We've all been told about the power of positive leadership, servant leadership etc. But what if much of what we believe about these styles is more of an illusion.
Today, we're diving into research that suggests the evidence for positive leadership styles might be more steeped in how leaders are judged, not just what they do, leading to a re-evaluation of how we understand leadership effectiveness.
Today's study is: Fischer, T., Dietz, J., & Antonakis, J. (2024). A fatal flaw: Positive leadership style research creates causal illusions. The Leadership Quarterly, 35(3), 101771.
More research at SafetyInsights.Org
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Want to add a garnish of Safety-II inspired thinking into debriefs? Check out this 4 min quickisode.
Today's article is: Bentley, S. K., McNamara, S., Meguerdichian, M., Walker, K., Patterson, M., & Bajaj, K. (2021). Debrief it all: a tool for inclusion of Safety-II. Advances in Simulation, 6(1), 9.
More research at SafetyInsights.Org
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What if many of the ideas we cling to about leaders, are more zombie ideas - outdated concepts that refuse to die?
What if some of these ideas are holding back progress in moving forward with more calibrated and effective principles of leadership?
Today's study is: Haslam, S. A., Alvesson, M., & Reicher, S. D. (2024). Zombie leadership: Dead ideas that still walk among us. The Leadership Quarterly, 35(3), 101770.
More research at SafetyInsights.Org
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This special quickisode unpacks Haddon's 10 energy countermeasures.
This approach provides an alternative or compliment to the hierarchy of control, and focuses directly on eliminating, minimising or marshalling the exchange of hazardous energy.
No specific reference - except for William Haddon Jn's legendary work. Check out his 10 countermeasures:
More research at SafetyInsights.Org
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We chase certifications, implement systems, but what impact are we really having on operational performance?
Is achieving certification, like ISO 18001 or 45001, really about improving the governance, assurance, or performance of systems, or is it more about window dressing and legitimacy, being seen to be doing the right thing?
Today's pod covers: Dyreborg, J., Thorsen, S. V., Madsen, C. U., & Hasle, P. (2024). Effectiveness of OHSAS 18001 in reducing accidents at work. A follow-up study of 13,102 workplaces. Safety Science, 177, 106573.
More research at SafetyInsights.Org
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We often put leadership on a pedestal - the silver bullet for all organisational ills.
But what does the evidence suggest? What influence does various aspects of leadership have on various organisational safety measures?
This episode explores the research behind leadership, before we move into a couple of more critical leadership studies in future eps.
Today's pod covers: Lyubykh, Z., Turner, N., Hershcovis, M. S., & Deng, C. (2022). A meta-analysis of leadership and workplace safety: Examining relative importance, contextual contingencies, and methodological moderators. Journal of Applied Psychology, 107(12), 2149.
More research at SafetyInsights.Org
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Risk in safety is often framed in matrices as likelihood x consequences. It holds an allure of (semi)objectivity - the numbers are the numbers.
But what is the role of emotion and feelings within our risk judgements? Today's article argues that what we 'feel' about risk precedes and influences what we 'think' about risk.
This pod's article is: Slovic, P., Finucane, M. L., Peters, E., & MacGregor, D. G. (2013). Risk as analysis and risk as feelings: Some thoughts about affect, reason, risk and rationality. In The feeling of risk (pp. 21-36). Routledge.Feel free to shout me a coffee to support my site &podcasts: https://buymeacoffee.com/benhutchinson
More research at SafetyInsights.Org
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Why did they do that, what an idiot! What if our inability to understand the apparent stupidity of an action, after the fact, is more an issue with us, than with the decisions or actions of the person you're judging?
What are better ways--specific tools--to unpack the critical decisions and actions, and make sense of the local rationality of people caught within these situations?
Today's pod unpacks two articles:
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More research at SafetyInsights.Org
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Do construction investigations take broader systems perspectives of accident causation, or stuck in the mud focused on local factors, people and behaviour?
Further, do investigations help organisations navigate complex, often entangled sociotechnical matters, or hinder progress in safety capacities?
Today’s paper is from Woolley, M. J., Goode, N., Read, G. J., & Salmon, P. M. (2019). Have we reached the organisational ceiling? a review of applied accident causation models, methods and contributing factors in construction. Theoretical issues in ergonomics science, 20(5), 533-555.
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More research at SafetyInsights.Org
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Many organisations rely on their root cause analyses (RCA) to help learn about incidents, and, ideally, prevent incident reoccurrences.
So the logic goes. But does the published evidence support RCA approaches as effective means for preventing incident reoccurrences?
