Pia Oedewald

Characteristics of organizational culture at the maintenance units of two Nordic nuclear power plants

This study aims to characterize and assess the organizational cultures of two Nordic nuclear power plant (NPP) maintenance units. The research consisted of NPP maintenance units of Forsmark (Sweden) and Olkiluoto (Finland). The study strives to anticipate the consequences of the current practices, conceptions and assumptions in the given organizations to their ability and willingness to fulfill the organizational core task. The methods utilized in the study were organizational culture and core task questionnaire (CULTURE02) and semi-structured interviews. Similarities and differences in the perceived organizational values, conceptions of ones own work, conceptions of the demands of the maintenance task and organizational practices at the maintenance units were explored. The maintenance units at Olkiluoto and Forsmark had quite different organizational cultures, but they also shared a set of dimensions such as strong personal emphasis placed on safety. The authors propose that different cultural features and organizational practices may be equally effective from the perspective of the core task. The results show that due to the complexity of the maintenance work, the case organizations tend to emphasize some aspects of the maintenance task more than others. The reliability consequences of these cultural solutions to the maintenance task are discussed. The authors propose that the organizational core task, in this case the maintenance task, should be clear for all the workers. The results give implications that this has been a challenge recently as the maintenance work has been changing. The concepts of organizational core task and organizational culture could be useful as management tools to anticipate the consequences of organizational changes.

Core task modelling in cultural assessment: a case study in nuclear power plant maintenance

This article aims at illustrating the use of core task modelling on a system level and attempts to show its relevance to cultural assessment. The methodology that was used in a case study consists of an iterative process of core task modelling, organisational culture research and organisational assessment. The case study was conducted in a nuclear power plants (NPPs) maintenance department. The maintenance task, its goals, critical demands and the demands for the working practices were conceptualised by core task analysis. The organisational culture of the maintenance department was explored with interviews, a survey and workgroups. The results show three critical demands and three instrumental demands to be controlled on all levels in the organisation. The maintenance culture must support the activity of balancing between these distinct requirements. The core task model was used in assessing the characteristics of the maintenance culture. This was done through analysing the unity of the personnels conceptions concerning the organisation, its tasks, goals and values. The relevance of this approach to organisational development is discussed.

Multilayered approach to patient safety culture

Background The concept of patient safety culture (PSC) has increasingly been used in the development of patient safety. However, no theoretical framework on the nature of the underlying phenomenon has been created. Multiple characterisations of the key dimensions of PSC exist, but they yield little theory on patient safety culture or its relation to patient safety. The authors propose a dynamic and multilayered construct of patient safety culture and illustrate the critical dimensions at each layer. Conclusions PSC can be defined as the willingness and ability of an organisation to understand safety as well as the willingness and ability to act on safety. Patient safety requires controlling and steering the organisation, and being mindful of the social processes and psychological phenomena.

System modeling with the DISC framework: evidence from safety-critical domains

The objective of this paper is to illustrate the development and application of the Design for Integrated Safety Culture (DISC) framework for system modeling by evaluating organizational potential for safety in nuclear and healthcare domains. The DISC framework includes criteria for good safety culture and a description of functions that the organization needs to implement in order to orient the organization toward the criteria. Three case studies will be used to illustrate the utilization of the DISC framework in practice.

Safety culture and subcontractor network governance in a complex safety critical project

In safety critical industries many activities are currently carried out by subcontractor networks. Nevertheless, there are few studies where the core dimensions of resilience would have been studied in safety critical network activities. This paper claims that engineering resilience into a system is largely about steering the development of culture of the system towards better ability to anticipate, monitor, respond and learn. Thus, safety culture literature has relevance in resilience engineering field. This paper analyzes practical and theoretical challenges in applying the concept of safety culture in a complex, dynamic network of subcontractors involved in the construction of a new nuclear power plant in Finland, Olkiluoto 3. The concept of safety culture is in focus since it is widely used in nuclear industry and bridges the scientific and practical interests. This paper approaches subcontractor networks as complex systems. However, the management model of the Olkiluoto 3 project is to a large degree a traditional top-down hierarchy, which creates a mismatch between the management approach and the characteristics of the system to be managed. New insights were drawn from network governance studies.

Maintenance core task and maintenance culture

The aim of the study reported here was to develop a methodology for modeling the maintenance core task and assessing the maintenance culture. The case study was carried out at the Loviisa nuclear power plant in Finland. Maintenance task, its goals, critical demands and the demands for the actual organisation of the maintenance were conceptualised by core task analysis. The organisational culture of maintenance department was inspected by interviews, observation, survey and workgroups. The core task model was used to assess the safety and efficiency of the maintenance culture. Results show three critical demands and three instrumental demands to be controlled in all levels of the organisation. The culture must support this. Implications of these demands for development of organisational culture are discussed.

Measuring conceptual knowledge among NPP maintenance personnel -A tool for knowledge management

The paper presents key findings of a longitudinal study on development of knowledge among new maintenance workers at a Nordic nuclear power plant. A measure of conceptual knowledge was developed in cooperation with the technical experts and trainers at the case plant. The power plant recruited ten maintenance workers during a two years period. The conceptual knowledge of the ten new workers was measured three times during their first two years of tenure. Also reference group of experienced maintenance workers completed the conceptual knowledge questionnaire. In the paper the construction of the measure is presented and the results of the measurements are discussed in light of knowledge management at the nuclear industry. The results show that the conceptual knowledge of the newcomers increased after training, but difference in the scores between the individuals was very high both before and after the training.

Organizational factors and safe human performance - work psychological model

The⋅ paper presents a model of organizational and work psychological factors influencing the safety effects of human performance in nuclear power plants. The model is based on several case studies on organizational factors in nuclear power plant maintenance, operations and engineering departments as well as on theoretical work concerning human and organizational factors.

Developing smart and safe organizations: an evolutionary approach

Purpose – This paper proposes an evolutionary approach to developing smart and safe organizations based on an alignment of two frameworks, an integrated safety culture model and an intelligent organizational systems model. It argues that diversity of propensities, defined as innate tendencies in individuals or groups to behave in particular ways shapes the potential for growth and evolution of organizations. It highlights the critical role of human systems and leadership in maintaining coherence and dealing with the challenges of increased complexity as organizations evolve.Design/methodology/approach – The paper aligns the Intelligent Organizational Systems (IOS) evolutionary model and the Design for Integrated Safety Culture (DISC) model to describe evolutionary development of safety practice in organizations. The result is an ‘evolution matrix’, that reveal the links between safety performance and organizational evolution.Findings – Development of an organizations capacity for safety consciousness thr...