Organizational Correctives for Improving Recognition of Near-Miss Events

Abstract

Despite decades of research on organizational disasters, such events remain too common. Scholars across a wide range of disciplines agree that one of the most viable approaches to preventing such catastrophes is to observe near-misses and use them to identify and eliminate problems before they produce large failures. Unfortunately, these important warning signals are too often ignored because they are perceived as successes rather than near-misses (or nearfailures). In this article, we explore the effect of a climate for safety on improving near-miss recognition by observers, hypothesizing that safety climate increases the level of attention that observers pay to the underlying processes that generate an apparently successful outcome. Using a database of anomaly reports for unmanned NASA missions, we show that organizational safety climate and project stakes increase reporting rates of near-misses, both independently and interactively. In follow-up laboratory experiments, we confirm the independence of these effects to improve the likelihood that people differentiate near-miss outcomes from successes. Results suggest organizations can increase the recognition of near-misses with organizational messages that emphasize a positive safety climate.

Noise as Signal in Learning from Rare Events

“…That is still a form of learning, but it does not show improved performance. It is, however, consistent with evidence showing that a positive safety climate leads to increased reporting of near misses (Dillon et al 2016). It is also consistent with the views of our respondents.…”

Safety-Specific Leadership, Goal Orientation, and Near-Miss Recognition: The Cross-Level Moderating Effects of Safety Climate

“…We translated and back-translated the measures originally developed in English to ensure their validity (Brislin, 1980). The original measurement of near-miss recognition was based on aviation scenarios (Dillon et al, 2016). To tailor it to construction site situations and thus ensure its validity, we took the following steps.…”

“…Near misses—events in which hazardous conditions could produce a negative outcome but do not (Dillon et al, 2014a)—occur frequently in the workplace (Phimister et al, 2003). As recognizing near misses helps organizations avoid future hazards and improve safety (Kalnins et al, 2006; Kim and Miner, 2007; Soyer and Hogarth, 2015), enhancing near-miss recognition is an increasingly important task in safety management (Baron and Hershey, 1988; Phimister et al, 2003; Soyer and Hogarth, 2015; Dillon et al, 2016). At a Chinese stainless-steel company in 2014, for instance, the failure to recognize a potential workplace hazard led to an explosion, resulting in 146 deaths and 114 injuries.…”

“…Our study makes several contributions. First, we respond to the call for leadership studies on near-miss recognition (Dillon et al, 2016) by empirically examining the effects of safety-specific leadership on near-miss recognition. Second, we introduce employees’ motivation as a new theoretical perspective, showing how two important types of safety-specific leadership influence near-miss recognition via learning goal orientation and performance goal orientation.…”

Het managen van incidenten in het onderwijs

“…In de internationale literatuur wordt benadrukt dat reflecteren op 'near misses' belangrijk is, zodat organisaties praktische lessen kunnen trekken uit de opgedane ervaringen. Dillon, Tinsley, Madsen & Rogers (2013) benadrukken dat 'near misses' veel vaker voorkomen dan echte ongelukken. Desondanks is het binnen het (semi)publieke domein niet gebruikelijk om incidenten te onderzoeken, systematisch te registreren en hierop gezamenlijk te reflecteren.…”