Role of standardization in safety management

1. THE ROLE OF STANDARDISATION IN
SAFETY MANAGEMENT- A CASE STUDY OF
A MAJOR OIL AND GAS COMPANY
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2. CONTENTS-:
• OBJECTIVES
• INTRODUCTION
• THEORIES
• CASE DESCRIPTION
• METHOD
• RESULTS
• CONCLUSIONS
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3. OBJECTIVES-:
• To show the effects of standardization on safety management system
• To discuss the strengths and weaknesses of various kinds of
standardization on safety management
• To discuss measures to remove negative consequences through
standardization
• To explore how organizational standardization may affect organization’s
ability to operate safely
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4. INTRODUCTION-:
• A case study of Norwegian oil and gas company
• Qualitative study through semi-structured interviews conducted in 2009
and 2010
• Expected results and perceived results based on interviews
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5. THEORY-:
• PRINCIPLES OF SAFETY MANAGEMENT
• HEINRICH PRINCIPLES
• SAFETY MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
• SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT
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7. STANDARDISATION-:
Standards can be seen as generalized and formalized rules that serve to prescribe
and document efficiency and control within and across organizations.
standards specify how we work, how our technologies interact; they hold our
sociotechnical societies together’’. The term standardization can broadly be
defined as the process of ‘‘rendering things uniform
• Standardization of work processes
• Standardization of outputs
• Standardization of skills
• Standardization of norms
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8. CASE DESCRIPTION-:
• Norwegian oil and gas company had offshore and onshore installations.
• Two companies were merged in to one company –both operating on the
NCS(Norwegian continental shelf)
• A common and standardized operation model for all the installation was
implemented.
• These three installations(offshore) had different organizational structures.
• One of them was organized into self managed teams, while the two others
were more traditional and hierarchic organized
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• Separation of planning from doing i.e onshore organization is responsible for
planning and decision making while offshore organization is responsible for
executing the offshore activities
• 20 offshore managers, 46 offshore workers, 14 onshore managers and 23
onshore employees were interviewed
• The organizational changes were thus aimed at reducing variation in the way
work was performed on the company’s installation.
• Strong local cultures had developed over a long period of time due to working
at the same shift and same installation

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The standardized operation model was designed to achieve the following
objectives:
• To obtain improved control over offshore operations.
• To standardize work processes across installations through procedures and
governing documents.
• To improve the transfer of operational experience across installations by
rotating personnel between installations on a 3– 5 year basis.
•
• To develop one common company culture.

11. METHODS-:
• In the first study (2009), offshore and onshore management and
employees were interviewed about their expectations. The theme
was standardization, rotation of personnel, separation of planning
from execution and hands on management.
• One year after(2010), onshore and offshore management and
employees were interviewed about their real experiences.
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The empirical data for this study is based on a qualitative study ; semi-
structured interviews conducted in 2009 and 2010.
SEMI-STRUCTURED INTERVIEWS-:
• A guide is used, with questions and topics that must be covered.
• The questions are standardized, and probes may be provided to ensure that
the researcher covers the correct material.
• Used when the researcher wants to delve deeply into a topic and to
understand thoroughly the answers provided

13. OVERVIEW OF SEMI-STRUCTURED INTERVIEWS-
:
– Framing the research
– Sampling
– Designing questions and probes
– Developing the protocol
– Preparing for the interview
– Conducting the interview
– Capturing the data
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14. ANALYSES OF INTERVIEW-:
It was conducted base on Principles of Grounded Methodology with qualitative
coding technique.
PRINCIPLES OF GROUNDED METHODOLOGY-:
• Basic Principle-It involves the progressive identification and integration of
categories of meaning from data.
• Categories-These designate the grouping together of instances (events,
processes, occurrences) that share central features or characteristics with one
another.
• Coding-This is the process by which categories are identified. In the early stages
of analysis, coding is largely descriptive. Here, descriptive labels are attached to
discrete instances of phenomena. 14

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• Constant comparative analysis- This ensures that the coding process
maintains its momentum by moving back and forth between the
identification of similarities among and differences between emerging
categories.
• Memo-writing- Throughout the process of data collection and analysis, the
researcher maintains a written record of theory development.
RESEARCH PROCESS-:
• Research Question
• Data Collection
• Data Analysis
• The Research Report

