Goal Setting and the Emergence of the Safety-Efficiency Trade-off in Organizations

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This article aims to shed light on the trade-off between safety and efficiency that arises in organizations when management sets overly demanding efficiency goals. To explore the dynamics and relationships between management's goal setting and the safety-efficiency trade-off, we have chosen to analyze the extreme and illustrative case of the Herald of Free Enterprise disaster – a ferry that sank on March 6, 1987, resulting in the deaths of 193 passengers and crew members. The case shows how the management's imposition of very tight schedules for embarkation and disembarkation operations at the port of Zeebrugge promoted the emergence of risky practices, namely the regular violation of procedures by the crew. We argue that these violations, aimed at increasing the speed of operations to meet the time goals, were a central factor, though not the only one, in the etiology of the accident. The case provides evidence that when management sets overly strict performance goals, it directs employees' attention and efforts toward efficiency at the expense of safety. As a result, safety is compromised, leading to an increased risk of incidents, which can harm employees' health and cause economic and legal damage to the organization.