative analysis of crane safety incident causation in the Australian construction industry

This explored the contributing factors to crane safety incidents in the Australian construction industry based on interviews & focus groups with 62 industry participants (crane manufacturers, maintenance specialists, riggers, crane operators etc). One aspect this paper tried to move beyond were simple attributions of human error or behavioural causes as it’s argued that many of…

Diagnosis of poor safety culture as a major shortcoming in OHSAS 18001-certified companies

This compared the safety practices between 18001 certified and non-certified companies, respectively. I usually struggle with research focusing on safety culture, given how poorly defined and vacuous it often is. However, if you gloss over the SC stuff then the rest of the findings are pretty interesting. Six manufacturing companies were included in the study…

Assessment of underreporting factors on construction safety incidents in US construction projects

This study assessed factors affecting underreporting by studying the incidence of the factors on projects with perceived good and bad recordkeeping. This was based on completed US construction projects. Perceived good and bad recordkeeping was based on the assessment from experienced health and safety professionals who were “doubtful that the project is reporting safety incidents…

Linking leader inclusiveness to work unit performance: The importance of psychological safety and learning from failures

This explored how leader behaviour influences how well clinical units learn from failure and on team performance based in hospitals. 55 clinical units (with an avg of 20 people per unit) & 224 workers were surveyed. Leader inclusiveness (leader behaviours of being available, accessible and inviting input, openness and showing fallibility), psychological safety and unit…