Check out Safety Emporium for your N95, N99, and face shield needs.
From: Ralph Stuart <ralph**At_Symbol_Here**rstuartcih.org>
Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] New article for ACS Chemical Health & Safety is available online.
Date: Mon, 31 Jan 2022 08:26:32 -0500
Reply-To: ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**Princeton.EDU>
Message-ID: AB380603-3506-4E5C-9371-F741FE9909BF**At_Symbol_Here**rstuartcih.org
In-Reply-To <043B220D-B89E-4DDC-91A0-1318FF316353**At_Symbol_Here**uconn.edu>
> >To add to Richard's point, something that some colleagues and I have been struggling with is the idea of who is really in a position to judge.
That is part of the discussion in this week's podcast of The Safety of Work, which talks about this challenge in complex organizations
Ep.89 When is the process more important than the outcome?
https://safetyofwork.com/episodes/ep89-when-is-the-process-more-important-than-the-outcome
The paper they discuss talks about how management methods, including risk assessment, are "often relied upon for 'relieving anxiety' rather than leading to successful or intended outcomes". The basic idea is that because the outcome of management processes can take to long or are too distant from the people 'at the coalface', organizations put their faith in a favored method (such as a focus on safety culture) rather than relying on rare outcomes to validate the process.
The most interesting aspect of their discussion to me is near the end, when the hosts wonder how to transition from reliance on methods to using actual outcomes to assess the value of the favored approach. Sticking with the favored approach provides some form of psychological security to the organization.
This podcast is in follow up to their discussion in the previous episode on the article "A Garbage Can Model of Organizational Choice' which they frame in terms of "Why do organisations sometimes make bad decisions?' That episode discusses the challenge of process design and renewal in complex organizations.
Interesting stuff.
- Ralph
Ralph Stuart, CIH, CCHO
ralph**At_Symbol_Here**rstuartcih.org
---
For more information about the DCHAS-L e-mail list, contact the Divisional membership chair at membership**At_Symbol_Here**dchas.org
Follow us on Twitter **At_Symbol_Here**acsdchas
Previous post | Top of Page | Next post