Special Characteristics of Safety Critical Organizations. Work Psychological Perspective

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Special Characteristics of Safety Critical Organizations. Work Psychological Perspective ESPOO 2007 VTT PUBLICATIONS 633 VTT PUBLICATIONS 633 Special characteristics of safety critical organizations critical safety of characteristics 633 Special PUBLICATIONS VTT Special characteristics of safety critical organizations analyses organizations that operate in high hazard industries, such as the nuclear power, aviation, oil or chemical industry. The society puts a great strain on these organizations to rigorously manage the risks inherent in the technology they use and the products they produce. Most of the organizations manage well in these extraordinarily demanding domains. However, catastrophic accidents, such as the Piper Alpha off­shore platform fire or the Chernobyl nuclear accident remind us of the possibility of serious organizational failure. This book describes the challenges and tensions of managing and working in safety critical organizations through an organizational psychology window. The book offers a critical view of the literature about organizational factors and safety and illustrates the practical challenges of safety critical organizations with revealing interview excerpts from people working in these organizations. The authors suggest eight themes that arise as common organizational challenges across the industries, e.g. how the personnel Pia Oedewald Teemu Reiman understands the risks and what the role of rules and procedures in guiding & the work activities is. The book is written for managers, practitioners as well as for students. It is equally suitable for risk and safety management, organizational Special characteristics of development and human resources management specialists in different safety critical organizations industries. The purpose is to encourage the readers to consider how the human and organizational factors are approached in the field they work in. Work psychological perspective Oedewald Julkaisu on saatavana Publikationen distribueras av This publication is available from VTT VTT VTT PL 1000 PB 1000 P.O. Box 1000 02044 VTT 02044 VTT FI•02044 VTT , Finland & Puh. 020 722 4404 Tel. 020 722 4404 Phone internat. +358 20 722 4404 Reiman Faksi 020722 4374 Fax 020 722 4374 Fax +358 20 722 4374 ISBN 978•951•38•7005•8 (soft back ed.) ISBN 978•951•38•7006•5 (URL: http://www.vtt.fi/publications/index.jsp) ISSN 1235•0621 (soft back ed.) ISSN 1455•0849 (URL: http://www.vtt.fi/publications/index.jsp) VTT PUBLICATIONS 633 Special characteristics of safety critical organizations Work psychological perspective Pia Oedewald & Teemu Reiman ISBN 978-951-38-7005-8 (soft back ed.) ISSN 1235-0621 (soft back ed.) ISBN 978-951-38-7006-5 (URL: http://www.vtt.fi/publications/index.jsp) ISSN 1455-0849 (URL: http://www.vtt.fi/ publications/index.jsp) Copyright © VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland 2007 JULKAISIJA – UTGIVARE – PUBLISHER VTT, Vuorimiehentie 3, PL 1000, 02044 VTT puh. vaihde 020 722 111, faksi 020 722 4374 VTT, Bergsmansvägen 3, PB 1000, 02044 VTT tel. växel 020 722 111, fax 020 722 4374 VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, Vuorimiehentie 3, P.O.Box 1000, FI-02044 VTT, Finland phone internat. +358 20 722 111, fax +358 20 722 4374 VTT, Tekniikantie 12, PL 1000, 02044 VTT puh. vaihde 020 722 111, faksi 020 722 7046 VTT, Teknikvägen 12, PB 1000, 02044 VTT tel. växel 020 722 111, fax 020 722 7046 VTT, Tekniikantie 12, P.O.Box 1000, FI-02044 VTT, Finland phone internat. +358 20 722 111, +358 20 722 7046 Technical editing Anni Kääriäinen Cover picture Kirsi-Maarit Korpi Photos VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Edita Prima Oy, Helsinki 2007 Oedewald, Pia & Reiman, Teemu. Special characteristics of safety critical organizations. Work psychological perspective. Espoo 2007. VTT Publications 633. 114 p. + app. 9 p. Keywords operational safety, safety management, human safety, environmental safety, safety-critical organizations, decisionmaking, nuclear power plants, aviation industry, chemical industry, oil refining industry Abstract This book deals with organizations that operate in high hazard industries, such as the nuclear power, aviation, oil and chemical industry organizations. The society puts a great strain on these organizations to rigorously manage the risks inherent in the technology they use and the products they produce. In this book, an organizational psychology view is taken to analyse what are the typical challenges of daily work in these environments. The analysis is based on a literature review about human and organizational factors in safety critical industries, and on the interviews of Finnish safety experts and safety managers from four different companies. In addition to this, personnel interviews conducted in the Finnish nuclear power plants are utilised. The authors suggest eight themes that arise as common organizational challenges across the industries, e.g. how the personnel understands the risks and what the role of rules and procedures in guiding the work activities is. The primary aim of this book is to contribute to the nuclear safety research and safety management discussion. However, the book is equally suitable for risk management, organizational development and human resources management specialists in different industries. The purpose is to encourage readers to consider how the human and organizational factors are seen in the field they work in. 3 Preface This publication is a summary of our views, which have evolved during our research on organizational factors and safety. Our goal is to describe the internal challenges and tensions of safety critical organizations to all those involved in the development and risk management of such organizations. We have especially wanted to offer analyses, as well viewpoints from other industrial sectors, to the nuclear power industry, which has a very strong, distinct approach to safety management. As psychologists we have noted that safety critical organizations form an own, diverse field of research that differs in many ways from other fields of organizational psychology. Some of the approaches developed for analysing human and organizational performance seem almost absurd at first sight. Nonetheless, ideas that have emerged in the safety critical human factors field have spread to other sectors of organizational research. The goal of our own work has been to build a bridge between traditional work psychology and safety critical organizations. After all, it is work that these organizations engage in. This publication is a revised version of the publication originally written in Finnish in 2006 (VTT Publications 593: Turvallisuuskriittisten organisaatioiden toiminnan erityispiirteet). The publication has been written as part of the CulMa (Organizational culture and management of change) project in the Finnish nuclear safety research programme, SAFIR. Additional funding for the revised edition has been provided by VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland. The authors wish to thank Finnish and Swedish power companies for open co- operation. We would also like to thank the representatives of Finnair, Kemira, Fortum and TVO who contributed to this publication by taking part in interviews and providing versatile information and colourful examples about the challenges and solutions in their organizations. Thanks also go to the steering group members, who provided valuable comments at different phases of the publication. Espoo, January 2007 Pia Oedewald Teemu Reiman 4 Contents Abstract................................................................................................................. 3 Preface .................................................................................................................. 4 Abbreviations........................................................................................................ 8 1. Introduction..................................................................................................... 9 1.1 Challenges to safe operations in organizations...................................... 9 1.2 Objectives and scope of the publication.............................................. 11 2. Methods ........................................................................................................ 12 3. Viewpoints on safety and safety critical organizations................................. 14 3.1 Human as a risk factor......................................................................... 14 3.2 Organizations as open systems............................................................ 19 3.3 Decision-making.................................................................................. 22 3.4 Tension between safety and economy................................................. 24 3.5 Safety management ............................................................................. 25 3.6 Safety culture....................................................................................... 28 3.7 Impact of publicity on organizational operations ................................ 32 3.8 From the HRO theory to the characteristics of organizational culture ................................................................................................. 35 3.8.1 Organizations as cultures ........................................................ 40 3.8.2 How does the safety critical nature of the domain show in the culture of an organization?...................................................... 43 4. Special characteristics of safety critical organizations ................................. 46 4.1 Risk and safety perceptions ................................................................
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