Organizational factors, management, and nuclear safety

Organizations that operate in high hazard domains are expected to function reliably and to anticipate the operating risks caused by the technology itself and the organizational practices. It is widely acknowledged that organizational reliability requires more than clear procedures and compliant people. Nuclear power plants are complex sosiotechnical systems where goal conflicts and interdependencies between different functions are inevitable. The technology, structures and procedures as well as the people working in the power plants are constantly changing. Safety management should aim at identifying the changing vulnerabilities of the organization and evaluating how the actions taken to improve safe performance actually affect the reliability of the organization. CULMA-project has carried out various organizational assessments in Nordic nuclear power plants and identified conflicting opinions on how to approach organizational reliability. Four principles for improving organizational performance are suggested based on our results from the organizational assessments and the latest research on safety critical organizations.