A conceptual model of mindful organizing for effective safety and crisis management. The role of organizational culture.

The Covid-19 pandemic has involved nations world-wide in the necessity to manage and control the spread of infection, and challenged organizations to effectively counteract an unchartered medical crisis while preserving the safety of workers. While the pandemic and geopolitical turmoil caused by the war in Ukraine are recent examples of complex environments that require effective safety and crisis management, organizations may generally need to find ways to deal with the unexpected and reliably perform in the face of fluctuations. Mindful organizing (MO) is defined as the collective capability to detect discriminatory details about emerging issues and act swiftly in response to these details, thus allowing members to anticipate, and recover from, any errors or unexpected events that arise. Organizational culture refers to the mindset shared among members which orients their actions and thus qualifies as a relevant contextual factor that determines whether the specific forms of perceiving and acting entailed by MO may emerge in an organization. The present paper aimed to propose a conceptual model linking organizational culture, MO and organizational outcomes (i.e., safety, reliability, crisis management), and delineate arguments to address the match/mismatch between MO and culture types. Specifically, it is proposed that organizational culture determines the way an organization develops MO and the subsequent ability to handle unexpected events which might jeopardize organizational effectiveness and safety. Our contribution bridges the still disparate fields of MO and organizational culture, and provides scholars and practitioners with a complexity- and uncertainty-sensitive integrative framework in order to intervene on organizational outcomes.

El estudio del comportamiento humano de seguridad en organizaciones de alta fiabilidad: el caso de la industria nuclear / Human safety performance in high reliability organizations: the case of the nuclear industry

En las últimas décadas, el estudio de la seguridad en organizaciones de alta fiabilidad no ha prestado la suficiente atención al papel de las personas y su contribución a una operación fiable. Debido a ello, la literatura sobre comportamiento humano de seguridad es escasa e inconexa. El presente trabajo integra el conocimiento existente sobre las personas y su comportamiento de seguridad en industrias de alta fiabilidad, más específicamente en la industria nuclear. Para tal fin, se proporciona una revisión de la literatura donde se acota y clarifica el concepto de "desempeño de seguridad", y al mismo tiempo se presentan las últimas investigaciones y modelos sobre el mismo

Over the last few decades, the study of safety in high reliability organizations has not paid enough attention to the human role and its contribution to a reliable operation. Therefore, the literature about human safety performance is scarce and disjointed. The present paper integrates the existing knowledge on workers' safety performance in high risk industries, specifically in the nuclear industry. In order to do this, we provide a literature review in which the concept of "safety performance" is clarified, and at the same time, we present the most recent research studies and models on this concept

Strengthening safety compliance in nuclear power operations: a role-based approach.

Safety compliance is of paramount importance in guaranteeing the safe running of nuclear power plants. However, it depends mostly on procedures that do not always involve the safest outcomes. This article introduces an empirical model based on the organizational role theory to analyze the influence of legitimate sources of expectations (procedures formalization and leadership) on workers' compliance behaviors. The sample was composed of 495 employees from two Spanish nuclear power plants. Structural equation analysis showed that, in spite of some problematic effects of proceduralization (such as role conflict and role ambiguity), procedure formalization along with an empowering leadership style lead to safety compliance by clarifying a worker's role in safety. Implications of these findings for safety research are outlined, as well as their practical implications.

Linking empowering leadership to safety participation in nuclear power plants: a structural equation model.

INTRODUCTION: Safety participation is of paramount importance in guaranteeing the safe running of nuclear power plants. METHOD: The present study examined the effects of empowering leadership on safety participation. RESULTS: Based on a sample of 495 employees from two Spanish nuclear power plants, structural equation modeling showed that empowering leadership has a significant relationship with safety participation, which is mediated by collaborative team learning. In addition, the results revealed that the relationship between empowering leadership and collaborative learning is partially mediated by the promotion of dialogue and open communication. CONCLUSIONS: The implications of these findings for safety research and their practical applications are outlined. IMPACT ON INDUSTRY: An empowering leadership style enhances workers' safety performance, particularly safety participation behaviors. Safety participation is recommended to detect possible rule inconsistencies or misunderstood procedures and make workers aware of critical safety information and issues.