Today's paper is Martin-Delgado, J., Martínez-García, A., Aranaz, J. M., Valencia-Martín, J. L., & Mira, J. J. (2020). How much of root cause analysis translates into improved patient safety: a systematic review. Medical Principles and Practice, 29(6), 524-531.
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More research at SafetyInsights.Org
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We've all heard about or been part of them - leader walkarounds.
Are walkarounds backed by solid evidence - do they build break down silos, enhance trust, and foster psychological safety, or more symbolic peacocking activities to be *seen* to care, rather than *actually* caring?
Today's article is Foster, M., & Mazur, L. (2023). Impact of leadership walkarounds on operational, cultural and clinical outcomes: a systematic review. BMJ Open Quality, 12(4), e002284.
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More research at SafetyInsights.Org
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Conventional wisdom suggests investigating and circulating knowledge of near misses. These 'free lessons', so it goes, are supposed to help us learn without the need for injury or damage.
But can near misses also lead to a desensitisation of risk over time, focusing on the achieved success, rather than the near loss?
Today's paper is from Dillon, R. L., & Tinsley, C. H. (2016). Near-miss events, risk messages, and decision making. Environment Systems and Decisions, 36(1), 34-44.
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More research at SafetyInsights.Org
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How do you consider the role of people within your barrier or critical control system - threat or adaptable strength?
What are some fallacies of human performance, like being unreliable bad apples, and how best to incorporate the strengths of people, while limiting performance variability?
Today's paper is from McLeod, R. W. (2017). Human factors in barrier management: Hard truths and challenges. Process Safety and Environmental Protection, 110, 31-42.
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More research at SafetyInsights.Org
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Are our use of reported injury measures, like TRIFR or LTIFR, 'good enough' representations, or beset with foundational statistical flaws?
Today's report is from Hallowell et al., 2020, titled 'The Statistical Invalidity of TRIR as a Measure of Safety Performance'. From the CSRA.
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More research at SafetyInsights.Org
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Are our safety myths--like most accidents being the result of human error--holding back genuine improvement within safety?
Can myths like these actually hamper learning, and increase operational risk?
Today's article is from Besnard, D., & Hollnagel, E. (2014). I want to believe: some myths about the management of industrial safety. Cognition, Technology & Work, 16, 13-23.
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More research at SafetyInsights.Org
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We design, implement and certify our safety systems with best intentions. We hope these systems help us to identify and address workplace hazards.
However, is it possible that certified management systems can instead mask particular complex sociotechnical issues, simplifying psychosocial matters into neat, auditable matters, devoid of their depth and nuance?
Can auditing transform functional systems into easily auditable, but less functional, systems?
Today we explore the following paper: Hohnen, P., & Hasle, P. (2011). Making work environment auditable–A ‘critical case’ study of certified occupational health and safety management systems in Denmark. Safety science, 49(7), 1022-1029.
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More research at SafetyInsights.Org
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Is Zero Harm a laudable approach or a misdirection--an illusion--associated with higher fatality rates?
This episode dives into the paper from: Sherratt, F., & Dainty, A. R. (2017). UK construction safety: a zero paradox?. Policy and practice in health and safety, 15(2), 108-116.
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More research at SafetyInsights.Org
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Are our investigations blinded to the functioning and effectiveness of risk controls?
Are our current approaches, and mental models about how safety events occur, defined less by what they unpack and more by what they leave in the dark?
This study unpacks these questions, and evaluates how accident investigators consider, or not, the functioning of risk controls within the context of investigations.
Ref: Dodshon, P., & Hassall, M. E. (2017). Practitioners’ perspectives on incident investigations. Safety science, 93, 187-198.
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More research at SafetyInsights.Org
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Are audits effective checks and verifications of our risk control systems?
Are they diving deep into the functionality and effectiveness of systems and practices, and evaluating actual daily, hazardous work?
Or, are they mostly rustling paperwork at the expense of real operational hazards?
Ref: Hutchinson, B., Dekker, S., & Rae, A. (2024). Audit masquerade: How audits provide comfort rather than treatment for serious safety problems. Safety science, 169, 106348.
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More research at SafetyInsights.Org
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Conventional logic suggests that we fix the gaps that we find in investigations. But is this the case?
Is the investigation process more a socially constructed game of sociopolitical whack-a-mole, finding and fixing the things that are easily solved or understandable, or tolerable to the organisation?
Lundberg, J., Rollenhagen, C., & Hollnagel, E. (2010). What you find is not always what you fix—How other aspects than causes of accidents decide recommendations for remedial actions. Accident Analysis & Prevention, 42(6), 2132-2139.
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More research at SafetyInsights.Org
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