High-risk Organizations Research Articles

Negotiating Safety by Movements: Articulation, Alignment and Separation between Train Driving and Railway Traffic Controlling Activities

This article explores the negotiation of safety between two distinct activity systems that operate jointly on a daily basis: train driving and railway traffic controlling. We have employed cultural-historical activity theory and an ethnographic case study of a large European passenger and freight transport company to pinpoint three different types of movement underpinning the negotiation of safety. These different movements can be found in work organization, work situations, and workers’ actions. The negotiation of safety would appear to be based on the movements of articulation (articulation, disarticulation, re-articulation), alignment (alignment, misalignment, realignment), and separation (separation, re-separation, de-separation) between activity systems. Within the framework of activity theory, we have used evidence from highly reliable organizations and the management of high-risk organizations to offer a better understanding of the movements between activity systems in safety negotiation.

Community relations under pressure: Local residents’ perceptions of corporate crisis communication

ABSTRACT High-risk organizations, such as chemical companies, are urged to engage in long-term, dialogic community relations with local residents. Community engagement can establish organizational legitimacy and help to address local concerns. However, stakeholders may be skeptical toward communication efforts made by high-risk organizations, especially during crisis situations. This qualitative study explores whether two Belgian communities are skeptical of the communication efforts made by chemical companies regarding pollution crises, what motives they attribute to the crisis communication, and which communication characteristics shape those attributions. In-depth interviews with 47 local community members reveal that the crisis communication efforts were considered self-serving and attributed to corporate concerns over (a) legitimacy, (b) financial consequences and (c) legal liability. Interviewees believed that these self-serving motives took precedence over public interests. This study also describes communication cues that triggered or strengthened suspicions. Practical recommendations are proposed for chemical companies to improve relationships with local communities.

Characteristics of Safety Personality

For high-risk organisations, it is essential that employees demonstrate safety-awareness behaviour, as a reflection of their safety personality, to avoid accidents. Several studies confirm that personality is the individual difference that is most associated with the likelihood of an accident occurring; it is therefore necessary to address the identification and expression of the characteristics of safety personality. This paper aims to present a personality questionnaire the authors have created, which was administered to employees of a large Hungarian company in the electricity supply business with altogether 1273 employees obligated to prioritise workplace safety. The final version of the questionnaire contained 59 items. Based on the statistical results, 58.08% of the variance of total variables was explained by 10 factors; the scales of the questionnaire developed are otherwise reliable. The paper also examines the validation of the scales using different psychological measures.

Bifactor modeling assessment of a safety climate index using item response theory

Effective workplace operations depend upon a collection of norms and practices, which encapsulate an overall safety climate. Although the safety climate concept has been well-defined, a continuing challenge has been developing practical and salient measurement tools. Comprehensive safety climate measurements often require complex, multi-faceted structures that can be difficult and time-consuming to administer in operational environments. The current study explored one operationally-proven survey tool with the goal of reducing the factor structure and producing a more readily useful measurement of safety climate. Statistical techniques utilized Item Response Theory and bifactor modeling to produce a Safety Climate Index (SCI). Furthermore, analyses demonstrated the practical and predictive value of this measure by comparing SCI outcomes to real safety issues experienced onboard more than 100 US Navy ships. The results suggest that the SCI could serve as a reliable and operationally practical assessment of safety climate for high-risk organizations.

Safety Leadership in High-risk Organizations: The Cost of Being a Good Soldier

Safety leadership has emerged as an important area of interest for both the practitioner and researcher in maintaining safety in high-risk industries, however literature has not attempted to explore the dark side of such practices. This study explored the negative consequences of being good with safety. For this purpose data was collected from the employees of high risk organizations (electricity distribution firms). A sample of 400 respondents was approached under convenience sampling technique, out of which 314 completely filled responses were considered for data analysis. Data was analyzed using Smart PLS 3.9 Software by applying the Structural Equation Modeling Technique (SEM). Results indicate that, safety leadership improves the safety citizenship behavior among the workers of high risk organizations, however it has also been linked with the citizenship fatigue. Research limitations and future directions are also discussed.

