Within the last decades the incidence of workspace injuries and fatalities in the UK construction industry has declined markedly following the developments in occupational health and safety (OHS) management systems. However, safety statistics have reached a plateau and actions for further improvement of OHS management systems are called for. OHS is a form of organizational expertise that has both tacit and explicit dimensions and is situated in the ongoing practices. There is a need for institutionalization and for the transfer of knowledge across and along construction supply chains to reduce OHS risks and facilitate cultural change. The focus of this article is the factors that facilitate OHS knowledge transfer in and between organizations involved in construction projects. An interpretative methodology is used in this research to embrace tacit aspects of knowledge transfer and application. Thematic analysis is supported by a cognitive mapping technique that allows understanding of interrelationships among the concepts expressed by the respondents. This paper demonstrates inconsistency in OHS practices in construction organizations and highlights the importance of cultivating a positive safety culture to encourage transfer of lessons learnt from good practices, incidents, near misses and failures between projects, from projects to programmes and across supply chains. Governmental health and safety regulations, norms and guidelines do not include all possible safety issues specific to different working environments and tied to work contexts. The OHS system should encourage employees to report near misses, incidents and failures in a 'no-blame' context and to take appropriate actions. This research provides foundation for construction project practitioners to adopt more socially oriented approaches towards promoting learning-rich organizational contexts to overcome variation in the OHS and move beyond the current plateau reached in safety statistics.

Purpose -This paper addresses hierarchies in a large programme of projects. It explores cultivation of communities of practice (CoP) within a hierarchical client organization that manages that manages multi-billion-euro infrastructure programmes and projects.Design/methodology/approach -This paper is based on an exploratory longitudinal case study approach, involving action research. In-depth semi-structured interviews, company records, industry reports and observation from a case study in the hierarchical bureaucracy were translated into the language of cognitive maps for software analysis and subsequent interpretation.Findings -The findings highlight the importance of hierarchy constraints and programme management practices in project-based firms. The involvement of senior management in CoP cultivation reinforced the community's contribution to strategic value creation in the firm under scrutiny.Research implications -This article mobilises the concepts of boundary spanning and loose coupling as a way of analyzing the role of CoPs in bureaucratic hierarchies to promote learning and knowledge transfer. The results of the study suggest that application of those concepts can contribute to sustainability of CoPs in hierarchical organizations by giving them social space to span horizontal and vertical boundaries.Practical implications -The authors practically contribute to the field by demonstrating the process and the impact of CoP sponsors' engagement in their cultivation. This was enabled through the research oriented action research component. The paper concludes also that cognitive mapping may provide a useful addition to engaged research, potentially simulating and influencing change in practice.Originality/value -The academic contribution concerns understanding the roles of hierarchies, programme management and CoP cultivation in project-based firms. It offers clear guidelines for managers of hierarchical bureaucracies to cultivate CoPs to address hierarchical constraints and how CoPs differ in organizational form.

Organizations providing services to persons with intellectual disabilities (ID) are complex because of many interacting stakeholders with often different and competing interests. The combination of increased consumer demand and diminished resources makes organizational planning a challenge for the managers of such organizations. Such challenges are confounded by significant demands for the optimization of resources and the goal to reduce expenses and to more effectively and efficiently use existing resources while at the same time providing high quality services. The authors explore the possibilities of using "system dynamics modelling" in organizational decision-making processes related to resource allocations. System dynamics suggests the application of generic systems archetypes as a first step in interpreting complex situations in an organization. The authors illustrate the application of this method via a case study in one provider organization in the Netherlands. The authors contend that such a modeling approach can be used by the management of similar organizations serving people with ID as a tool to support decision making that can result in optimal resource allocation.

The central aspect of this study is a set of reflections on the efficacy of soft operational research techniques in understanding the dynamics of a complex system such as intellectual disability (ID) care providers. Organizations providing services to ID patients are complex and have many interacting stakeholders with often different and competing interests. Understanding the causes for failures in complex systems is crucial for appreciating the multiple perspectives of the key stakeholders of the system. Knowing the factors that adversely affect delivery of a patient-centred care by ID provider organizations offers the potential for identifying more effective resource-allocation solutions. The authors suggest cognitive mapping as a starting point for system dynamics modelling of optimal resource-allocation projects in ID care. The application of the method is illustrated via a case study in one of the ID care providers in the Netherlands. The paper discusses some of the practical implications of applying problem-structuring methods that support gathering feedback from vulnerable service users and front-line workers. The authors concluded that cognitive mapping technique can assist the management of healthcare organizations in strategic decision-making.

Provider organizations specializing in supporting people with intellectual disabilities (ID) are under pressure because of public policy reforms, changes in society, and increased customer expectations. The combination of all these factors makes long‐term decision making a challenge for the managers of such organizations. The majority of research examining decision making in ID service organizations has commonly studied the issue from the perspective of healthcare providers. The authors contend that the degree of success of ID support providers depends on their ability to appreciate the views and interests of service receivers and frontline workers, the most important components in the system. Having a comprehensive picture of key stakeholders' overall perspectives on problem situations can enhance managers' understanding of the behavior of a complex system they manage. The authors suggest that the combination of qualitative system dynamics modeling and cognitive mapping techniques can facilitate collaborative representation of the stakeholders' views in a way that can support decision making in complex healthcare systems. The authors illustrate the application of this combined method through a case study in one ID supports provider in the Netherlands and demonstrated the possibilities of using structured stakeholders' perspectives related to flexible pool schedule shifts, one of the key resource allocation dilemmas in the organization, for organizational decision making.