Safety and Complexity

A special issue of Safety (ISSN 2313-576X).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 November 2018) | Viewed by 10702

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
School of Engineering and Built Environment, Griffith University, Brisbane, QLD 4222, Australia
Interests: construction sustainability; workplace health and safety; process improvement; project leadership
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Safety is a major concern in key industrial sectors as accidents have the potential for catastrophic consequences. Safety-critical and high-reliability organisations are characterized as complex systems with a great potential for stress, accidents, and injuries.

Recent calls have been made to move away from linear thinking regarding failure in complex systems, and to adopt a systems-thinking approach, where cause and effect are not distinguishable. This complexity arises from interactions between actors and the temporal and spatial gaps between actions and consequences—a feature in line with the principles of Complexity Science, which provides the premise for a flexible response to ‘emerging patterns and opportunities’.  In essence, complexity theory is about: (1) The interactions dynamics amongst multiple, networked agents, and (2) how emergent events, such as creativity, learning, or adaptability, arise from these interactions. Complexity theorist inquire into how such systems engage with each other, adapt, and influence things like emergence, innovation, and fitness.

In light of the above, this Special Issue will explore the challenges of safety with a focus on the application of complexity theory. Papers addressing the interface on how complexity theory can inform factors in the technological, organisational and human dimensions of safety are especially welcomed.

Prof. Sherif Mohamed
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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Keywords

  • systems thinking
  • failure
  • cause
  • investigation
  • interactions
  • leadership
  • culture

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

24 pages, 2147 KiB  
Article
Accident Report Interpretation
by Derek Heraghty, Sidney Dekker and Andrew Rae
Safety 2018, 4(4), 46; https://doi.org/10.3390/safety4040046 - 15 Oct 2018
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 10180
Abstract
The language and approach we use to describe the past can have a strong influence on the audience’s interpretation of our story. In our experiment, we explore, using 3 different conditions, how the framing, language and style of an accident report can affect [...] Read more.
The language and approach we use to describe the past can have a strong influence on the audience’s interpretation of our story. In our experiment, we explore, using 3 different conditions, how the framing, language and style of an accident report can affect the audience’s proposed solutions to manage the problems found. We find that the approach used to create an accident report can have a powerful influence on the audience’s decision making. Whether we are describing an accident in a linear manner, using a systems approach, or we are accepting of multiple stories which are not linear or coherent, the methods we use to capture and communicate the story have a profound impact on the actions decided upon by the reader. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Safety and Complexity)
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