Communication Overload in Hospitals: Exploring Organizational Safety Communication, Worker Job Attitudes, and Communication Efficacy

ABSTRACT Hospitals represent complex organizations where a range of hospital workers, from physicians to administrators, encounter a deluge of information they must quickly process and act upon. New technologies implemented to streamline patient care, like electronic health records and wearable technologies, have both enhanced and complicated communicative exchanges between hospital workers and their organizations. Hospital workers feeling over saturated with workplace communication, and thus unable to effectively manage or interpret workplace messages, experience what has been labeled communication overload, which can negatively impact worker productivity and concentration. This study examines hospital workers (N = 303) in a Midwestern U.S. healthcare network, and uses structural equation modeling to offer a preliminary theoretical model that demonstrates the effects and outcomes of communication overload in high-risk organizations. The model offers theoretical implications through depicting communication overload as indirectly related to burnout, job satisfaction, and organizational identification through participation in decision-making and organizational safety climate. Results suggest that even if communication overload is an expected state in high-risk organizations, managers can prevent its negative effects on workers’ job attitudes by providing workers opportunities to get involved in organizational decision-making and constructing a robust organizational safety climate. Finally, we suggest pairings of organizational safety communication channels and sources through which high quantities of safety information can be communicated without communicatively overloading workers.

Two sides of the same coin? Exploring the relation between safety and security in high-risk organizations

IntroductionWhile safety in high-risk organizations has been high on the agenda for multiple decades, these organizations are now increasingly concerned about security threats. In light of this, academics and institutions have set forth the vision of a synergistic integration of safety and security, warranted by their common goal to protect people and the environment. However, it is not always clear how this vision should be enacted on the work floor. While safety and security policies share some elements, recent studies point out that their practical enactments may diverge and lead to potential tensions.Methods: Using an empirically grounded inquiry within a nuclear research center, this paper analyzes how safety and security practices interact. Our analysis reveals that, while they contain similar management frameworks and practical means, safety and security interactions are also characterized by various tensions. Mobilizing paradox theory, we highlight how these tensions are (to a large extent) rooted in three underlying paradoxes: distrust vs trust; transparency vs confidentiality; and movement enablement vs movement restriction.Practical Applications: We discuss the practical implications of these findings and, based on these, we argue that an integrated approach to safety and security should, rather than sideline tensions, promote the creation of ‘tension venues.’ Such tension venues offer spaces for reflection, and as such would enable the co-creation of innovative measures to articulate safety and security.

Psychological First Aid Intervention after Exposure to a Traumatic Event at Work among Emergency Medical Services Workers.

Psychological First Aid (PFA) is a promising early intervention for managing mental health symptoms and providing psychosocial support after exposure to a traumatic event (TE) among high-risk organizations such as Emergency Medical Service (EMS). However, recipients' experience with PFA remains understudied. This study aimed to explore the perception of EMS workers (n = 13) who received PFA administered by a peer helper using a qualitative inductive approach. Findings from a thematic analysis indicated that the PFA intervention addresses EMS workers' immediate needs in congruence with Hobfoll's five essential principles to enhance coping and recovery after a TE. Specific components of the intervention, such as its time-sensitive nature and the closeness with peers, were especially appreciated by EMS workers. The PFA intervention appeared to have a beneficial impact on recipients, regarding the reduction of stigma, the increase of help-seeking behaviors, and the decrease of organizational difficulties. In conclusion, the PFA intervention offered by peer helpers is appreciated by recipients and is a beneficial first step toward supporting EMS workers in the aftermath of workplace trauma. These qualitative findings contribute to the current literature by informing further research about PFA intervention in other high-risk organizations and quantitative studies aiming to test PFA's efficacy in such settings.

