How many blowouts does it take to learn the lessons? An institutional perspective on disaster development
Publication year
2019Source
Safety Science, 111, (2019), pp. 111-118ISSN
Annotation
21 juli 2018
Publication type
Article / Letter to editor
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Organization
Organisatie-ontwikkeling
Journal title
Safety Science
Volume
vol. 111
Languages used
English (eng)
Page start
p. 111
Page end
p. 118
Subject
Institute for Management ResearchAbstract
Accident researchers have long tried to understand why similar disasters and near misses keep recurring within
and across organizations in high hazard industries. So far such explanations have primarily addressed organizational
causes and mechanisms. We argue that these models of disaster development do not adequately capture
the influence of the external institutional environment that often affects an entire sector. Instead we propose
institutional theory as a broader theoretical perspective that helps to understand how the institutional environment
affects disaster development in organizations, and why similar disaster development patterns can
persist even after they have been identified and targeted in recommendations before. This paper also provides an
empirical illustration of the institutional perspective on disaster development in the offshore oil and gas industry.
Our qualitative analysis shows how inadequate beliefs about major accident risk have become institutionalized
in the offshore industry through occupational training practices. As such, problematic institutionalized
beliefs and practices become the accepted normality across many organizations in the industry,
leading to systemic shortcomings in risk management in the entire sector. Hence, we argue for the need for
professionalization in occupational training in the offshore drilling industry to improve risk management.
This item appears in the following Collection(s)
- Academic publications [238441]
- Electronic publications [122527]
- Nijmegen School of Management [18274]
- Open Access publications [97521]
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