Measuring safety as an outcome variable within the ultra-safe civil aviation industry during periods of deliberate organizational change is a difficult, and often fruitless, task. Anticipating eroding safety processes, based on measuring nothing happening over time, does not adequately capture the true state of an evolving safe system, and this is particularly relevant for leaders and managers in a civil aviation industry responsible for maintaining and improving ultra-safe performance while simultaneously managing demanding strategic business goals.In this paper, I will look at the difficulties of measuring safety as an outcome measure in high reliability organizations (HROs) using the traditional measures of incident and accident reporting during periods of deliberate organizational change inspired by the results from a three-year longitudinal case study of the Norwegian Air Navigation Services provider -Avinor.I will first review the current safety literature relating to Safety Management Systems (SMSs) used in the civil aviation industry. I will then propose a more holistic model that shifts the focus from the traditional safety monitoring mechanisms of risk analysis and trial and error learning, to the natural interactivity within socio-technical systems as found in High Reliability Organizations.And finally, I will present a summary of the empirical results of an alternate methodology for measuring perceived changes in safety at the operational level as leading indicators of evolving safety at at the organizational level.
This article examines the distinct "Viking" leadership style of top leaders in the Norwegian industry that has evolved from a harsh and violent history. Earlier studies have reported that Norwegian leaders at the middle manager level rate high in transformational leadership traits due to a strong feminine culture and a low power distance society, yet Norwegians are also highly individualistic which differs significantly from other national cultures with feminine traits and collective societies. This unique cultural combination is becoming a cross-cultural issue as the Norwegian society is becoming more heterogeneous, particularly in work settings. Understanding how this leadership style differs from other cultures, even in Scandinavia, is important to help leaders better understand the effects of their leadership style on performance. In this study, we explored four of the original Hofstede national cultural dimensions, specifically, power distance, femininity-masculinity, individualism-collectivism, and uncertainty avoidance and examined how these are reflected at the top leadership level within the Norwegian industry using a national leadership study of Norwegian top leaders (N ¼ 917). We also examined how these selfreported leadership styles affected perceived organizational results in the form of innovation and change through organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Our findings suggest that Norwegian top leaders do exhibit transformational leadership traits, and that these traits have a positive influence on OCB, which further had a positive relationship to organizational performance in the form of innovation and change results. We also found that power distance and a collectivistic orientation predicted OCB, while only power distance predicted innovation and change among the Hofstede cultural dimensions. Of the four Hofstede dimensions, only one moderating effect
Managerial choices for change implementation methods have a direct impact on strategic change outcomes. In a three-year longitudinal case study of the Norwegian airport management and air navigation services provider -Avinor -a fundamental mismatch between organizational culture type and change implementation method contributed to the premature collapse of a deliberate strategic change initiative. The major contribution of this article is to expand our knowledge about identifying and avoiding potential pitfalls resulting from a fundamental mismatch between organizational culture in place and change implementation methods during deliberate organizational change. The findings from this case study will show how managerial choices and actions, such as: consensus building, communication and use of participation during deliberate change processes, can positively influence attitudes towards change. However, it will also show that a sudden reversal from a participatory process to purely top-down implementation can lead to a breakdown in consensus and trust, leading to internal and external resistance, and the premature collapse of a change process.
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