Reviewing Non-Technical Skills & Organizational Learning: A Comparative Analysis of Critical Safety Factors within the UK’s High-Risk Industries

Accidents in high-tech organisations are often triggered by a concatenation of human and system anomalies and errors, proving destructive to life, property and the environment. Urgent attention is required to minimize such events by training workers in high-risk organisations and ensuring adequate levels of Non-Technical Skills (NTS) training to counter related risks within the spectrum of their daily tasks. Organisational learning becomes equally relevant when industries are inclined towards becoming learning organisations by encouraging and promoting learning to manage safety. A comparative assessment is drawn by examining current practices in aviation and in the oil and gas sectors. The online survey was used to gather primary data, as well as interviewing 15 safety experts across the three sectors and another 15 safety experts recruited as focus groups to establish if NTS and organisational learning are used in safety management. Our sample comprised health and safety experts from the nuclear (n = 124, 54%), aviation (n = 59, 25%), and oil and gas sectors (n = 49, 21%). Findings revealed that the nuclear sector has not fully and officially acknowledged the use of NTS to train workers. The nuclear sector should look inwardly at how safety is managed since there is limited evidence of formal knowledge or techniques for transferring lessons to staff on NTS, which has proven to be a major critical “ingredient” in safety management in high-risk organisations.

Management Commitment to Safety and Safety Training: Mediating Role of Safety Compliance for Occupational Accidents A Study on Oil and Gas Industry of Malaysia

In high-risk hazardous organizations, workers face occupational accidents and safety challenges. The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of management commitment to safety and safety training on occupational accidents via safety compliance in the context of the oil and gas industry of Malaysia. The sample size was calculated by employing G-Power version 3.1, and 194 responses were collected by using the convenience sampling technique and Smart-PLS was used for data analysis. Hence, based on data analysis, developed hypotheses have been accepted. In addition, this study is also helpful for managers and safety leaders to understand the importance of management commitment to safety and safety training to reduce the rate of occupation accidents. In the future, this study can be conducted with large sample size, and variables safety participation, safety behavior, and workers’ involvement can be added to develop a theoretical framework.

Safety Management Practices and Occupational Health and Safety Performance: An Empirical Review

his paper aims to investigate how the relationship between safety management practices and occupational health and safety performance have been examined in the literature, and which future research areas can be recommended. This systematic literature review applied the matrix method to examine major literature in safety management practices and occupational health and safety performance. A total of 24 papers in English peer-reviewed from 21 journals were selected and analyzed. The synthesis of these empirical studies revealed the following: The relationship between safety management practices and occupational health and safety performance has mostly been investigated quantitatively in many countries and sectors; management commitment to safety, safety rules, and procedures and safety training are still most commonly used safety management practices to improve occupational health and safety performance. In this study, research articles were selected only from English journals; therefore, some research articles in other languages might not be included. The findings of this study can be used to develop a safety management model to reduce the rate of injuries, accidents, and near misses in high hazardous risk organizations. Overall, the findings provide Safety management practices overview that practitioners use to manage safety performance. There are only a few systematic literature reviews available on safety management practices, occupational health, and safety performance. This paper is among the first systematic literature reviews to analyze how safety management practices have been associated with occupational health and safety performance and provide potential research avenues.

Organizational legitimacy for high-risk facilities: Examining the case of NBAF

Through an online survey of community residents living nearby the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF), this study examined how high-risk organizations can communicate organizational legitimacy, and how legitimacy perception may affect public trust and risk perceptions. Results illustrated the importance of transparent and consistent communication in organizational legitimacy-building, as well as the role of legitimacy, especially for high-risk organizations, to garner public trust, to ease public uncertainty, and to increase public preparedness.

