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Rules and Routines in Organizations and the Management of Safety Rules

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Rules and Routines in Organizations and the Management of Safety Rules Diss. ETH No. 20956 RULES AND ROUTINES IN ORGANIZATIONS AND THE MANAGEMENT OF SAFETY RULES A dissertation submitted to ETH Zurich for the degree of Doctor of Sciences presented by JOHANN CHRISTOPH WEICHBRODT Dipl.-Psych., University of Göttingen born June 1, 1979 citizen of Germany accepted on recommendation of Prof. Dr. Gudela Grote (examiner) Prof. Dr. Georg von Krogh (co-examiner) 2013 II Danksagung Zuallererst gilt mein Dank meiner Betreuerin Gudela Grote, die mir durch viele fruchtbare Diskussionen geholfen hat mich durch das Thema hindurchzufinden und mir viel Freiraum zur Entwicklung meiner eigenen Ideen gelassen hat. Bedanken möchte ich mich auch bei meinem Zweitbetreuer Georg von Krogh für Feedback und Unterstützung. Besonderer Dank geht zudem an die Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeiter der Schweizerischen Bundesbahnen, welche mir während meiner Besuche und besonders in den Interviews bereitwillig Auskunft gaben und mir einen Einblick in ihre Arbeitswelt ermöglichten. Insbesondere möchte ich Andreas Hönger danken für die Vermittlung der Kontakte und das Interesse am Projekt. Während meiner Zeit an der ETH hatte ich mit vielen weiteren Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftlern regen Austausch über meine Arbeit. Darüber hinaus hatten wir auch einfach eine fabelhafte Zeit miteinander. Dafür möchte ich mich bedanken bei: Boris Battistini, Julia Belting, Nadine Bienefeld, Matthias Briner, Sifra Corver, Wiebke Doden, Gian-Claudio Gentile, Marius Gerber, Martin Gubler, Hannes Günter, Mareike Haase, Jacqueline Hohermuth, Peter Jäger, Patrick Jiranek, Barbara Künzle, Max Neufeind, Olga Samuel, Sarah Seyr, Renato Sydler, Cécile Tschopp, Mona Weiss, Anette Wittekind und Patricia Wolf. Besonderer Dank geht dabei an Daniel Boos, Denniz Dönmez und Michaela Kolbe. In der Peer-Mentoring-Gruppe SOWAS konnten wir uns während Workshops, Schreibwochen und dem gelegentlichen Feierabendbier gegenseitig unterstützen – vielen Dank dafür an euch alle! Auch Familie und Freunde waren während der gesamten Zeit wichtig als Quelle der Inspiration und Unterstützung. Dafür danke ich meinen Eltern Gisela und Ernst Weichbrodt, meinen Geschwistern Edith Deisberg, Klaus Weichbrodt und Michael Weichbrodt, sowie Holger Balderhaar, Ralph Jacob, Jan Kiepe, Jan Lorenz, Maja Müller, Sebastian Otte, Nadine Spirig, Johannes Willms und Sara Willms. III Table of contents Danksagung ..................................................................................................................... II Abstract ........................................................................................................................... V Zusammenfassung ....................................................................................................... VII PART I: INTRODUCTION 1. Theoretical Background of the Dissertation ............................................................... 3 2. Research aims ............................................................................................................ 8 3. Methodological approaches ..................................................................................... 10 4. Summaries of the scientific papers .......................................................................... 15 5. Contribution .............................................................................................................. 18 References .................................................................................................................... 23 PART II: SCIENTIFIC PAPERS How to Shape Behavior in Organizations: From Rules to Routines and Back ......... 30 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................... 31 2. Organizational routines and their connection to rules .............................................. 33 3. Relevant roles in shaping the rule-routine interaction .............................................. 34 4. Propositions on the rule-routine interaction ............................................................. 36 5. Discussion and conclusion ....................................................................................... 46 References .................................................................................................................... 49 When the formal and the informal do not align: Exploring the rule-routine relationship in three fields of work in the railroads ..................................................... 54 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................... 55 2. Theoretical Background ............................................................................................ 58 3. Methods .................................................................................................................... 64 4. Findings .................................................................................................................... 69 5. Discussion ................................................................................................................. 85 6. Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 92 References .................................................................................................................... 94 Safety Rules as Instruments for Organizational Control, Coordination and Knowledge: Implications for Rules Management ...................................................... 100 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................. 101 2. Rules as instruments for organizational control, coordination and knowledge ...... 103 3. Four common challenges with safety rules ............................................................ 106 4. Four Measures of good rules management ............................................................ 117 5. Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 128 References .................................................................................................................. 130 IV List of tables and figures Tables Table 1: Contributions of the authors to the three papers ................................................... 19 Table 2: Challenges for safety rules and their functions as control, coordination and knowledge ................................................................................ 117 Table 3: Measures of good rules management and implications for the three functions of rules ................................................................................... 129 Figures Figure 1: Rules, routines, and relevant roles in organizations .............................................. 37 Figure 2: The case of the coupling sequence ....................................................................... 72 Figure 3: The case of the “greeting passing trains” rule ....................................................... 75 Figure 4: The case of the blockage checklist ....................................................................... 80 Figure 5: The case of the “no work” rules for lookouts ........................................................ 84 V Abstract This thesis is concerned with the relationship between rules and routines in organizations and how the former can be used to steer the latter. Rules are understood as formal organizational artifacts, whereas organizational routines are collective patterns of action. While research on routines has been thriving, a clear understanding of how rules can be used to influence or control organizational routines (and vice-versa) is still lacking. This question is of particular relevance to safety rules in high-risk organizations, where the way in which organizational routines unfold can ultimately be a matter of life and death. In these organizations, an important and related issue is the balancing of standardization and flexibility – which, in the case of rules, takes the form of finding the right degree of formalization. In high-risk organizations, the question is how to adequately regulate actors’ routines in order to facilitate safe behavior, while at the same time leaving enough leeway for actors to make good decisions in abnormal situations. The railroads are regarded as high-risk industries and also rely heavily on formal rules. In this thesis, the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) were therefore selected for a field study on rules and routines. The issues outlined so far are being tackled theoretically (paper 1), empirically (paper 2), and from a practitioner’s (i.e., rule maker’s) point of view (paper 3). In paper 1, the relationship between rules and routines is theoretically conceptualized, based on a literature review. Literature on organizational control and coordination, on rules in human factors and safety, and on organizational routines is combined. Three distinct roles (rule maker, rule supervisor, and rule follower) are outlined. Six propositions are developed regarding the necessary characteristics of both routines and rules, the respective influence of the three roles on the rule-routine relationship, and regarding organizational aspects such as participation in rule creation. Paper 2 makes use of extensive empirical data collected at three different fields of work within SBB (signaling, shunting, and construction and maintenance). Using
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