Browsing by Author "Davidson, Ross"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    Designing safer working interventions through a literature review using a mechanisms-based approach
    (Elsevier, 2019-07-20) Pilbeam, Colin; Denyer, David; Doherty, Noeleen; Davidson, Ross
    The explanation for what safety interventions work in any particular circumstance remains elusive, resulting in many work-related fatalities and injuries every year. We propose a shift in perspective from a preoccupation with safety interventions and their effects to an elucidation of the generative mechanisms underpinning safety and its contiguous context. Using an analytical framework based on contexts, interventions, mechanisms and outcomes (CIMO) we were able to review 43 empirical studies of safety interventions deployed by leaders in organizations. This motivated the development of 10 design propositions; 5 related to accident and injury reduction and 5 to changing safety behaviours. Greater understanding of the mechanisms by which interventions exert their effects will lead to the design of more context appropriate safety interventions thereby enhancing individual and organizational safety in the future and the development of evidence-based safety.
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    Effect of isomorphic forces on safety practices in service organizations – are there dangers to homogeneity?
    (Iosh Services Limited, 2016-09-15) Pilbeam, Colin; Doherty, Noeleen; Davidson, Ross; Denyer, David
    A wide range of different safety practices exist. However, they have been developed for production-oriented high-hazard environments. We know relatively little about safety practices in low-hazard service sector environments where most people in the U.K work and which differ from production-oriented industries in their organization, working practices and hazards. We conducted 143 semi-structured interviews in 10 stores of four leading U.K retailers and an office and two warehouses of a global logistics company. These revealed 32 categories of safety practices in these service organizations which we aligned to those indicated in the OHSAS 18001 framework to allow comparison across industries. There were few practices that were not common to all service environments. Moreover, these closely resembled safety practices conducted in production-oriented high-hazard environments. We explain this homogeneity by institutional isomorphism, which encourages conformity through coercive, normative and mimetic pressures arising respectively from legal and regulatory requirements, professional standards and training, and lack of resources and staff turnover. We draw attention to the contingent relationship between hazards and appropriate safety practices and conclude that these pressures encourage organizations to borrow practices inappropriately and to accumulate layers of practices to ensure safe working needlessly increasing organizational costs. Opportunities for further research are discussed.
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    Safety leadership practices for organizational safety compliance: developing a research agenda from a review of the literature
    (Elsevier, 2016-03-03) Pilbeam, Colin; Doherty, Noeleen; Davidson, Ross; Denyer, David
    Safety leadership is asserted to positively influence safety compliance amongst employees. We examine this assertion by conducting a systematic literature review of the available academic literature on safety leadership practices and observed safety outcomes. We identified 25 empirical studies, the majority of which measured leadership through generic scales (MLQ and LMX). Closer scrutiny of the outcome measures suggested that these were mainly aligned to the implementation and operations phases of the OHSAS 18001 safety management systems framework. We conclude that safety compliance has been narrowly defined in academic study, but in practice embraces a much wider range of activities. While safety leadership may contribute to successfully achieving these other actions, there is no empirical evidence for this. Moreover, there is considerable critique of transformational and transactional leadership, so that the specification of desired leadership practices is problematic. We propose that a broader conceptualization of safety compliance requires safety leadership to embrace ‘plural’ forms of leadership. We draw attention to the narrow range of contexts in which safety leadership has been empirically studied and suggest other settings for investigation. Alternative methods for investigating safety leadership other than scales of leadership behaviour are suggested to enrich our understanding of safety leadership and so improve safety compliance.
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    What learning happens? Using audio diaries to capture learning in response to safety-related events within retail and logistics organizations
    (Elsevier, 2015-08-28) Pilbeam, Colin; Davidson, Ross; Doherty, Noeleen; Denyer, David
    Learning from safety incidents has typically been investigated amongst front-line workers in high hazard contexts. In contrast this study collected safety incident data using audio-recorders from 21 respondents across the organizational hierarchy in two retail and one logistics company in the UK. The diary data highlight the propensity for problem-fixing in a single-loop learning mode rather than deeper, double-loop learning problem-resolution. The latter occurs amongst those with organizational responsibility for safety, irrespective of hierarchical position. The observation of violations is suggestive of prior learning of correct procedures and these data suggest that near-misses are under-reported in organizations.