TY - JOUR
T1 - Organizational learning from construction fatalities
T2 - Balancing juridical, ethical, and operational processes
AU - van Marrewijk, Alfons
AU - van der Steen, Hans
PY - 2024
Y1 - 2024
N2 - Construction work is associated with high risks of fatalities. Effective, deep and lasting learning from incidents is important for the safety of employees, but not well developed in the construction sector. We studied the organizational processes after a fatality through an auto-ethnographic field work study and found three distinct, but interrelated processes to normalize construction work; juridical, ethical and operational processes. Balanced attention to all three processes supports an effective, deep and lasting learning from incidents. We contribute to the learning from incidents literature with the insight that balanced attention for all three processes helps to learn from incidents and to improve the safety of workers. Furthermore, second victims can be important for the learning of incidents process. Finally, the findings throw new light on inadequate supervision of safety procedures, as the temporary characteristics of projects forces workers to deviate from safety procedures.
AB - Construction work is associated with high risks of fatalities. Effective, deep and lasting learning from incidents is important for the safety of employees, but not well developed in the construction sector. We studied the organizational processes after a fatality through an auto-ethnographic field work study and found three distinct, but interrelated processes to normalize construction work; juridical, ethical and operational processes. Balanced attention to all three processes supports an effective, deep and lasting learning from incidents. We contribute to the learning from incidents literature with the insight that balanced attention for all three processes helps to learn from incidents and to improve the safety of workers. Furthermore, second victims can be important for the learning of incidents process. Finally, the findings throw new light on inadequate supervision of safety procedures, as the temporary characteristics of projects forces workers to deviate from safety procedures.
KW - Construction fatality
KW - Learning from incidents
KW - Organizational processes
KW - Safety
KW - Second victims
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85185534189&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.ssci.2024.106472
DO - 10.1016/j.ssci.2024.106472
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85185534189
SN - 0925-7535
VL - 174
JO - Safety Science
JF - Safety Science
M1 - 106472
ER -