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The studies of two series of interviews conducted in 2009 and 2010 can be
compared based on Longitudinal Research Design
LONGITUDINAL RESEARCH DESIGN-:
A longitudinal study refers to an investigation where participant outcomes and
possibly treatments or exposures are collected at multiple follow-up times.
BENEFITS-
• Incident events are recorded
• Prospective ascertainment of exposure.
• Measurement of individual change in outcomes
• Separation of time effects

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Considering statements made during the interview-:
‘‘This is a model where you are not supposed to think for yourself. You’re just
supposed to comply to the system slavishly.’’ (Offshore worker)
‘‘The advantage with self-managed teams was the sense of ownership and the
autonomy to carry out tasks. Now you become much more tied-up to a formal
system.’’ (Manager)
‘‘We have to follow the governing system, it has been more severe. We spend a
lot of time to learn to use it. The benefit is probably that we improve the safety
on board’’.(offshore worker)
‘‘Five years at installation X was enough for me. I moved to another installation
because I wanted a change. ...You can lose motivation by being at the same
installation for a long time’’ (Offshore worker)

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‘‘The equipment and tools are different at each installation and the complexity
varies’’ (Operator).
‘‘Work that we usually spent two hours on before, now can take a whole day’’
(Offshore worker)
‘‘The back-log of activities increases, it is not efficient enough’’ (Offshore worker).
‘‘Before, if I found en error on a valve I could announce it on the radio. And we
solved the problem together – an electrician and a mechanic. Now this is not
possible to do. I have to write it [the error] down, and then send it to land. Then
land has to make a work order and put it on a 14 days plan’’ (Offshore worker)

21. RESULTS-:
The company’s serious incident frequency was almost halved from 2009
to 2010
FROM 2009 INTERVIEW ANALYSIS
1. EXPECTED POSITIVE EFFECTS FROM STANDARDISATION-
• Increased onshore support (expert competence).
• Improved prioritizing of operation & maintenance tasks.
• Increased focus on operations (less administration offshore).
• Increased hands-on management on board.
2. EXPECTED NEGATIVE EFFECTS FROM STANDARDIZATION-
• Disempowerment.
• Lower motivation.
• Increased bureaucracy.
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22. FROM 2010 INTERVIEW ANALYSIS
1. PERCEIVED POSITIVE EFFECTS AFTER IMPLEMENTATION-
• Improved plans and prioritizing of offshore operation and maintenance
activities.
• Compliance to the operating procedures of a common governing system.
• Experience transfer through rotation of personnel.
2. PERCEIVED NEGATIVE EFFECT AFTER IMPLEMENTATION-
• Disempowerment.
• Loss of local knowledge.
• Increased bureaucracy.
• Less hands-on management.
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23. DISCUSSION
• Standardization of work processes and improvisational skills
The separation of planning from doing would lead to a fragmentation of
work. They felt that they were no longer to take responsibility for entire
work processes, but rather perform isolated tasks stated in work orders sent
from the onshore organization.
• Increased requisite variety
If each installation crew increases its repertoire in terms of lived
experience of hazardous situations, this may provide significant
improvement in the ability to recognize accident sequences while they are
still in the incubation phase.
• The balancing of standardization and improvisation
This perspective implies that the organizational qualities needed in
normal operations and crisis situations cannot be seen in isolation. 23

24. CONCLUSION-:
• The result show that there are positive and negative aspects related to the
effects of standardization on safety.
• Possible loss of system knowledge
• Hazard identification in incubation phase
• The organizational qualities needed in normal operations and crisis situations
cannot be seen in isolation.
• Human actions can’t be purely standardized.
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25. REFERENCES-:
1. Data Collection Methods Semi-Structured Interviews and Focus
Groups BY Margaret C. Harrell, Melissa A. Bradley
2. The principles of grounded methodology (Glaser and Strauss, 1967)
3. longitudinal research design (Miller and Crabtree, 2000).
4. The role of standardization in safety management – A case study of
a major oil & gas company ( Stian Antonsen , Kari Skarholt , Arne
Jarl Ringstad ),A safety science journal
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