Verneombudets rolle i sikkerhetsarbeidet - case-studier i bygg og anlegg

Source at https://www.sintef.no/publikasjoner/publikasjon/1886054/Rapporten beskriver resultatene fra en kartlegging der formålet har vært å få økt kunnskap om verneombudets rolle, utfordringer og muligheter knyttet til deres deltakelse i sikkerhetsarbeidet i bygg- og anleggsprosjekter. Datainnsamlingen har vært to-delt: Intervjuer med ulike aktører i tre case-prosjekter, og intervju/samtaler med RVO Bygg og RVO Anlegg. Det er identifisert åtte hoved-utfordringer knyttet til verne¬ombudets rolle i sikkerhetsarbeidet: 1) Opplæring og kompetanse, 2) Valg av verne¬ombud, 3) Verneombudets status, 4) Rollefordeling i HMS-arbeidet, 5) Involvering av verne¬ombudet i tidligfase (prosjektering og planlegging), 6) Involvering av verne¬ombudet i gjennomføringsfasen (produksjon), 7) Arenaer for erfaringsoverføring og læring, og 8) Verneombudets rolle i en ny tid. Rapporten presenterer forslag og anbefalinger til hvordan man bedre kan utnytte kompetansen og rollen til verneombudene i bygg- og anleggsprosjekter

Occupational Safety Management in the Offshore Windindustry–Status and Challenges

An overview of accidents and potential occupational accidents in the offshore wind industry is shown. There are indications that the number of accidents is relatively high. Based on a model for safe operations, status for as well as challenges for safety management in the offshore wind industry are presented. The paper concludes by presenting topics for further research

Friend or foe? Information security management of employees

Although information security traditionally has been a technological discipline, the role and function of employees is an additional important part. Users can both be a threat and a resource in information security management. On the one hand, employees can produce or ignite threats and vulnerabilities. On the other hand, they are a precondition for safe and secure operation. As a consequence, information security management of employees is an important part of the total information security management in organizations. The general aim of this study is to explore the information security management of employees. This is approached by studying: users’ function in and view on information security; measures aiming at improving individual information security performance; and information security management practice in organizations. Findings from explorative interview studies of users and information security managers; an intervention study aiming at improved individual awareness and behaviour; and a survey on organizational security measures were used as the empirical basis in the study. When it comes to operative work, employees’ information security performance is weak. Users perform few proactive information security actions and are indifferent to information security in their daily work. Information security managers mainly view users as a threat and a problem to the information security level, while users view themselves as an untapped resource in the information security work. Individual security performance is created by technological frameworks and formal and informal organizational aspects of information security. Besides technological solutions framing what it is possible for individual behaviour to perform, the most used measures directed at users are documented requirements for individual behaviour. These measures are evaluated to have limited effect on individual performance. However they are the basis for several other measures, thus they have an indirect effect. Instructions for behaviour are thus necessary, but not sufficient alone. Education, training and information have the best effect on users when employees and communicators are interacting and are in dialogue. However, information and education  tends to be more based on written and electronic information, rather than rich information with possibilities for two-way communication. Employee participation is evaluated to be the most effective process to improve individual information security performance, but is modestly used. An intervention study based on direct participation, dialogue and collective reflection in order to improve individual information security awareness and behaviour showed significant improvements among participants. Employee participation is likely to improve the quality of technological and administrative security solutions; improve the usability of security technology; improve security professionals’ knowledge of sharp-end information security activities; close the gap in understanding and communication between security managers and users; improve individual ownership, acceptance and motivation for information security; and ensure democratic rights that influence personal working conditions. If there is a social information security digital divide between users and information security managers, i.e. no interaction and dialogue; differences in risk judgement; and views and experience of information security practice, these will reflect the lack of participation. The information security professionals make the premises for the information security work in an organization without involving users to any extent. The differences result in management strategies based on the prejudiced view that users are more of a security threat than a resource. Consequently, the management approaches might be insufficient for dealing with users as a resource as the information security activities are based on nonrealistic understanding of actual work at the sharp-end. Combinations of adequate measures for all parts of the socio-technical information security systems must be available in order to perform efficient defence, including the handling of employees’ function in information security. One needs to handle pragmatic, formal rulebased and technical principles. Managing the human element of information security is thus one of many activities in information security management. The thesis has identified some shortcomings in current approaches to employees. These shortcomings may not be inadequate for other information security efforts than human management, so the current approaches must not be discarded. This thesis has argued in favour of approaches that lead to greater user involvement which would be a complementary addition to traditional information security approaches

