The shelf life of a safety climate assessment – how long until the relationship with safety critical incidents expires

This is a really interesting study that assessed the shelf life of safety climate (SC) assessments and how far into the past and future can it predict incidents (and incidents predict SC). As SC is a snapshot at that particular moment, it’s unknown how long that assessment provides meaningful info about the organisation. Surveys were…

Decision Making: It’s not what you think

I stumbled upon this 2001 article about decision making. Short read – 6 pages. Not a summary since you can read the whole article. They propose three approaches to making sensemaking & decisions (image 2) 1.      Thinking first – works well when the issue is clear and data is reliable.  Whereas a conventional belief may be…

Slacking Off in Comfort – A Dual-Pathway Model for psychological safety climate

Another study looking at the boundary effects of psychological safety (PS). Using two protocols, they evaluated the role of PS and two mediators – fear of failure and work motivation, all as group-level constructs via aggregated group member ratings. Note: I’ve skipped heaps of stuff in this paper. One thing I liked is that they…

Coroner’s inquest: dangerous plant design, overreliance on assumption of worker expertise

This resulted from the roller, for whatever reason, bumping out of gear and then freewheeling down a sloping driveway. I’ve skipped a lot of the technical factors in this case and focused on a few items. The coroner observed: ·     Prior experience of the workers meant they relied on each others’ competencies and experience ·     No formal…

Incidents – Markers of Resilience or Brittleness?

An interesting discussion paper from David Woods and Richard Cook exploring the ambiguity of incidents – that is, as signs of either or both resilient capacities and brittleness. This was a really tough paper to summarise and I can’t do it justice – so suggest you read the full paper (link in comments). Adaptive capacity…

Unsafe acts, unsafe conditions and unsafety – unstable, inconsistent and a matter of perspective

An interesting study to be posted soon evaluated nearly 4000 safety observation reports from a large infrastructure project. What types of ‘unsafe acts’ and ‘unsafe conditions’ are identified by personnel? How do they conceptualise human error, human action or conditions in the workplace? How is blame used as an instrument of power? All of these…

Psychological safety and the negative effects of work motivation

Another study highlighting potential limits of psychological safety (PS). Using two protocols, they evaluated the role of PS and two mediators – fear of failure and work motivation, all as group-level constructs via aggregated group member ratings. Summary posted next week. Key findings:• PS was shown to display “two concomitant, opposite effects on positive risk-taking…

Safety, Incentives, and the Reporting of Work-Related Injuries Among Union Carpenters: ‘‘You’re Pretty Much Screwed If You Get Hurt at Work’’

This studied how incentives and punishment for workers & supervisors influences incident reporting. Surveys were completed by 1,020 carpenter apprentices. Use of incentives and punishments is argued to be somewhat controversial. Authors argue that the idea of rewards and punishments is rooted in ideas about most incidents being related to unsafe behaviours rather than unsafe…

To report or not to report: What happens when middle managers receive bad news about safety issues?

An interesting thesis from Dean Wihnan & Søren Chr. Rossé Segel. This thesis took a case study approach, via gamification, focus groups and semi-structured interviews of middle managers and their perceptions of receiving bad news within an energy company. Way too much to cover, so some findings were: Image 3 covers some of the themes…

When is Psychological Safety Helpful in Organizations? A Longitudinal Study

Another interesting study which explored some of the limits of psychological safety (PS). This study looked at the role of PS, felt accountability and other factors on New York school performance over 3 years, based on surveys of 170k teachers from 545 schools. Providing background: ·         Prior PS research has highlighted how it likely best…