Otros dispositivos: Prospera y Cruzada contra el Hambre

Company B is a relatively small company involved in construction projects. There are no complex technologies or interlinked hazardous processes that might unexpectedly cascade into major accident events, as core activities comprise relatively simple and discrete

operations. There are still the associated risks and hazards that are quite common to the construction industry, all of which are well defined and well regulated. The potential for unknown hazards is limited to discrete activities at specific construction sites. This has to be identified during engineering review and managed during construction activities. Any site- specific circumstances that require additional attention or increased operational safety

measures and activities are determined and implemented on a case-by-case basis during the project planning and preparation stages. The staffing requirements are also determined on a project-by-project basis and the majority of workers on each construction site are only contracted for the duration of the project.

The employees of Company B who are described and discussed in the research interview as being relevant to this research are the core group of permanent staff, shown in Chart B. These employees are either in the main operations group (involved in assessing, bidding for and managing the construction projects) or in one of several support functions which comprise finance, human resources and HSE+ (health, safety, environment plus quality). Core employees might be assigned to one specific project; required to contribute to several smaller projects; or be responsible for corporate oversight of all projects, as required.

Therefore, the organisational structure of Company B is quite fluid and core staff are regularly assigned different lines of responsibility whenever projects are commenced or completed; or when specific capabilities are required for specific tasks. Chart B presents the organisational structure of Company B as described at the time of the research interview, showing the mostly constant lines of accountability within the core structure. Only one functionally relevant line of responsibility for HSE+ is shown for later discussion but such lateral relationships may be numerous as they are established according to project tasking and allocation. Chart B delineates the internal structure of the executive leadership team and illustrates the levels below the CEO in terms of the hierarchy of the HSE+ function.

potential POSS role

bold line = accountability (answers to …) dashed line = responsibility (provides services to …)

EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP BARBARA BRIAN INTERVIEWEE FUNCTIONALLY TWO LEVELS BELOW CEO FUNCTIONALLY THREE LEVELS BELOW CEO BRENDAN CHART B Senior Manager

HSE Project Managers

Equipment, Maintenance,

Control etc

Quality

Manager(s) HSE Manager(s) Superintendants Engineers CEO Company B Executive Manager Human Resources Executive Manager Finance Executive Manager Operations Executive Manager HSE+ Operations Manager Projects Engineer - Technical Review Commercial, Development, Legal, etc Senior Manager Quality Operations Manager Major Contracts Operations Manager Business Strategy

The CEO has several direct reports including an Executive Manager of Operations and several functional Executive Managers. The functional Executive Managers are identified in Chart B as having a slightly lower status equivalent to the Senior Operations Managers who are also on the leadership team though they report to the operational Executive Manager. Although, they are effectively two hierarchical levels down from the CEO, the Executive Managers of the three separate support functions (Finance, Human Resources and HSE+) and the Senior Operations Manager are all on the leadership team of Company C.

The higher status of the Executive Manager of Operations reflects her more significant role in the organisation. She is responsible for core activities and accountable for productivity and commercial viability of all operating projects. The Operations group is responsible for the activities of Company B that would be considered most significant to promoting and maintaining operational safety. These activities include engineering reviews undertaken in preparing project bids; and the technical designs that are undertaken to ensure that proposed works are adequately specified to be appropriate for the client's end-use. The critical aspects of high quality project delivery are those that will be realised after handover – as safe and reliable operational performance during end-use by the client and owner of the constructed assets. All project delivery compliance whether: to design specifications; to established standards derived from relevant legislation and regulations; to corporate policy; or to the client's requirements, is the priority and responsibility of the one Executive Manager of Operations. Assurance of such compliance is the responsibility of the Executive Manager of HSE+ who is identified as Barbara. The interviewee is one of her direct reports and is identified as Brian in Chart B, the Quality Manager of Company B. The only activities that are directly relevant to Company B's own operational safety performance are those that ensure safe operations during the project construction phase. These are typically defined during project planning: such as construction timelines,

equipment maintenance and resource management. These activities then become the responsibility of the Operations group, with each individual Project Manager being held accountable for implementing recommended and appropriate practices; and for

supervising permanent and contracted staff on their construction sites. The assurance of such compliance is the responsibility of the HSE+ group and more specifically of the HSE Manager, who is shown in Chart B as another direct report of the HSE+ Executive Manager. The functional HSE+ group is responsible for development and maintenance of corporate policy, standard operating procedures and necessary documentation for tracking

to safe operations for Company B. Only Barbara's role is therefore considered to be similar to a POSS role. As the Executive HSE+ Manager, Barbara is on the organisation's leadership team with direct access to the CEO and other senior executives. She has specific dedicated responsibilities for the independent functional group that she leads. The HSE+ group in Company B has an independent line of accountability to the CEO, as shown in Chart B. The focus of discussions during the interview with Brian is therefore on the organisational structure designed around the HSE+ group.

As neither Barbara nor her direct report, the HSE Manager, were able to participate in the research, but the research interviewee, Brian, is a close colleague and peer of the HSE Manager. As a member of the HSE+ group, himself, Brian is comfortably familiar with the HSE-related roles and is able to describe and discuss the particular responsibilities of the HSE staff, including project-based HSE+ specialists at the construction sites.

The key theme of relevance to this research project that is identified during discussions with Brian is the impact of the structured independence of the HSE+ function from the operations group. The effectiveness of this organisational structure in providing influence to functional roles at both the project level and at the corporate level is examined in the following two sections. These sections detail how the autonomy of Company B’s safety specialists is enhanced by both personal competence and leadership support.