Abstract
Organizational factors are considered part of the broader human factors domain and have long been suspected to have a significant influence on individual and group behavior in the workplace, although there is little research on their influence in mining workplaces. This paper provides an update of a systematic literature review (SLR), reported according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis: The PRISMA Statement 2009. The SLR examined the relationship between organizational factors and residual risk management in the context of accident causation in mining. Six electronic databases were searched for peer-reviewed studies published between 1980 and 2018. Following eligibility criteria, 28 studies were selected for quality assessment and reviewed. The results of the SLR included the identification of several organizational factors that are common in the mining industry, as well as the existence of a conceptual relationship between organizational factors, residual risk management and accident causation. In particular, the review found that about two-thirds of the eligible articles acknowledged a linkage between organizational factors and accident causation. The SLR also identified several research gaps associated with the lack of empirical research around the relationship between organizational factors, residual risk and accident causation. More importantly, the review found no empirical studies that utilized the term residual risk thus implying a gap and inconsistency in risk taxonomy in the mining industry. In light of these gaps, further research is recommended to examine the nature and extent of the influence of organizational factors on residual risk management, with particular focus on examining the influence of organizational factors on the functioning and effectiveness of risk controls. It is envisaged that by improving the efficacy of risk controls, mining companies can ultimately improve their safety performance and make it more sustainable.
Highlights
Mining companies carry an obligation to conduct their operations in a safe and sustainable manner
It was observed that qualitative studies that were built around a theoretical framework articulated the relationship between organizational factors and accident causation more succinctly
This is evident in a post-event analysis of four fatal mining accidents commissioned by the Mines Safety Advisory Council (MSAC) in New South Wales (NSW) Australia, which made similar findings regarding the relationship between risk control failure and accident causation before recommending greater focus on risk control implementation and effectiveness (Dodshon & Hassall, 2017; Wilkinson & Petrie, 2014)
Summary
Mining companies carry an obligation to conduct their operations in a safe and sustainable manner. Stakeholders including regulators in the mining industry have advocated for an approach that recognizes the centrality of humans in the design, implementation and operation of critical controls (Mason, 2016). According to this approach, human factors (HF) are recognized as possible contributors to workplace accidents, especially during accident investigation and in International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Safety, 3:3 (2019) 53-69
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