Bureaucracy, influence and beliefs: A literature review of the factors shaping the role of a safety professional

Provan, David J.; Dekker, Sidney; Rae, Andrew

doi:10.1016/j.ssci.2017.06.006

Cited by 80 publications

(52 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…In other European countries (e.g., the Netherlands, Germany, UK) a stronger degree of professionalization characterizes the group of health and safety advisors, first, by the early establishments of professional associations (Hale & Harvey, 2012) and, second, by the establishment of university degrees in safety science and ergonomics from the 1970s (Provan, Dekker, & Rae, 2017). Both factors helped demarcate and distinguish the profession of safety and health experts from related and neighboring fields (e.g., occupational hygienists and occupational medicine) (Hale & Harvey, 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Professionals without a profession: Occupational safety and health professionals in Denmark

2019

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In this essay we describe the development of health and safety professionals in Denmark. We show how the historical particularities of the so-called 'Danish model', compromises between various health and safety stakeholders, and a lack of pure health and safety educations led to the establishment of an occupational group of professionals characterized by heterogeneity in backgrounds and multidisciplinarity in approaches and methods.Then we discuss how recent tendencies to the mainstreaming of enterprises' health and safety efforts have challenged the composition of the health and safety professionals, and made other types of professionals competitors in terms of solving health and safety issues. In the essay we propose a conceptual model that combines insights from new institutional theory on fields and knowledge on the tasks of health and safety professionals. In this way the model helps us illustrate the relationship between health and safety professionals and their competitors in the health and safety work within Danish enterprises.Finally we discuss if and how a further professionalization could take place in the Danish context

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Professionals without a profession: Occupational safety and health professionals in Denmark

2019

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“…There is an accepted view on how auditing in general should be done and on the professional conduct of an auditor. First of all, the MHC inspector qualifies as a safety professional, facing the challenges of institutional, relational and individual factors in practice [24] (p. 4). Safety professionals such as safety managers, safety consultants and safety inspectors can have different styles of operation, different education and different decision-making power.…”

Section: Professional Standardsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In practice, they also have different professional identities and express this in different personal styles [25]. Unlike managers and commercial auditors, inspectors must enforce the timely realization of required changes; they enforce compliance [24,26].…”

Section: Professional Standardsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Improving Education and Training of Dutch Major Hazard Control Inspectors: A 15 Years Longitudinal Case Study

Lindhout

Werff

Reniers

2020

IJERPH

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The education and training program for inspectors of Major Accident Hazard Establishments, specifically the EC Seveso III directive implicated Dutch chemical companies, changed considerably over a fifteen year period. This longitudinal, time-series cross sectional case study describes the development of the education and training program for Major Hazard Control inspectors, acting as regulators from the Labour inspectorate, belonging to the Dutch Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment. A blueprint had to be constructed in order to assess the development and quality of this program in four cross sections over time. The description highlights both the safety related content and the regulator skills parts of the program in its changing context. Professional standards, educational objectives, quality of education, evaluation method, education change process and the response to the dynamic operational environment were examined. The main findings are that the education and training program kept the same main structure over the time period while its contents were adapted to respond to external context changes. Internal evaluation of performance data and education style led to a shift in contents from theoretical knowledge towards safety management and inspection practice oriented experience related knowledge. An active teaching style, increased usage of professional standards and more systematic evaluation, starting from the blue print in this study, offer the best opportunities for further improvement. Current insights on regulatory performance lead to a recommended future perspective for the inspectors’ role to be translated into education and training: balancing empathy, inquisitiveness and support with control and enforcement, or rather: exert tough love, staying between too soft and too hard.

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“…The important and ambidextrous role of middle and front line managers in implementing patient safety culture has been highlighted [10], but in contrast to well-developed theoretical models, there still exist a gap in safety management eld in explaining how to move from theory to everyday management [11]. In summary, even if the literature points to leadership as an important factor for creating and sustaining a mature safety culture, little is known about how rst line managers' operationalise this in everyday practice [12,13].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Acting between guidelines and reality. Managers’ balancing between standardisation and adaptive behaviour in patient safety work- an interview study

Hedsköld

Sachs

Rosander

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Background: Safety culture can be described and understood through its manifestations in the organisation as artefacts, espoused values and basic underlying assumptions and is strongly related to leadership-yet it remains elusive as a concept. Even if the literature points to leadership as an important factor for creating and sustaining a mature safety culture, little is known about how the safety work of first line managers’ actually is done and how they balance the different and often conflicting organizational goals in everyday practice. The purpose of this study was to explore how health care first line managers perceive their role and how they promote patient safety and patient safety culture in their units. Methods: Interview study with first line managers in intensive care units in in eight different hospitals located in the middle of Sweden. An inductive qualitative content analysis approach was used. Results: We present how first line managers view their role in patient safety and exemplify concrete strategies by which managers promote safety culture by acting as role models, designing everyday work and promoting psychological safety and a learning environment. Conclusions: Our study shows the central role of front-line managers in designing the everyday work in the ICU. Although promoted widely in Swedish healthcare at the time for the interviews, the HSOPSC was not mentioned by the managers as a central source of information on the unit’s safety culture.

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Bureaucracy, influence and beliefs: A literature review of the factors shaping the role of a safety professional

Cited by 80 publications

References 52 publications

Professionals without a profession: Occupational safety and health professionals in Denmark

Professionals without a profession: Occupational safety and health professionals in Denmark

Improving Education and Training of Dutch Major Hazard Control Inspectors: A 15 Years Longitudinal Case Study

Acting between guidelines and reality. Managers’ balancing between standardisation and adaptive behaviour in patient safety work- an interview study

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