The Blindspot Before the Disaster

A Safety Model for Developing Organisational Foresight
1. Auflage 2026
ISBN: 978-1-041-39343-6
Verlag: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Buch, Englisch, 208 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm

Major organisational disasters are not random. They are predictable. In the months and years before every catastrophic failure, before the Deepwater Horizon blowout, the Grenfell Tower fire, the Space Shuttle disasters, the Pike River explosion, the warning signs were already present. They were systematically unseen. Organisational blindness to accumulating risk is not a malfunction. In many organisations, it is the system working exactly as designed. This book explains why, and what can be done about it.

The Blindspot Before the Disaster identifies the five organisational conditions that converge to produce this failure of sight: signal attenuation, normalised tolerance, structural secrecy, production gravity, and leadership detachment. Together they form the Blindspot Model, a practical diagnostic framework grounded in five decades of disaster scholarship and demonstrated across eleven of the most significant industrial catastrophes of the past forty years.

This book is written for the leaders, safety professionals, and governance practitioners who are responsible for preventing harm before it occurs. It bridges the gap between rigorous academic disaster theory and the practical needs of people working in high-consequence environments. It does not assign blame. It offers something more useful: a structured, evidence-based way of seeing the danger that is already in the room.

Zielgruppe

Postgraduate, Professional Practice & Development, and Professional Training

Autoren/Hrsg.

Bourne, Tom

Fachgebiete

• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Betriebswirtschaft Bereichsspezifisches Management Produktionsmanagement, Qualitätskontrolle
• Technische Wissenschaften Technik Allgemein Technische Zuverlässigkeit, Sicherheitstechnik
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Betriebswirtschaft Management Unternehmensorganisation & Entwicklungsstrategien
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Betriebswirtschaft Bereichsspezifisches Management Personalwesen, Human Resource Management
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Betriebswirtschaft Management Qualitätsmanagement, Qualitätssicherung (QS), Total Quality Management (TQM)
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Betriebswirtschaft Organisationstheorie, Organisationssoziologie, Organisationspsychologie
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Betriebswirtschaft Unternehmensorganisation, Corporate Responsibility Unternehmenskultur, Corporate Governance

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction: The Problem of Seeing PART ONE THE ANATOMY OF BLINDNESS 1. What We Think Causes Disasters, and Why We Are Wrong 2. The Incubation Problem 3. Introducing the Blindspot Model  PART TWO THE FIVE CONDITIONS  4. Signal Attenuation: When the Warning Never Arrives 5. Normalised Tolerance: When Dangerous Becomes Normal 6. Structural Secrecy: When No One Has the Full Picture 7. Production Gravity: When Getting the Job Done Becomes the Only Thing 8. Leadership Detachment: When Those at the Top Can No Longer See  PART THREE WHEN THE CONDITIONS COMBINE 9. The Perfect Blindspot: When All Five Conditions Operate Simultaneously 10. Moral Drift and Ethical Corrosion  PART FOUR ACTIVE FORESIGHT 11. What Seeing Looks Like: Organisations That Interrupted the Pattern 12. A Practical Framework for Active Foresight Epilogue: The Responsibility of Foresight  Glossary: Key Terms and Concepts

Über Autor(innen)

Tom Bourne is an Australian author, workplace safety educator, speaker, and leadership commentator with more than 25 years of experience across the mining and resources, government, and professional education sectors. He has published more than 16 books on workplace safety, leadership, and organisational accountability. He is based in Perth, Western Australia.