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As an applied psychologist I focus on testing and developing psychological theories by investigating organisational problems. My current research can be classified into three main areas: Safety Culture Safety culture has been described as the most important development in health and safety research for the past decade. My current research interests include the development and testing of safety culture measurement instruments and testing interventions to improve safety culture. Safety culture audit methodology Questionnaires are the primary method used in safety culture research, which only measure the safety climate. Questionnaire can be used to measure the espoused values and artifacts but they are unable to tap into the underlying assumptions at the heart of the culture. An alternative approach is to use an ethnographic approach to tap into the underlying assumptions. Petroleum Research Atlantic Canada has recently provided funding to develop a more comprehensive safety culture measurement methodology. This study will combine ethnographic techniques and traditional questionnaire surveys to develop a more complete measure of safety culture. This research will commence in the fall of 2004. Cultural maturity model In 2000 I wrote a report for the UK Health and Safety Executive entitled “Safety Culture Maturity Model” which applied the a capability maturity model concept developed in the software industry to safety culture. The model proposed that safety culture can be split into five levels of maturity from bad to good. This initial report presented a theoretical model without any empirical evidence to support the levels of maturity or the developmental process. [see publications] Interestingly Westrum (1984) classified organizations’ ability to learn and be innovative into a three level cultural maturity topology. He proposed that organizations could be classified as either pathological, to bureaucratic, to generative. This typology outlines a progression from a poor culture to an excellent culture. This model has been adapted by Hudson into a five stage safety culture model. This model proposes that safety culture forms a continuum from bad to good and that organizations can be placed on this continuum. My current research focuses on developing empirical evidence to support the five stage developmental process. This involves developing a measurement instrument to capable of assessing an organizations level of maturity. This card sorting measurement instrument consists of 50 cards. The 50 cards are split into ten elements to cover the important aspects of safety culture. Each element contains a card describing the culture for each level of maturity. Safety Leadership There is good evidence from research and practitioner experience that safety leadership is a critical for accident prevention. It is therefore surprising that there is very limited research investigating the competencies that managers require to manage safety effectively. For my PhD I used a competency approach to identify the attributes that distinguish between those managers that were effective in managing safety from those who were less effective. This research led to the development of a 360 degree feedback system to enable managers to develop their safety leadership skills. [see publications] I am interested in expanding this research to evaluate the effectiveness of intervention strategies designed to promote the competencies identified. Promoting positive Health Behaviours Though public service ads intended to promote healthy living can be effective, they sometimes backfire. This research examines past and current public service ads with the aim of increasing their effectiveness.
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