Abstract
When looking at socio-technical systems from a systems thinking and systemic perspective, it becomes clear that mental models govern the behaviours and determine the achievements of socio-technical systems. This is also the case for individuals, being systems themselves and, as such, being elements of those socio-technical systems. Individual behaviours result from individual perceptions (mental models). These individual behaviours ideally generate the desired outcomes of a system (team/organisation/society) and create value. However, at the same time, mental models and the associated individual behaviour also bring about unwanted consequences, destroying or diminishing value. Therefore, to achieve safety and to attain sustainable safe performance, understanding and managing mental models in organisations is of paramount importance. Consequently, in organisations and society, one needs to generate the required mental models that create successes and, at the same time, to avoid or eliminate damaging perceptions and ideas in order to protect the created value. Generating and managing mental models involves leadership; leadership skills; and the ability to develop a shared vision, mission and ambition, as this helps determine what is valuable and allows for aligning individual mental models with those that preferably govern the system. In doing so, it is possible to create well-aligned corporate cultures that create and protect value and that generate sustainable safe performance. To achieve this aim, a systemic organisational culture alignment model is proposed. The model is based on the model of logical levels of awareness according to Dilts (1990), Argyris’s ladder of inference (1982) and the organisational alignment model proposed by Tosti (1996). Furthermore, ISO 31000 (2009, 2018) and its guidance are proposed as a practical tool to accomplish this alignment and sustainable safe performance in organisations. Altogether, these elements define Total Respect Management as a concept, mental model and methodology.
Highlights
This concept paper is the third article in a row, with each step building further on a concept on achieving safety and performance in organisations proactively
Since the end of the previous century, these conceptions have seen an evolution in the ways we look at them, for example, as expressed in the ideas by Möller et al [9], stating that safety is more than the antonym of risk, or by Slovic and Peters [10], who point out the importance of individual perceptions when dealing with risk
The systemic nature of ISO 31000 resides in the fact that it clearly states what its purpose is and the recommendation of a set of mental models that can generate a system that is beneficial for the management of risk and valuable to the organisation [53]
Summary
This concept paper is the third article in a row, with each step building further on a concept on achieving safety and performance in organisations proactively These articles have been written in a way that they can stand alone. The answers presented in these articles provide the perspectives and the mental models that help proactively achieve safety and performance in organisations As such, these articles contain the building blocks of a concept, an approach, we have named “Total Respect Management”. These articles contain the building blocks of a concept, an approach, we have named “Total Respect Management” It is a systemic and integrated methodology useful in leading and managing any organisation in a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous environment.
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