Occupational safety in a globalized construction industry: a study on Polish workers in Norway

Polish workers are the largest group of migrant workers in Norway and are particularly well represented in the construction industry. According to several studies, migrant workers are more prone to occupational accidents than the native workers are. This difference is often attributed to poor communication and lack of linguistic skills. We explored factors affecting occupational safety related to migrant workers with an emphasis on communication, culture and language through interviews with Polish and Norwegian workers. The study shows that the construction industry in Norway mainly focuses on language as an issue. Culture is seen as a contributing factor, but is somewhat neglected. Fewer measures to cope with challenges related to migrant workers were found for cultural issues as compared to linguistic. However, the study shows that cultural aspects are at least as important. This gives implications for safety management in the construction industry. This paper suggests considering cultural aspects more in safety management related to migrant workers to achieve the desired safety focus at construction sites.acceptedVersio

Changes in Norway’s societal safety and security measures following the 2011 Oslo terror attacks

This paper characterizes changes in Norway’s civil protection and emergency preparedness five years after the Oslo and Utøya terror attacks. Data from 48 interviews conducted in the period 2014–2016 with civil servants within different levels of the justice sector were qualitatively analyzed. The inductive analysis shows four main changes made related to Norway’s civil protection and emergency preparedness within the Ministry of Justice and Public Security: (1) a change in risk perception regarding awareness of security-related risks; (2) the generation of several plans and measures; (3) structural changes at various levels within the justice sector; and (4) increased resources allocated to societal safety and security. The changes following the Oslo terror attacks were not solely in response to the terror attacks, but also the result of previous and subsequent events and reports. The current organization of public administration, however, still fosters siloed thinking and turf wars around the principle of responsibility and each sector’s respective area of expertise. Most of the implemented changes can be characterized as structural; diagnoses made after the terror attacks pointed at cultural aspects.submittedVersio

Resilience Abilities In Recent Blowouts In The Petroleum Industry

Resilient abilities among actors in complex collaboration make it possible to succeed drilling wells in complicated reservoirs. However, the last decade has shown that drilling operations can lead to disastrous outcomes. In a resilience engineering perspective we study the blowouts at Deepwater Horizon and Snorre A, to see how poor resilient abilities contributed to the incidents. The study show that combinations of poor resilient abilities contributed to both incidents. Abilities to anticipate what can go wrong and abilities to monitor what is going on in present time have in particular been inadequate. Poor planning processes and communication among involved actors in particular impacted resilience

A study of experience feedback from reported unwanted occurrences in a construction company

An interview study in a major Norwegian construction company was conducted to analyse learning from reports of unwanted occurrences (RUO). Systems for reporting unwanted occurrences are on of the most important tools in systematic safety management to ensure efficient experience feedback that will improve safety performance. The interview study identifies two major obstacles to efficient learning from reports of unwanted occurrences (1) under-reporting at the sharp end, and (2) reports are not analysed and applied to improve the safety performance. The reasons for under-reporting are the same as those identified in previously published studies on under-reporting, with one exception. The interviews show that many workers are flexible and choose to correct the situation right there and without documenting the occurrences in order to perform both effective as well as safe work. It is paradoxical that those at the sharp end prefer to put things right and continue the work in a safer manner without spending time reporting, at the same time as the HSE management wants all unwanted occurrences to be documented for learning purposes. A root cause for the identified obstacles is a conflicting objective between production and safety

Accident types and barrier failures in the construction industry

The paper identifies frequent accident types in the construction industry, characterises the accident sequence, and identifies barrier failures for the most frequent accident types. 176 accidents in the Norwegian construction industry investigated by the Norwegian Labour Inspection Authority in 2015 are analysed. The most frequent accident types include: fall from roof, floor or platform; contact with falling objects; fall from scaffold; and contact with moving parts of a machine. A comparison of the study sample to other injury samples, showed that the distribution of accident types varied regarding severity and different construction types. This can be explained by differences in work type, hazard, and energy type and energy amount. An analysis of barrier failures showed that many accidents are explained by the lack of physical barrier elements. The results indicate that there is significant potential for accident prevention in the construction industry by systematic barrier management

Examining the suitability of industrial safety management approaches for information security incident management

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