Research Archive

 Safety Culture

The organisational antecedents of individual safety behaviour in the U.K. offshore oil and gas industry

Dr Robin Bryden, School of Psychology.

Email: R.Bryden@shell.com

This project was based on assessing and managing safety with reference to violations, safety climate and management of offshore installations.

This PhD project was sponsored by Shell Expro and the University of Aberdeen (2003 – 2006).

Publications

Bryden. R. (2006). The organisational antecedents of individual safety behaviour in the UK offshore oil and gas industry, PhD thesis, University of Aberdeen.

 

Factoring the human into safety: Translating research into practice Joint HSE/ Oil Industry Project Phase 3 (1998-2000)

Dr Kathryn Mearns, Prof Rhona Flin, Rachael Gordon, Dr Paul O'Connor & Sean Whitaker, School of Psychology.

Email: k.mearns@abdn.ac.uk - or email: r.flin@abdn.ac.uk

Sponsored by: Agip; AMEC; AOC/Brown & Root; BP; Coflexip Stena; Conoco; Elf; Health & Safety Executive (OSD); Oryx; Salamis; Sedco Forex; Shell; Texaco; Total.  The scope of work outlined in his 2 year project had the following components:

 

Investigating the human factors causes of accidents (HFIT)

Dr Rachael Gordon, School of Psychology,

Email: r.flin@abdn.ac.uk

This project was based on offshore oil installations in the UK sector of the North Sea. The project was divided into two parts; the first assessed the link between leading and lagging safety performance indicators to determine whether or not the same factors are being investigated in accident investigations and safety climate surveys. The second part developed a human factors accident investigation tool (HFIT) which was used to collect accident and incident data by HSE inspectors and the participating companies' accident investigators. This tool was evaluated by comparing the companies' safety climate data with their accident data.

This project was funded by the UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and 5 oil service and operating companies (2005).

Publications

Gordon, R., Flin, R., & Mearns, K. (2005). Designing and evaluating a human factors investigation tool (HFIT) for accident analysis. Safety Science, 43, 147 – 171.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0925753505000068

 

Accident management at nuclear power stations

Dr Margaret Crichton and Rhona Flin, School of Psychology,

Email: r.flin@abdn.ac.uk

Training methods for accident management at nuclear power plants were examined in this study. Emphasis is on training provided for emergency response personnel with plant responsibilities, from control room operators to Access Controllers. A particular focus was on accident management procedures, and their subsequent usage when uncertainty becomes a more significant factor.

This investigation was sponsored by British Energy (2001 – 2004?).

Publications

Crichton, M.T., & Flin, R. (2004). Identifying and training non-technical skills of nuclear emergency response teams. Annals of Nuclear Energy, 31, 1317 – 1330.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306454904000611

Crichton, M.T., & Flin, R. (2001). Training for emergency management: tactical decision games. Journal of Hazardous Materials, 88, 255 – 266.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304389401002709

 

High reliability and safety culture in Scottish prisons

Dr Bill Rattray Email: r.flin@abdn.ac.uk

The context of this PhD thesis was crisis management in the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), with a specific emphasis on incident command of riots where hostages are taken. Incident Command Teams in the SPS are temporary organisations of personnel brought together from different geographical locations to manage complex, difficult crises. The aim, therefore, of the research was to explore the potential transfer of research findings on high reliability incident command systems to incident command methodology in the SPS.

 

Organisational culture change in NHS Trusts: Creating safe places for staff and patients (Senior Leadership and Safety)

Project leads: Prof Lorna McKee (Health Services Research Unit), Prof Rhona Flin and Dr Steven Yule (School of Psychology).

Email: l.mckee@abdn.ac.uk

 

Decision making

Investigation of decision making in drilling and completion community

Dr Margaret Crichton and Prof Rhona Flin, School of Psychology, email: r.flin@abdn.ac.uk - Tel: 01224-272341

The aim of this project was an investigation into decision making and associated non-technical skills, which influence teamwork in Drilling and Completion teams. In particular, decision making during the management of surprises was examined, related to the effects of demands and pressures on individual and team functioning.

Funded by BP.

Publications

Crichton, M., Lauche, K., & Flin, R. (2005). Incident command skills in the management of an oil industry drilling incident: A case study. Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management, 13, 116-128.

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=871533

 

Leadership

Evaluating an advanced safety leadership course

Tanja Pullwitt, School of Psychology,

Email: w.booth@abdn.ac.uk

This research aimed 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 can be traced back to the course. This research focused on the trainer and his/her impact on structural learning outcomes and skill development alongside an evaluation of training implementation within BP and Shell and the impact of the course on safety trends. This was a part time PhD research project.

This PhD project was jointly sponsored by BP and Shell, (2003-2006).

Publications

Pulwitt, T. (2011). Evaluating a safety leadership course. PhD thesis. University of Aberdeen

 

Crisis and senior incident management in policing: Does personality matter?

Prof Majeed Khader, Nanyang Technological University

Email: MAJEED@ntu.edu.sg

There is a considerable lack of scientific research concerning the evaluation of 'crisis' and 'crisis management' in police contexts and on whether personality plays a role. This issue was found to have interesting implications for the selection and development of police officers as incident managers and incident management.

 

Managing the safety climate

Dr Steven J. Yule, School of Psychology, mail: r.flin@abdn.ac.uk 

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.

This PhD was sponsored by Powergen, 1999 - 2002.

Tel: +44 (0)1224 273210

Email: w.booth@abdn.ac.uk

 

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