Michael Behm, PhD CSP, East Carolina University
This report summarizes an occupational safety graduate program’s attempts to integrate Safety-II and Resilience Engineering (RE) into student learning outcomes. East Carolina University’s Master of Science in Occupational Safety program follows the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) criteria which is predominantly Safety-I focused. From 2014 to 2017, Professor David Borys facilitated our Applied Safety Management class; Borys had experience and expertise in Safety-II and RE. This was our turning point.
For the past four years I have facilitated our Systems Safety and Applied Safety Management courses, which are the two primary courses where we integrate Safety-II concepts with traditional safety approaches. The foundation Borys provided us continued and expanded. All courses have three fundamental assessments: an exam; a research project; and a practical project. We feel the practical project is where our students and Program can have the greatest effect on the body of knowledge. It is also where we have struggled the most. A student thesis, Turner (2017), explored tools and methods being used in Safety-II and RE practice. That work was collected in 2016 and found an absence of tools in actual practice among safety professionals familiar with the concepts.
In the System Safety class, the concept of the Functional Resonance Analysis Method (FRAM) has been incorporated as well as have various models and tools from Levenson (2011). FRAM was, and remains, a struggle for me to learn and thus transfer to student learning in a practical project. I hope to attend the FRAMily workshop in the near future, which I believe would be most helpful. Hollnagel’s FRAM book (2012) was a required reading, but only a few effective FRAM models emerged in the student projects. One student (Shaki, 2017) completed a thesis using FRAM inspired questions sets, but the FRAM models were not included. In 2018, we removed the FRAM project and book. However, I’m encouraging individual students to take on an Independent Study course to learn FRAM with me in the coming academic year. When System Safety is taught this coming August, I’m planning to re-incorporate an option to study and use FRAM as one possible tool for the applied practice project.
We currently use the Hollnagel books (2014, 2017) as required texts in the Applied Safety Management course, a course we recently finished in early May with thirteen students. The recent Provan et al. (2020) article was added and provides a valuable foundation when discussing practical Safety-II and RE practices. The increased use of the Resilience Assessment Grid (RAG) in peer-reviewed publications has helped shape our thinking. Students in this course take on individual projects that seek to measure resilience, evaluate the gap between work as imagined and work as done, or other forms of practice, such as appreciate inquiry. Lectures and modules for this course have evolved to provide guidance for students to view and practice safety through the lens of exploring everyday work. For example, a module on ethnography applied to safety practice yields thought provoking discussions amongst the students. Four students used a customized RAG in practice to analyze and reflect on resilience. One student sent their RAG to seven regional safety managers for use and comment. A noteworthy comment from that group of seven is that they would rather use this tool than their current assessment tool, which focuses on compliance. Another student developed a qualitative RAG tool and explored its utility through management interviews. One student commented that workers were pleasantly surprised to be asked their view. Four students engaged in mini ethnographies to assess work as imagined vs. work as done. Other students analyzed safety job postings and proposed changes in language to adapt from a Safety-I to a Safety-II perspective; developed a learning module on Levenson’s STAMP; and evaluated OSH Management System standards from a resilience engineering perspective. Students were hampered by COVID-19 but endured with excellent practical learning experiences. The final presentations were most impressive.
Clear and practical tools and methods continue to be a key challenge for students. However, we are making progress. I am encouraging students to take on a longitudinal RAG assessment for their thesis or practicum project. We are constantly seeking guest speakers with experience and expertise around the use of FRAM, RAG, and other tools and scanning journals for examples. Any collaborations would be appreciated as we are continually learning and improving the classes and our approach.
References
Hollnagel, E. (2012). FRAM: The Functional Resonance Analysis Method. CRC Press LLC: Farnham.
Hollnagel, E. (2014). Safety-I and Safety II: The Past and Future of Safety Management. Ashgate: Burlington, VT.
Hollnagel, E. (2017). Safety-II in Practice: Developing the Resilience Potentials. Routledge: New York.
Levenson, N. (2011) Engineering a Safer World: Systems Thinking Applied to Safety. MIT Pres: Cambridge.
Provan, D., Woods, D., Dekker, S., and Rae, A. (2020). Safety II professionals: How resilience engineering can transform safety practice. Reliability Engineering and System Safety, 195, 106740.
Shaki, H. (2017). Evaluating effectiveness of the application of the new perspective in safety, safety-II: By functional resonance analysis method (FRAM) in a manufacturing environment. (Order No. 10646684). Available from Dissertations & Theses @ East Carolina University. ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global.
Turner, J. (2017). How is safety-II being applied in practice and is it working? (Order No. 10760228). Available from Dissertations & Theses @ East Carolina University; ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global.