A naturalistic decision-making approach to managing non-routine fire incidents: evidence from expert firefighters

The current paper builds on the naturalistic decision-making paradigm to advance the meaning and application of expert intuition in real-life settings. While conventional models of expert intuition often link intuitive competence to pattern recognition skills, the current paper advances prior knowledge by demonstrating that intuitive expertise is inextricably linked to actors’ ability to discriminate between subtle informational cues through the process of information filtering. Drawing on data from a phenomenological study involving thirty (30) fireground commanders (UK = 15, Nigeria = 15), the study utilised the critical decision method (CDM) to explore the cognitive strategies utilised by these expert fire-fighters. The method entailed that each expert participant shared a retrospective non-routine fire incident that particularly challenged their expertise, allowing the resulting qualitative data to be coded and analysed using a combination of emergent themes analysis (ETA) and interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). Specifically, the paper develops and discusses: (i) a theoretical model of intuition that emerged directly from the expert incident accounts (ii) an inventory of forty-two critical cues that aided expert decision-making on the fireground, alongside a cue classification framework. Competence on the fireground was found to be a function of experts’ cue discriminatory and information filtering abilities that subsequently allowed information from multiple sources to be processed and utilised efficiently. Although the firefighting domain formed the central focus of this study, findings are deemed generalisable across other high-risk organisations.

Group strength in safety performance: the effects of group characteristics on individual personality expression in high-speed railway operators

Objectives. In diverse working situations, the predictive effect of individual personality on job performance is not always the same. Thus, how to best understand and use personality in the workplace has been an important issue in recent years. Methods. Based on trait activation theory, the present study provides initial evidence from high-risk organizations (high-speed railway organizations) regarding interactionist effects of group-level characteristics on the relationship between individual personality (Big Five model) and safety performance (both safety compliance and safety participation). Data were obtained from a sample of high-speed rail operators from nine railway bureaus (N = 1012 from 86 working groups). Results. The results indicate that group conscientiousness, agreeableness and neuroticism enhance the relationship between individual personality and safety performance, while group openness weakens the relationship between individual personality and safety performance, and group extraversion has no effect on their relationship. Conclusion. These results suggest that high-risk organizations should focus not only on individual factors but also on the interactions between individual factors and group situations in individuals’ safety performance.

Introduce a Tool to Assess the Understanding of the Early Warning System in High-Risk Organizations

Background: Although early warning system processes follow precise models and scenarios, the human part is not fully understood. Most people before and during crises, act according to their interpretive plans, sometimes when the situation may not be dangerous, but can lead to dangerous reactions. The purpose of this study was to provide an indicator that can be used to assess people's understanding of early warning systems. Methods: This study is a descriptive-analytical study that was conducted in 2019 in a gas refinery in Iran. In the first step, the Perception Index questionnaire was translated into Persian with the help of English language experts. In the next step, the validity and reliability of the questionnaire were assessed. The questionnaires were distributed and completed among 168 refinery personnel. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS software version 24, and Pearson and Spearman correlation coefficients were determined by statistical tests. Results: The content validity index was 0.8, and the content validity ratio was 0.66. The general index of perception of the rapid warning system in this industry was 71.74 percent. Pearson correlation test did not show a significant correlation between age and perception index (r = 0.060), and also this test showed a positive correlation between perception index and work experience (r = 0.691). Spearman test was used to examine the relationship between two variables of education level and perception index. The results showed that there was a strong correlation between these two variables (rho = 0.746). Conclusion: The results showed that the perception index in this questionnaire has high validity and reliability and can be used in high-risk industries. The general perception index gained in this industry was in good condition, which means that people are more likely to be well aware at the time of an accident and will behave appropriately. However, it is suggested that the managers of the industry understudy hold training classes related to the early warning systems, hold emergency maneuvers, and familiarize the personnel with different scenarios.

Cultivating Safety in the Information Technology Era

In the information technology era, the banking industry must compete in an external environment characterized by high levels of uncertainty, complexity and change. Accidents in high-risk manufacturing organizations are generally related to safety studies. The researcher attempted to study "accidents" due to network vulnerabilities in IT-based organizations using the safety concept. This qualitative study is important because it provides analysis of IT support for organizational development. This study used multi-case study and grounded research approaches. The process of developing an information safety climate is considered an alternative solution other than technology. The study revealed that normal accident theory can be used to explain accidents in IT-based organizations. The process of developing an information security climate in banking organizations is categorized as the emergency type. The manifestation of information safety climate is attentiveness, accountability, ethical sensitivity, integrity and sustainability. Phases that need to be undergone in cultivating the safety climate are: adaptation, learning, awareness to risk, and resilience. Thus, it can be concluded that the climate of an IT-based organization is different from the climate of a non technology-based organization.

