Organisations safety improvement

Although accidents are just one of the ways in which we construct safety on sites, they help create a shared acceptance of a reality in which accidents will happen. It is in this reality where safety improvements are sought. But this is not a context which readily supports a shift to a safer industry. Indeed, an inherent fatalism has often been identified within industrial workforces which can play havoc with organisational safety targets, particularly those around zero - currently the biggest number in construction site safety- and one which is explored in much more detail in Chapter 8. 

Burnett, S., Berm, J., Pinto, A. et al. (2010) Organisational readiness exploring the preconditions for success in organisation-wide patient safety improvement programmes. Quality and Safety in Health Care (in press). 

The following paper will be organised in presenting first the EPR safety improvements with no induced impact on cost savings and then those that have a consequential positive impact on availability and (or) maintenance. Finally some basic improvements on operation strategies coming the many years of experience in France and Germany will be considered. 

Johnson, S., H rekke, S. 2008. Can organisational learning improve safety and resilience during changes. In Safety, Reliability and Risk Analysis Theory, Methods and Applications. Taylor Francis ISBN 978-0-415-48513-5. pp. 805-815. 

Mannion, R., Konteh, F.H. and Davies, H.T.O. 2009. Assessing organisational culture for quality and safety improvement A national survey of tools and tool use. Quality and Safety in Health Care, 18, 153-6. 

In conclusion, proactive safety indicators either irtfluence safety management priorities and the chosen actions for safety improvement or provide information about the dynamics of the sociotechnical system (not merely about the functioning of safety barriers and absence of harm). These proactive indicators are respectively labelled drive indicators and monitor indicators in this chapter. Safety indicators should be capable of measirring (morritor indicators) or facilitating (drive indicators) the presence of organisational attribrrtes necessary for ensuring adequate patient safety. 

The discussion so far has concerned the various ways in which employers respond to compensation pressures, only some of which have anything to do with improving safety. But there are also circumstances which can render managers quite immune to these pressures, ruling out even the possibility of compensation costs generating safety improvements. The problem arises in large organisations and stems from the way in which compensation costs... 

My safety policy states what 1 expect the line organisation to do and what 1 expect the HSE staff organisation to do 1 have attended the Basic Law training class My safety committee is comprised primarily of line people, with a minimum of HSE staff in attendance 1 make clear my expectation that an injured person must go to Medical even if they also wish to see their 1 visit work areas and make it a point to comment on hazards 1 have identified and safety improvements achieved... 

Transport Safety Victoria. 2014. Safety culture elements and sub-elements organizational safety culture appraisal tool. Transport Safety Victoria. http //www.transportsafety. vic.gov.au/rail-safety/safety-improvement/organisational-safety-culture-appraisal-tool/ using-oscat/safety-culture-elements, downloaded February 28, 2014. 

Baram notes that the presumption has been that biotechnology was an area where information about failures would be rapidly communicated and that the processes of organisation learning would ensure safety improvements. This was an area, in short, where self-regulation might have been expected to work. He argues, however, that this has not been the case and that commercial pressures and conflicts of interest have prevented the dissemination of critical information. The picture he paints is akin to the wild west frontier where individuals pursue their own interest with little or no control by government. 

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