Leadership
Current Projects
Safety managers and safety leadership
Isabella Roger, School of Psychology. E-mail: isabella.roger@abdn.ac.uk
This PhD project is funded by the Energy Institute (2008-11). This project is investigating the safety leadership of senior managers in the energy industry. Starting with a competency-based approach to leadership, the first phase of the research will focus on the behaviours, skills and attributes which are important for effective safety leadership at the executive level within organizations.
Leadership and safety in operating theatres
Sarah Parker, School of Psychology. Email: sarah.parker@abdn.ac.uk
The management style of front-line or team leaders is a critical factor in determining effective task execution and safety outcomes in high risk, high demand industries. Within health care, surgeons can be likened to team leaders, with responsibility for both the surgical teams's performance and the outcome of the surgery. This project focuses on surgeons' leadership behaviours and skills in the intra-operative setting and the impact that these behaviours and skills can have on team outcomes and the link between leadership and patient outcomes.
This PhD is funded by the Scottish Funding Council (2008-11)
Safety intelligence of senior managers
Laura Fruhen, School of Psychology. Email: laura.fruhen@abdn.ac.uk
The Safety Intelligence study is a PhD project (2009-12), which is aimed at identifying traits and skills of senior managers in European air traffic management in relation to safety outcomes such as incidents and organisational safety culture. The scientific literature, as well as practical guides, frequently refers to the senior management as one of the key contributors to the creation of safe organisations. The senior management's commitment to safety is suggested as a core component of their contribution. Nevertheless, so far, it has rarely been investigated how the senior management conveys this message of being comitted to safety. Is it through their knowledge in relation to safety? Is it the way they deal with safety related information? Is it the way they interact with others? The Safety Intelligence project is designed to provide answers to these questions.
This project is sponsored by EUROCONTROL and supervised by Dr Kathryn Mearns, Prof Rhona Flin and Dr Barry Kirwan.
Evaluating an advanced safety leadership course
Tanja Pullwitt, School of Psychology, email: t.pullwitt@abdn.ac.uk - Tel: 01224-273213
This PhD project was jointly sponsored by BP and Shell, (2003-2006). It is outlined to evaluate the advanced safety leadership course developed by two major oil operators to improve the safety performance of safety supervisors and their teams. Recent investigations have focussed on changes in attitudes, subjective norms and self-efficacy as an outcome of the course. Furthermore, changes in behaviour that can be traced back to the course are investigated at present. Investigations to come will be focussing on the trainer and his/her impact on structural learning outcomes and skill development. A final perspective on training implementation within BP and Shell, and the impact of the course on safety trends, will finalise this work. This is a part time PhD research project.
Completed Projects
Safety leadership, safety climate and safe behaviour
Shama Didla, School of Psychology. Email: k.mearns@abdn.ac.uk
This PhD project (2005-2008) was sponsored by Expro, Centrica Energy and the University of Aberdeen. This project studied safety climate and safe bahaviour in the company. It was an investigation into the issues relating to safety leadership behaviour at supervisor level and its influence on the workers' perception and motivation to engage in safe versus high-risk behaviours. There was an emphasis on understanding the relationship between leadership style and workers' trust in the leaders in terms of perceptions of their ability, benevolence and integrity.
Managing the safety climate
Dr Steven J. Yule, School of Psychology, mail: r.flin@abdn.ac.uk
This was a PhD sponsored by Powergen which ran from 1999 to 2002. The overall goal of this project was to investigate the influences of senior managers on safety performance. A secondary goal was to understand cross-cultural differences in 'safety leadership' between UK and US senior managers. To establish what, if any, influence management has on setting and maintaining workforce safety climate. This involved analysis and structural modelling of safety climate data. To determine what sub-scales of Multifactor Leadership Theory (Bass & Avolio, 1993) are associated with safety performance this involved analysing upward ratings of leadership style on the MLQ (Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire) with safety performance data.
Modelling the relationship between safety climate, leadership and perfomance
Catherine Hetherington, School of Psychology, email: r.flin@abdn.ac.uk - Tel: 01224-272341
This PhD project was sponsored by Stasco (Shell Shipping/2003-2006). Shipping is one of the world's most global industries and also one of the most dangerous. A high proportion of shipping incidents every year are attributed to human errors. The aim of the project was to further understand the multifaceted safety system through evaluating safety climate, then leadership in the context of its imapct on safety climate and then finally the relationship of these constructs to safety performance.
Tel: +44 (0)1224 273210
Email: w.booth@abdn.ac.uk