Coordinating work in complex organizations

Differentiation, interdependence, and interest conflict between work units were investigated as determinants of managerial selection between coordination strategies. One hundred and four MBA students with managerial experience participated in a simulation in which they were required to select a strategy to manage systematically different relations between work units. Findings reveal a three-way interaction between differentiation, interdependence, and interest conflict affecting the degree of cooperation and centralization of selected strategies. The formalization of such strategies was affected by an interaction between differentiation and interest conflict. Implications for theory and practice are described.     

Collective psychological ownership within the work and organizational context: Construct introduction and elaboration

The construct collective psychological ownership is introduced. Reflecting the psychology of “us” and “ours,” collective psychological ownership emerges through interactive dynamics whereby individuals come to a single and shared mind‐set as it relates to a sense of ownership for a particular object. After providing a conceptual definition for the construct, we turn our attention to a detailed elaboration of the construct, offering comments on its genesis, emergent context, underlying motives, and a discussion of what can and cannot be owned. We also provide a discussion of the dynamics associated with its formation, highlighting the paths down which groups travel that influence the emergence of this psychological state. Next, we turn our attention to the emergence of collective psychological ownership within the organizational and teamwork context paying particular attention to the role of work environment structure. We conclude with a discussion of a set of work‐related attitudinal, motivational, behavioral, and stress‐related outcomes that stem from this psychological state. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A method for assessing health and safety management systems from the resilience engineering perspective

This article introduces a method for assessing health and safety management systems (MAHS) that has two innovative characteristics: (a) it brings together the three main auditing approaches to health and safety (HS) – the structural approach (which assesses the system prescribed), the operational approach (which assesses what is really happening on the shop-floor) and the performance approach (which assesses the results of performance indicators); (b) it emphasizes the resilience engineering perspective on HS, which takes into consideration four major principles (flexibility, learning, awareness, and top management commitment). Such principles underlie seven major assessment criteria, which in turn are divided into items (e.g. hazard identification from a resilience perspective is an item that belongs to the criteria of production processes). The items are sub-divided into statements, which are the requirements that should be assessed based on interviews, analysis of documents and direct observations. Within the 112 requirements proposed, 38 of them have clear links with at least one out of the four resilience engineering principles adopted. The remaining requirements are based on traditional assumptions underlying the so-called best practices of HS management. The results of the assessment for each item are expressed by a score on a scale of compliance with the established requirements, ranging from 0% to 100%. The specific score within that scale is obtained from tables used to assess applications for the Brazilian national quality award. The MAHS was tested in a case study that was carried out in a factory that manufactures automobile exhaust systems, located in Brazil.     

The effectiveness of Bayesian updating in dynamic and complex systems

This paper investigates the effectiveness of Bayesian updating (i.e. the process of improving initial probability estimates by incorporating data from real operation) in complex and dynamic systems. A mathematical model including various types of dynamic input (i.e. variable time-dependent failure probability) was developed in order to test whether decision making based on Bayesian updating would provide better performance, by means of lower failure probabilities and/or lower cost.This investigation showed that using Bayesian updating (with the assumptions of uniform probability distribution and independent events) does not lead to better results, on the contrary in many cases in can lead to a much inferior performance, which is a result of certain deficiencies of this process in dynamic systems.     

A framework for resilience assessment in process systems using a fuzzy hybrid MCDM model

Resilience engineering (RE) has recently emerged as a novel safety management paradigm in socio-technical organizations. It is believed that RE is more compatible with the characteristics of complex socio-technical systems. The multicriteria nature and the presence of both qualitative and quantitative latent factors make RE substantially more complex especially in quantifying and modeling aspects. To address this issue, the present research aims to develop a fuzzy hybrid multicriteria decision-making (MCDM) model for quantifying and evaluating resilience using the fuzzy Analytic hierarchy process (F-AHP) and fuzzy VIKOR (F-VIKOR) techniques. Initially, an evaluation framework including six resilience indicators and 43 sub-indicators was established. Afterward, the F-AHP method was used to determine the weight of the resilience indicators, while the F-VIKOR method was employed to rank the resilience performance of the different operational units. To present the model capability, we evaluated the resilience of a gas refinery as a typical instance of socio-technical systems. The findings revealed the performance level of resilience indicators in all units of the studied refinery and their ranking based on the computation of the index value (Qi). With respect to the Qi values, the best and worst performance of units from the resilience perspective was specified. Results indicate that the proposed model can serve as an effective evaluation approach in complicated systems and can be used to effectively design strategies to improve system safety performance. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that evaluates the resilience using the VIKOR and AHP in a fuzzy environment in the process industry.     

