Citation

Pettersen KA, Schulman PR. Safety Sci. 2019; 117: 460-468.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.ssci.2016.03.004

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Much recent organizational writing, under the influence of complexity theory, describes adaptation and resilience as increasingly important organizational requirements. This emphasis, while undeniably significant, is based upon highly generalized and abstracted concepts which, as several scholars in the field have noted, have yet to produce specific researchable propositions. A particularly problematic aspect of the emerging literature on adaptation and resilience has been its treatment of research related to our understanding of high reliability organizations (HROs), organizations that must carefully manage potentially hazardous technical systems which if mismanaged could lead to catastrophic failures and cost many lives. The emphasis on adaptation and resilience we argue has led to distorted depictions of these organizations and the foundations of their reliability. Localized adaptations to complex or unpredictable situations of the sort depicted in some resilience models could actually be negative developments in relation to the pursuit of larger reliability and safety goals in these organizations. In this article, we describe a particular type of "reliability drift" which can be differentiated from adaptation. We will identify, within the context of previous and ongoing HRO research, features that actually constitute a successful strategy of reliability drift management in these organizations. This strategy includes resilience, but of a form we term "precursor resilience" - a type different from the "rebound from failure" resilience or the process of "managing the unexpected" described in some resilience literature. As we will demonstrate, for HROs it is more the expansion of expectancies that accounts for their reliability than managing the unexpected. HROs have developed strategies for managing and regulating drift while still preserving their flexibility to adapt in a constant search for improvement. We discuss the potential implications of our argument for identifying and assessing specific types of resilience and their requirements, based on a closer grounding of them in empirical research.

Language: en

Keywords

Adaptation; Complexity theory; High reliability; Reliability drift; Reliability professionals; Resilience