TY - JOUR
T1 - Safety leadership and systems thinking
T2 - application and evaluation of a Risk Management Framework in the mining industry
AU - Donovan, Sarah Louise
AU - Salmon, Paul M.
AU - Lenné, Michael G.
AU - Horberry, Tim
PY - 2017/10/3
Y1 - 2017/10/3
N2 - Safety leadership is an important factor in supporting safety in high-risk industries. This article contends that applying systems-thinking methods to examine safety leadership can support improved learning from incidents. A case study analysis was undertaken of a large-scale mining landslide incident in which no injuries or fatalities were incurred. A multi-method approach was adopted, in which the Critical Decision Method, Rasmussen’s Risk Management Framework and Accimap method were applied to examine the safety leadership decisions and actions which enabled the safe outcome. The approach enabled Rasmussen’s predictions regarding safety and performance to be examined in the safety leadership context, with findings demonstrating the distribution of safety leadership across leader and system levels, and the presence of vertical integration as key to supporting the successful safety outcome. In doing so, the findings also demonstrate the usefulness of applying systems-thinking methods to examine and learn from incidents in terms of what ‘went right’. The implications, including future research directions, are discussed. Practitioner Summary: This paper presents a case study analysis, in which systems-thinking methods are applied to the examination of safety leadership decisions and actions during a large-scale mining landslide incident. The findings establish safety leadership as a systems phenomenon, and furthermore, demonstrate the usefulness of applying systems-thinking methods to learn from incidents in terms of what ‘went right’. Implications, including future research directions, are discussed.
AB - Safety leadership is an important factor in supporting safety in high-risk industries. This article contends that applying systems-thinking methods to examine safety leadership can support improved learning from incidents. A case study analysis was undertaken of a large-scale mining landslide incident in which no injuries or fatalities were incurred. A multi-method approach was adopted, in which the Critical Decision Method, Rasmussen’s Risk Management Framework and Accimap method were applied to examine the safety leadership decisions and actions which enabled the safe outcome. The approach enabled Rasmussen’s predictions regarding safety and performance to be examined in the safety leadership context, with findings demonstrating the distribution of safety leadership across leader and system levels, and the presence of vertical integration as key to supporting the successful safety outcome. In doing so, the findings also demonstrate the usefulness of applying systems-thinking methods to examine and learn from incidents in terms of what ‘went right’. The implications, including future research directions, are discussed. Practitioner Summary: This paper presents a case study analysis, in which systems-thinking methods are applied to the examination of safety leadership decisions and actions during a large-scale mining landslide incident. The findings establish safety leadership as a systems phenomenon, and furthermore, demonstrate the usefulness of applying systems-thinking methods to learn from incidents in terms of what ‘went right’. Implications, including future research directions, are discussed.
KW - learning from incidents
KW - safe performance
KW - Safety leadership
KW - systems-thinking
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85017131221&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/00140139.2017.1308562
DO - 10.1080/00140139.2017.1308562
M3 - Article
C2 - 28317449
AN - SCOPUS:85017131221
SN - 0014-0139
VL - 60
SP - 1336
EP - 1350
JO - Ergonomics
JF - Ergonomics
IS - 10
ER -