安全生产信息体系建设概览

《安全生产法》实施两年以来，安全生产信息体系作为国家安全生产监督管理局确立的六大支撑体系之一，对全国安全生产形势的稳定好转发挥了重要的作用。     

FMEA and consideration of real work situations for safer design of production systems

Production equipment designers must ensure the health and safety of future users; in this regard, they augment requirements for standardizing and controlling operator work. This contrasts with the ergonomic view of the activity, which recommends leaving operators leeway (margins for manoeuvre) in performing their task, while safeguarding their health. Following a brief analysis of design practices in the car industry, we detail how the Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) approach is implemented in this sector. We then suggest an adaptation that enables designers to consider real work situations. This new protocol, namely, work situation FMEA, allows experience feedback to be used to defend the health standpoint during designer project reviews, which usually only address quality and performance issues. We subsequently illustrate the advantage of this approach using two examples of work situations at car parts manufacturers: the first from the literature and the second from an in-company industrial project.     

Major accident prevention and management of information systems security in technology-based work processes

The oil and gas industry in Norway has taken into use and is developing ICT-based work processes to improve efficiency and safety. Protection of information resources and technology; ensuring safe and secure processing of information; and ensuring reliable and safe flow of information is essential for both production and protection in such ICT-intensive organizations. Information systems security (IS) thus matters for major accident prevention. In the ICT-based work processes in the oil and gas industry new challenges for IS security occur related to: increased need for availability and integrity of information; merge of process safety systems and ICT-systems; manual use of information resources; and flow of information between distributed actors. These challenges imply new requirements for IS management: More focus on availability and integrity as protection principles; resilience-based approaches as a supplement to formal management approaches; validation of information flows; and integration of loss prevention approaches.     

安全培训是安全生产的治本之策--访鸡西矿业集团总经理孙永奎

2004年7月30～31日,国家安全生产监督管理局在黑龙江省鸡西市召开全国煤矿安全培训工作经验交流现场会。会上,鸡西矿业集团公司的经验介绍引起了与会者的很大反响。鸡西矿业集团公司通过抓培训,不仅提高了职工的整体素质,增加了煤矿安全生产的可靠程度,使安全生产持续好转,而且职工的精神面貌发生了根本变化,企业的凝聚力增加,实现了效益和安全双丰收。鸡西矿业集团公司在安全培训工作上的“四个创新”,即培训理念创新,培训机制创新,培训方法创新,培训教育与安全文化结合创新很有新意。8月18日,国家安全生产监督管理局局长王显政作出批示:“认真总结,推广鸡西做法很有必要;请做好宣传、推广并纳入煤矿安全状况总结分析。”为此,国家局人事培训司下一步将在全国煤矿推行全员安全培训工作,推广鸡西典型经验。10月初,本刊记者专赴鸡西采访,对鸡西矿业集团公司开展安全培训工作的思路、方法、机制进行了了解,并选择刊登其中一些好的经验,以供大家学习借鉴。     

Human and organizational error data challenges in complex,large-scale systems

In complex, large-scale systems, event analyses are constrained by the quality of the data gathered, the maturity of the associated reporting system, and the training and background of the investigator and reporter. Such constraints place limits on the adequacy and strength of analyses conducted with the data. In this paper, we focus on the challenges of measuring performance variability in complex systems, using the lens of human and organizational error modeling. This paper begins with an overview of human and organizational error assessments, and then introduces the particular challenges of data needs in human reliability analyses. A case study of human and organizational error analysis in a complex, large-scale system, marine transportation in Puget Sound, is used to illustrate the impact of the data challenges on risk assessment processes. Suggestions for future research conclude the paper.     

