Safety Without Illusions

Real Stories of Risk in Organisations That Demand Certainty
1. Auflage 2027
ISBN: 978-1-041-41010-2
Verlag: Taylor & Francis

Buch, Englisch, 112 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm

Safety management uses policies and dashboards, but it unfolds in the everyday decisions, tensions, and compromises through which work gets done. Safety Without Illusions: Real Stories of Risk in Organisations That Demand Certainty follows a team of safety professionals working on construction and infrastructure projects, where formal systems collide with the realities of the jobsite.  Through a series of narrative episodes, from project meetings and incident investigations to site visits and informal conversations, the book explores how risk, responsibility, power, and organisational pressures influence the choices people make. It asks why organisations that understand risk often struggle to respond to it, how compliance can sometimes crowd out practical judgement, and why uncertainty is so often managed through reassurance rather than learning. Each chapter combines a real-world story with insights from organisational sociology and safety science, showing how safety is influenced both by individual decisions and by the structures, relationships, and expectations that surround employees. Rather than offering another framework or set of prescriptions, the book invites readers to see safety as a practical, social accomplishment in complex environments where certainty is impossible, consequences matter, and competing demands are unavoidable.  Written for safety professionals, project leaders, regulators, engineers, and others concerned with risk, leadership, and organisational performance, the book offers a grounded and thoughtful perspective on what it means to practice safety in the real world.

Zielgruppe

Professional Reference

Autoren/Hrsg.

Flinterman, Martijn

Fachgebiete

• Technische Wissenschaften Technik Allgemein Technische Zuverlässigkeit, Sicherheitstechnik
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Finanzsektor & Finanzdienstleistungen Versicherungswirtschaft
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Betriebswirtschaft Bereichsspezifisches Management Management: Führung & Motivation
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften: Forschung und Information Risikobewertung, Risikotheorie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

- Introduction: A Sociological Framework for Safety 2. Prelude: A Safety Adviser's History Part One: The Formal Side of Organising Introduction to Part One 3. Compliance Clutter 4. Provisional Procedures 5. Moral Language Closes Learning 6. Blind Spots in Incident Investigation 7. Idealisations Don't Hold in Complex Systems 8. Incubation and Accidents 9. Anomalies and Inevitability 10. Systems and Decisions 11. Safety Education 12. Prospective Systemic Risk Mapping 13. Problems that Demand Design 14. Methods in Safety 15. Past Performance 16. Authority and Fairness in Investigations 17. Safety Physics 18. Safety's History 19. Safety, Cost, and Conditions 20. Sensemaking After Disaster 21. Behaviour, Listening, and Trust 22. Dealing With Grey Zones 23. Blame Between Safety Schools 24. How Conditions Define What Becomes Possible, and Risky 25. Being a Stoic Part Two: The Informal Side of Organising Introduction to Part Two 26. Knowing Before Saying 27. Recurring Problems 28. Safety, Pressure, and Unintended Consequences 29. Counterfactuals versus Normal Work 30. Unequal Predictions 31. Women in Construction 32. Trust 33. Ranking and Comparison vs Loyalty and Voice 34. Conflict and Narcissistic Patterns 35. Success and the Safety We Learn to See 36. Children, Safety, and Resilience 37. Reorganisation and Social Signals 38. Human Ties under Market Logic 39. The Reproduction of Practice 40. Belonging and Morality 41. Informal Networks 42. Safety and Relations 43. Safety and Reciprocity 44. Where Systems End and Relationships Begin 45. The Cost of Caring Too Much 46. Safety Culture Certification 47. The Established and the Outsiders 48. The Limits of Equal Voice 49. Loyalty, Silence, and Safety 50. Practices in Drift Part Three: The Façade of Organising Introduction to Part Three 51. Quiet Success Doesn't Make Headlines 52. Public Administration 53. Elite Networks 54. Destructive Labour 55. Metrics and Bad News 56. Audits and Behaviour 57. Protest and Responsibility in Complex Systems 58. Aiming for Perfection in Uncertainty 59. Safety Management Programmes as Façades and Control Mechanisms 60. Power and The Narrowing of Thought 61. How Fear Gets Organised 62. Understanding Different Viewpoints 63. The Performative Seriousness of Some Media 64. Globalisation and Sensemaking 65. The Social Construction of Reality 66. Ideology and Political Work 67. Disciplined Safety Work Afterword: Safety Without Illusions

Über Autor(innen)

Martijn Flinterman is a sociologist specializing in organizational safety in complex environments, based in the Netherlands. With experience advising on Dutch major infrastructure projects and maintenance, Mr Flinterman brings practical and academic insights to health, safety, and environment (HSE) management. Mr Flinterman is active as a reviewer, researcher, author and supervisor, and regularly presents on organizational safety and resilience, challenging teams to move beyond checklists toward systemic understanding.