The purpose and nature of corporate governance practices are contested, as is the professional na... more The purpose and nature of corporate governance practices are contested, as is the professional nature of scholarship in the area of governance and management. As a result, the highly fragmented lan...
System-wide change is often challenging to achieve due to complex and fragmented institutions, di... more System-wide change is often challenging to achieve due to complex and fragmented institutions, dispersed and diffused power structures, confidence-sapping histories of failure and the influence of multiple and overlapping fields. This study examines how a large complex system-wide problem such as the Northern Ireland Conflict and Peace Process was paradoxically opened up and made more receptive to change by widening of the way the problem was framed. We demonstrate how and why the framing enables the mobilization of cooperation and the delivery of contextually appropriate collective action critical to the achievement of outcomes in system-wide change processes. More specifically, we examine how and why such complex and precarious processes emerge over extended timescales through four mechanisms: frame contesting, reframing, frame reproduction and frame defending. Each of these mechanisms is agentic, dynamic, purposive and politically charged. The time-series analysis of these interlinked mechanisms is a crucial and innovative feature of the study. We encourage management and organizational scholars to elevate their gaze to the system-wide changes so emblematic of contemporary society and offer an outline agenda for research.
The explanation for what safety interventions work in any particular circumstance remains elusive... more The explanation for what safety interventions work in any particular circumstance remains elusive, resulting in many work-related fatalities and injuries every year. We propose a shift in perspective from a preoccupation with safety interventions and their effects to an elucidation of the generative mechanisms underpinning safety and its contiguous context. Using an analytical framework based on contexts, interventions, mechanisms and outcomes (CIMO) we were able to review 43 empirical studies of safety interventions deployed by leaders in organizations. This motivated the development of 10 design propositions; 5 related to accident and injury reduction and 5 to changing safety behaviours. Greater understanding of the mechanisms by which interventions exert their effects will lead to the design of more context appropriate safety interventions thereby enhancing individual and organizational safety in the future and the development of evidence-based safety.
David A. Buchanan and David Denyer explore how unconventional methods have been used to study ext... more David A. Buchanan and David Denyer explore how unconventional methods have been used to study extreme settings which, involving degrees of risk and threat, are often considered challenging in terms of research access. These methods include the extensive use of single case studies based on non-traditional public information sources, embedding researchers in the context to be investigated, and the use of fictional accounts from film and television as sources of evidence. Organizational researchers using these methods are often cast in the roles of historian and detective, reconstructing event sequences from the available evidence, from different sources, assessing the relative value of that information, and drawing it into a coherent account. Four studies illustrate these methods, from hospital operating theatres, nuclear reprocessing, offshore oil and gas storage, and fire and rescue services. As organizational contexts become more volatile, extreme context research may not be as specialized and problematic as the label suggests.
Safety leadership is asserted to positively influence safety compliance amongst employees. We exa... more Safety leadership is asserted to positively influence safety compliance amongst employees. We examine this assertion by conducting a systematic literature review of the available academic literature on safety leadership practices and observed safety outcomes. We identified 25 empirical studies, the majority of which measured leadership through generic scales (MLQ and LMX). Closer scrutiny of the outcome measures suggested that these were mainly aligned to the implementation and operations phases of the OHSAS 18001 safety management systems framework. We conclude that safety compliance has been narrowly defined in academic study, but in practice embraces a much wider range of activities. While safety leadership may contribute to successfully achieving these other actions, there is no empirical evidence for this. Moreover, there is considerable critique of transformational and transactional leadership, so that the specification of desired leadership practices is problematic. We propose that a broader conceptualization of safety compliance requires safety leadership to embrace 'plural' forms of leadership. We draw attention to the narrow range of contexts in which safety leadership has been empirically studied and suggests other settings for investigation. Alternative methods for investigating safety leadership other than scales of leadership behaviour are suggested to enrich our understanding of safety leadership and so improve safety compliance.
Incidents in which hospital patients are harmed provide an ‘audit’ of an organization’s systems, ... more Incidents in which hospital patients are harmed provide an ‘audit’ of an organization’s systems, and thus encourage changes to practice. The post-incident narrative ideally starts with an investiga...