大型复杂系统可靠性综合的信息熵方法

阐述了大型复杂系统可靠性多级综合的目的意义和工程应用价值,分析了系统可靠性综合的研究状况和发展趋势,指出了基于概率统计理论的传统可靠性综合方法存在的问题和不足,提出了基于信息理论的复杂系统可靠性多级综合的方法体系,给出了信息熵法可靠性综合的主要研究内容,为解决大型复杂系统可靠性综合问题提出了新的研究方法.     

Applications of resilience engineering principles in different fields with a focus on industrial systems: A literature review

This paper reviews literature that addresses applications of resilience engineering principles to various fields. Recently the concept has attracted great attention from a technical and industrial perspective. The primary focus of this paper is to review the resilience engineering applications to industrial systems with the purpose of applying them to the chemical industry. A systematic review is performed to classify peer-reviewed journal papers that are associated with resilience engineering applications into three categories: industrial systems, ecological systems, and interlinked systems. The literature in the category of industrial systems is further divided based on the type of approaches such as field studies, case studies, methodologies, and mathematical modeling. After thoroughly analyzing the literature, four key research areas are identified: Considering socio-technical factors for resilience assessment efficiently; Inculcating the possibility of multiple disasters in resilience assessment; Design optimization for resilience enhancement; Efficient restoration strategies. All these research areas have not been explored exclusively for chemical facilities to a great extent. It is concluded that if these research areas are addressed appropriately, it would help in triggering the research pertaining to the application of resilience engineering principles in chemical facilities.     

Human resource management systems and work attitudes: The mediating role of future time perspective

This paper examines the role of employees' future time perspective (FTP) in the association between human resource management (HRM) systems and work‐related attitudes. Drawing on social exchange theory, signaling theory, and affective events theory, we hypothesize HRM systems' indirect effects on individual‐level job satisfaction and affective organizational commitment as mediated by FTP. The results of this multilevel study, comprising 913 employees of 76 business units, provide evidence that HRM systems have (i) direct effects on employees' FTP and (ii) indirect effects on job satisfaction and organizational commitment via FTP. In addition, three HRM bundles' (i.e., knowledge, skills, and abilities enhancing; motivation enhancing; and opportunity enhancing) corresponding indirect effects are explored. We discuss the results, theoretical contributions, and practical implications of the study, as well as future research directions. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Improving safety and availability of complex systems using a risk-based failure assessment approach

This paper presents a structured risk-based failure assessment (RBFA) approach, which provides a complete solution to avoid repeated and potential failures to improve overall plant safety and availability. Technological advancements and high product demand have encouraged designers to design mega-capacity systems to enhance system utilization and improve revenues. However, these benefits make the systems more complex and thus prone to unnoticed failure. It is an overwhelming task to address all the failures due to the limited resources and time constraints. This leads to substandard and poor quality failure assessments, which cause repeated failures. To address this common industry concern, a four phase RBFA framework is proposed which is not limited to the identification of root cause(s) but also includes other actions such as failure monitoring. The four phases include the plan phase, the assessment phase, the analysis phase and the implementation-tracking phase. These phases cover identification of failure, failure analysis, root cause(s) analysis, and failure monitoring. In this paper, the applicability and advantages of the proposed approach are examined through two real case studies pertaining to bearing failure and drive coupling failure. By implementing the proposed approach, significant improvements have been experienced in the system availability in both the cases.     

