Safety culture and subcontractor network governance in a complex safety critical project

Oedewald, Pia; Gotcheva, Nadezhda

doi:10.1016/j.ress.2015.03.016

Cited by 28 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 43 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…For example, complex ownership structures, the quasi public-sector nature, and short term incentive mechanisms in the civil nuclear industry can tempt organisations to adopt short-term financially expedient project solutions. Oedewald & Gotcheva (2015) also argue that it is difficult to delegate decision making in large nuclear projects as they are typically structured around long and often fragmented networks of contractors and subcontractors, not all of whom have specific nuclear industry expertise. And in civil aerospace, the commercial imperative to deliver safe engines to tight customer deadlines, can lead to suboptimal resource allocation, reactive responses to emerging problems and a pervasive organisational culture of firefighting.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Instead nuclear respondents seemed to share a nagging sense of what might go wrong on these highly-consequential projects and Contrastingly, in civil aerospace projects there was more evidence for avoiding over-rigid processes in projects (D5). Within civil nuclear projects structures and processes were rigid, informed by onerous regulatory regimes and the conservative nature of the industry as argued by (Oedewald & Gotcheva, 2015) and (Saunders, Gale, & Sherry, 2015). There was only one instance of a project being structured more flexibly, as evidenced here: Paradoxically, within the civil aerospace projects, the complexity and turbulence of the engine development programme necessitated more flexible processes.…”

Section: Mindfulnessmentioning

confidence: 93%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Responding to project uncertainty: Evidence for high reliability practices in large-scale safety–critical projects

Saunders

Gale

Sherry

2016

International Journal of Project Management

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In large-scale safety-critical projects unforeseen events and uncertainties must be carefully managed to safeguard the integrity of the end product and deliver projects to time and cost. Based on 47 'vignettes' of uncertainty across projects in two safety-critical sectors, this study provides an empirical examination of whether practices consistent with theories of high reliability organising are adopted by project managers as a response to project uncertainty. Our findings are that confronting uncertainties in safety-critical projects does involve many high reliability practices. Respondents expressed a sense of balancing competing demands, and provided evidence of learning, acting mindfully, avoiding over-rigid processes, and of upholding constructive tensions, conceptual slack and close interdisciplinary working.However these practices are often fragile in nature and dependent on key individuals. There are also differences between the two sectors studied, with more widespread evidence of high reliability project organising in civil nuclear than in aerospace projects.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Mindfulnessmentioning

confidence: 93%

Responding to project uncertainty: Evidence for high reliability practices in large-scale safety–critical projects

Saunders

Gale

Sherry

2016

International Journal of Project Management

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The apt administration of the concept may turn supply chain networks into aggregated stable systems that can expertly act in harmony. Should organizations opt to adopt collaborative network governance perspective, then each actor needs to contribute resources for achieving a common goal, while at the same time hold sufficient autonomy within its specific domain ( Oedewald and Gotcheva, 2015 ). This is a pretty thin line that demarcates the subject from common network management topics because network governance is characterized by informal social systems rather than vertically integrated bureaucratic structures.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of negative entropy within supply chain sustainability

Durmaz

Demır

Sezen

2021

Sustainable Production and Consumption

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

With the COVID-19 pandemic, supply chains are today confronted with more uncertainties than ever before. In the face of unanticipated disruptions, being resilient and sustainable has been rewarding for supply chains in terms of competitive advantage. However, literature is still far from possessing an encompassing sustainable supply chain framework (SSCF). As a contribution to the extant literature, the present study expounds a prominent concept termed negative entropy and explores its role in the SSCF. To accomplish this goal, the effect of negative entropy on supply chain sustainability is tested. Following the open systems theory and drawing from the collaboration and information management aspects of the negative entropy, co-creation, open innovation and network governance concepts which are considered to be relevant in this context are selected to be the antecedents of negative entropy. The empirical research is conducted on prominent logistics service providers and firms from various sectors with approved research and development departments in Turkey. The obtained data were subjected to covariance-based structural equation modeling analysis via Lisrel program. According to results, negative entropy is found to be a robust element in explaining supply chain sustainability. Furthermore, whereas co-creation and network governance reflected significant effects on negative entropy, surprisingly, open innovation demonstrated no substantial impact. This paper opens up a new front in sustainable supply chain management studies with a notable empirical study introducing negative entropy in the context of open systems theory.

show abstract

“…Some of the research has focussed on an even broader overview that connects more reasons to the risks faced by subcontractors, which is based on the interorganisational complexity when considering subcontracting organisations as parts of large complex systems [17,18]. Factors, such as loss of communication [19,20], a lack of clarity in the OHS responsibility for subcontractor employees [15,21], failure of institutional safety mechanisms [1], competency issues [22,23] and unfamiliarity with work atmosphere [24] are some of the reasons that arise from this complexity.…”

Section: Reasons For Subcontractor Riskmentioning

confidence: 99%

Behind Subcontractor Risk: A Multiple Case Study Analysis of Mining and Natural Resources Fatalities

Valluru

Rae

Dekker

2020

Safety

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Subcontractors have always been linked to higher risk by the industry and academia. However, not much work exists in establishing the reasons behind this relationship. Much of the existing work, either categorise subcontractors under a theoretical label of work to apply the drawbacks of the label to them, or directly enter problem-solving mode. This study focusses on taking the perspective of subcontractors and explores ways in which this viewpoint interacts with safety systems and processes. This study applies a case study methodology to this problem. It examines a total of six cases reflecting six closed single subcontractor fatality accident investigation reports from the year 2004 to 2014 obtained from the Department of Natural Resources and Mines (DNRM) Queensland. These cases are then thematically analysed by employing subcontractor theory to identify themes to categorise the links between higher risk and subcontractors. The themes identified match two pre-existing categories (Institutional safety mechanisms do not cope with variability introduced by subcontractors; expertise in work does not translate to expertise in safety) and two new categories (communication does not flow to the subcontractor from the layers above them; safety work is viewed differently by subcontractor staff when compared to principal contractor’s/operators’) of subcontractor risk. This study aims to serve as a starting point for further research in understanding the subcontractor safety situation by putting things into the subcontractor’s perspective.

show abstract

Safety culture and subcontractor network governance in a complex safety critical project

Cited by 28 publications

References 43 publications

Responding to project uncertainty: Evidence for high reliability practices in large-scale safety–critical projects

Responding to project uncertainty: Evidence for high reliability practices in large-scale safety–critical projects

The role of negative entropy within supply chain sustainability

Behind Subcontractor Risk: A Multiple Case Study Analysis of Mining and Natural Resources Fatalities

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About