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

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  • Oedewald, Pia
  • Gotcheva, Nadezhda

Abstract

In safety critical industries many activities are currently carried out by subcontractor networks. Nevertheless, there are few studies where the core dimensions of resilience would have been studied in safety critical network activities. This paper claims that engineering resilience into a system is largely about steering the development of culture of the system towards better ability to anticipate, monitor, respond and learn. Thus, safety culture literature has relevance in resilience engineering field. This paper analyzes practical and theoretical challenges in applying the concept of safety culture in a complex, dynamic network of subcontractors involved in the construction of a new nuclear power plant in Finland, Olkiluoto 3. The concept of safety culture is in focus since it is widely used in nuclear industry and bridges the scientific and practical interests. This paper approaches subcontractor networks as complex systems. However, the management model of the Olkiluoto 3 project is to a large degree a traditional top-down hierarchy, which creates a mismatch between the management approach and the characteristics of the system to be managed. New insights were drawn from network governance studies.

Suggested Citation

  • Oedewald, Pia & Gotcheva, Nadezhda, 2015. "Safety culture and subcontractor network governance in a complex safety critical project," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 106-114.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:reensy:v:141:y:2015:i:c:p:106-114
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ress.2015.03.016
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Bent Flyvbjerg, 2014. "What You Should Know About Megaprojects, and Why: An Overview," Papers 1409.0003, arXiv.org.
    2. Ostrom, Vincent & Tiebout, Charles M. & Warren, Robert, 1961. "The Organization of Government in Metropolitan Areas: A Theoretical Inquiry," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 55(4), pages 831-842, December.
    3. Krister Andersson & Elinor Ostrom, 2008. "Analyzing decentralized resource regimes from a polycentric perspective," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 41(1), pages 71-93, March.
    4. Grøtan, T.O. & Størseth, F. & Albrechtsen, E., 2011. "Scientific foundations of addressing risk in complex and dynamic environments," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 96(6), pages 706-712.
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Anne Russel & Stéphanie Tillement, 2022. "When the Project Ends and Operations Begin: Ensuring Safety During Commissioning Through Boundary Work," Post-Print hal-03702127, HAL.
    2. Léna Masson & Julienne Brabet, 2018. "The paradoxes of externalization strategy in a safety critical industry," Post-Print hal-01765294, HAL.
    3. Novak, Jeremy & Farr-Wharton, Ben & Brunetto, Yvonne & Shacklock, Kate & Brown, Kerry, 2017. "Safety outcomes for engineering asset management organizations: Old problem with new solutions?," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 160(C), pages 67-73.
    4. Simsekler, Mecit Can Emre & Qazi, Abroon & Alalami, Mohammad Amjad & Ellahham, Samer & Ozonoff, Al, 2020. "Evaluation of patient safety culture using a random forest algorithm," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 204(C).
    5. Milch, Vibeke & Laumann, Karin, 2019. "The influence of interorganizational factors on offshore incidents in the Norwegian petroleum industry: Challenges and future directions," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 181(C), pages 84-96.
    6. Jianbo Zhu & Qianqian Shi & Peng Wu & Zhaohan Sheng & Xiangyu Wang, 2018. "Achieving Economically Sustainable Subcontracting through the Hotelling Model by Considering the Spillover Effect," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-17, September.

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