系统安全韧性的塑造与评估建模

为完善安全系统学理论体系,立足于理论思辨层面,基于韧性科学和安全系统学,提出安全韧性的定义,并解析其内涵,论述其研究意义。基于此,从3个维度构建系统安全韧性塑造体系的概念模型,并对其进行扼要阐释;深入剖析系统安全韧性塑造体系的作用机理,并构建其作用模型。基于系统安全韧性曲线,构建系统安全韧性评估的数学模型,并进行系统安全韧性曲线的对比分析。研究结果可为安全系统学研究提供新思路和新方法,系统安全韧性是安全系统学和韧性科学交叉领域一个值得关注的重要范式。     

Opportunistic predictive maintenance for complex multi-component systems based on DBN-HAZOP model

Predictive maintenance (PdM) focuses on failure prediction in order to prevent failure in advance and offer sufficient information to improve inherent safety and maintenance planning. A novel opportunistic predictive maintenance-decision (OPM) method integrating of machinery prognostic and opportunistic maintenance model is proposed in this paper to indicate the optimal maintenance time with minimal cost and safety constrains. DBN-HAZOP model quantifies hazard and operability analysis by dynamic Bayesian networks to provide prospective degradation trends of each component and the overall system for maintenance decision making. It is developed by integrating the prior knowledge of the interactions and dependencies among components and also the external environment, while the online condition monitoring data which is further to update the parameters of the model. Based on the future degradation trends given by DBN-HAZOP model, a local optimal proactive maintenance practice can be determined for each component by minimizing the expected maintenance cost per time unit. Understanding that for a complex system, whenever one of the components stops to perform a predictive maintenance action, the whole complex system must be stopped, at this moment, PdM opportunities arise for the other degraded components in the system at a reduced additional cost. Therefore, this paper further proposes an opportunistic PdM strategy for global cost optimization of predictive maintenance for the whole system, which considers failure probabilities, repair costs, down time cost and set-up cost. Case studies are given throughout to show how this approach works, and the sensitivity of the results to some of the driving cost parameters has also been examined.     

地震灾害下城市供水网络韧性评估及优化研究

为提升城市供水网络应对地震灾害的能力,基于性能响应函数(PRF)方法,引入基础设施网络均衡理论,设计综合考虑城市供水网络物理状态和输送能力的性能时程响应函数,构建贯穿结构和功能双维度的地震灾害下城市供水网络韧性评估方法;从灾害概率、灾害后果、恢复速度、恢复程度等4个关键因素出发,提出城市供水网络网状扩张、管道延性改造、...     

Incorporating organizational factors into probabilistic risk assessment of complex socio-technical systems: Principles and theoretical foundations

The current generation of Probabilistic Risk Analysis (PRA), particularly those for technical systems, does not include an explicit representation of the possible impacts of organization and management on the safety performance of equipment and personnel. There are a number of technical challenges in developing a predictive model of organizational safety performance. There is a need for a widely accepted and theoretically sound set of principles on which models of organizational influences could be developed and validated. As a result of a multidisciplinary effort, this paper explores the feasibility of developing such principles and proposes a set of principles for organizational safety risk analysis. Then, as a realization of the proposed modeling principles, a safety risk framework, named Socio-Technical Risk Analysis (SoTeRiA), is developed. SoTeRiA formally integrates the technical system risk models with the social (safety culture and safety climate) and structural (safety practices) aspects of safety prediction models, and provides a theoretical basis for the integration. A systematic view of safety culture and safety climate leaves an important gap in modeling complex system safety risk, and SoTeRiA, describing the relationship between these two concepts, bridges this gap. The framework explicitly recognizes the relationship among constructs at multiple levels of analysis, and extends the PRA framework to include the effects of organizational factors in a more comprehensive and defensible way.     

Sex segregation of work in Finland and the quality of women's work

The Finnish labor market is sharply segregated by sex. This is a statistically well-documented fact and holds true for all Western European market economies. The aim of this article was to find out whether women profit (regarding the quality of their work) from performing the same sort of work as men. The qualitative aspects of work were the following: autonomy at work; lack of routinization of work; the compulsory rhythm of work; and the demands for social skills. We also analyzed monthly pay and its variation according to functional segregation of work. The empirical data came from the Finnish Study on Working Conditions (1984) which is a representative sample of the Finnish wage-earning population with 4502 persons of whom 48 per cent were women and 52 per cent men. Our results indicate that women often profit from the fact that they perform the same sort of work as men. This profit was more apparent for white-collar than for blue-collar women. For men the effects of segregation on job characteristics were the opposite. They often profit from sex segregated work. Social status played a major role regarding the qualitative aspects of work.