Procedures coming every day: Safety Management Systems and safety communication in high-risk industries

Abstract

In this dissertation the use of Safety Management Systems and procedures in high-risk industries is being studied, focusing on the following research questions:

1: How is Safety Management System defined in the safety literature?

2: How is Safety Management System used in a petroleum producing company?

3: How can end user involvement improve the development and use of procedures and Safety Management System?

4: What kind of training in the use of procedures and Safety Management System are the workers in two different companies given? How can the training be improved?

The empirical data was collected by conducting qualitative in-depth interviews with 27 staff members of two different companies in the Norwegian gas and petroleum producing sector.

In this thesis Safety Management Systems are defined as IT-based systems which purpose is to code and share good practices, and to create corporate knowledge directories for the organization. Safety Management Systems and the procedures are here regarded as a form of communication; designed at an executive level in the organization and communicated to the lower levels in the organization`s hierarchy. There is no guarantee that the employees will perceive, understand and interpret the procedures and system as intended by the management.

Executives in this study generally regard Safety Management Systems and procedures as important tools for all work, while many of the workers were less enthusiastic. The informants with a good use of the system and the procedures saw them as helpful, and as a result of industrial experience accumulated over many years. The informants with a poor use of the procedures acknowledged the need for safety measures, but saw their own experience as more important for safety than the Safety Management System. Several of the challenges with using the Safety Management System in the two companies are related to communication and to the organizational context; how the workers relate to computers, information overload, and dealing with highly detailed procedures, the development of informal procedures, the workers ideals of professionalism, and how to ensure a good two-way communication, and staff training.