Learning safety in the workplace: a case study of petrochemical workers in Singapore

This thesis addresses the conundrum faced by high-risk organisations to maintain high levels of safety and avoid workplace accidents. The main research question guiding this study is: How can workp...

You Have Control: aviation communication application for safety-critical times in surgery.

High-risk organisations (HRO), including aviation, undergo formal communication training, with emphasis on safety-critical moments. Such training is not widespread or mandatory in healthcare, and while there are many differences both share the ‘human element’ with circumstances leading to an increased risk of harm. A typical operating theatre consists of an operating surgeon, and an assisting surgeon, roles that may change throughout the course of a procedure. Similarly, a training aircraft or multi-crew cockpit (flight deck) has a pilot in control, or ‘pilot flying’, and a ‘pilot not flying’. Both interact with wider teams, for example the scrub team and air traffic controllers, respectively. Surgical error is the second most prevalent cause of preventable harm to patients after drug errors. Every year in the UK National Health Service (NHS), there are typically 500 never events, 21,000 serious incidents, and many more episodes of physical or psychological harm. Ineffective communication (46%) is the most common behavioural factor leading to a never event. In this review, we examine the concept of ‘sterile cockpit’, use of unambiguous terminology, callsigns, important information readback, sharing of mental models, and the mini-brief, and how these may be used to reduce patient harm during safety-critical moments.

Bringing symmetry between and within safety and security cultures in high-risk organizations

Based on a review of scholarly, regulatory and policy literatures, this article illustrates how ‘safety culture’ and ‘security culture’ are conventionally understood within the context of high-risk organizations. It identifies two important recurring gaps in the literature: (1) the subordination of the analysis of security culture to safety culture concepts, and (2) the anthropocentricity inscribed in both notions, which sideline the dynamic interplay between social and technical elements in the constitution of ‘culture’. To address these gaps, the article introduces concepts and heuristics from Science and Technology Studies, specifically co-production and Actor-Network Theory. Using the concrete examples of the labelling of hazardous materials and the “four eyes” principle, it highlights how these heuristics may open onto a more symmetrical analysis of safety and security cultures in high-risk contexts. It thereby seeks to make visible the mutual shaping of safety and security cultures and attend to the roles of non-human actors as active participants in such processes.

Early Post-trauma Interventions in Organizations: A Scoping Review.

BackgroundIn some organizations, traumatic events via direct or indirect exposure are routine experiences. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence reviews (2005; 2018) of post-traumatic stress disorder management in primary and secondary care did not address early interventions for trauma within emergency response organizations.AimsThis scoping review was designed to identify research which evaluates the use of early interventions in emergency and other high-risk organizations following exposure to primary or secondary trauma and to report on the effectiveness of the early intervention models in common use.MethodsA scoping review was conducted to examine early interventions for workers exposed to trauma, including emergency response, military, and humanitarian aid. Relevant data were extracted from the included studies and the outcomes were assessed using meta-ethnography.ResultsFifty studies of mixed quality met the inclusion criteria for this review. A synthesis of study outcomes found that early interventions help emergency responders to manage post-incident trauma when they are delivered in a manner that (a) respects distinct organizational culture, (b) is supported by organizations and senior management, and (c) harnesses existing social cohesion and peer support systems within teams.ConclusionThis review demonstrates that early interventions support emergency responders following exposure to trauma when these are tailored to the needs of the population, are supported by the host organization, and harness existing social cohesion and peer support processes within a team or unit. A number of recommendations for the delivery and evaluation of early interventions for psychological trauma in emergency response organizations were made.