An institutional perspective on systemic approach to safety in a project context

In this chapter, we provide an institutional perspective on a systemic approach to safety in a project context. Major safety-critical projects are implemented in an operating environment of diverse and sometimes conflicting institutional pressures and demands from multiple participating project actors. Linkages between institutional environment and nuclear safety have been established following the Fukushima accident. We clarify the concepts of institutional logics and complexity, elaborate on the links between institutions and disaster development, elucidate on the nature of major projects as interinstitutional systems, and bring in the conversation between cultural studies and institutional approach. We believe that the institutional viewpoint has potential to enrich the systemic approach to safety since it opens new perspectives for researchers and nuclear industry practitioners alike to understand how institutional influences operate, combine, and manifest to affect safety and thus enables the development of more comprehensive safety management and leadership approaches.