The purpose and nature of corporate governance practices are contested, as is the professional na... more The purpose and nature of corporate governance practices are contested, as is the professional nature of scholarship in the area of governance and management. As a result, the highly fragmented lan...
System-wide change is often challenging to achieve due to complex and fragmented institutions, di... more System-wide change is often challenging to achieve due to complex and fragmented institutions, dispersed and diffused power structures, confidence-sapping histories of failure and the influence of multiple and overlapping fields. This study examines how a large complex system-wide problem such as the Northern Ireland Conflict and Peace Process was paradoxically opened up and made more receptive to change by widening of the way the problem was framed. We demonstrate how and why the framing enables the mobilization of cooperation and the delivery of contextually appropriate collective action critical to the achievement of outcomes in system-wide change processes. More specifically, we examine how and why such complex and precarious processes emerge over extended timescales through four mechanisms: frame contesting, reframing, frame reproduction and frame defending. Each of these mechanisms is agentic, dynamic, purposive and politically charged. The time-series analysis of these interlinked mechanisms is a crucial and innovative feature of the study. We encourage management and organizational scholars to elevate their gaze to the system-wide changes so emblematic of contemporary society and offer an outline agenda for research.
The explanation for what safety interventions work in any particular circumstance remains elusive... more The explanation for what safety interventions work in any particular circumstance remains elusive, resulting in many work-related fatalities and injuries every year. We propose a shift in perspective from a preoccupation with safety interventions and their effects to an elucidation of the generative mechanisms underpinning safety and its contiguous context. Using an analytical framework based on contexts, interventions, mechanisms and outcomes (CIMO) we were able to review 43 empirical studies of safety interventions deployed by leaders in organizations. This motivated the development of 10 design propositions; 5 related to accident and injury reduction and 5 to changing safety behaviours. Greater understanding of the mechanisms by which interventions exert their effects will lead to the design of more context appropriate safety interventions thereby enhancing individual and organizational safety in the future and the development of evidence-based safety.
David A. Buchanan and David Denyer explore how unconventional methods have been used to study ext... more David A. Buchanan and David Denyer explore how unconventional methods have been used to study extreme settings which, involving degrees of risk and threat, are often considered challenging in terms of research access. These methods include the extensive use of single case studies based on non-traditional public information sources, embedding researchers in the context to be investigated, and the use of fictional accounts from film and television as sources of evidence. Organizational researchers using these methods are often cast in the roles of historian and detective, reconstructing event sequences from the available evidence, from different sources, assessing the relative value of that information, and drawing it into a coherent account. Four studies illustrate these methods, from hospital operating theatres, nuclear reprocessing, offshore oil and gas storage, and fire and rescue services. As organizational contexts become more volatile, extreme context research may not be as specialized and problematic as the label suggests.
Safety leadership is asserted to positively influence safety compliance amongst employees. We exa... more Safety leadership is asserted to positively influence safety compliance amongst employees. We examine this assertion by conducting a systematic literature review of the available academic literature on safety leadership practices and observed safety outcomes. We identified 25 empirical studies, the majority of which measured leadership through generic scales (MLQ and LMX). Closer scrutiny of the outcome measures suggested that these were mainly aligned to the implementation and operations phases of the OHSAS 18001 safety management systems framework. We conclude that safety compliance has been narrowly defined in academic study, but in practice embraces a much wider range of activities. While safety leadership may contribute to successfully achieving these other actions, there is no empirical evidence for this. Moreover, there is considerable critique of transformational and transactional leadership, so that the specification of desired leadership practices is problematic. We propose that a broader conceptualization of safety compliance requires safety leadership to embrace 'plural' forms of leadership. We draw attention to the narrow range of contexts in which safety leadership has been empirically studied and suggests other settings for investigation. Alternative methods for investigating safety leadership other than scales of leadership behaviour are suggested to enrich our understanding of safety leadership and so improve safety compliance.
Incidents in which hospital patients are harmed provide an ‘audit’ of an organization’s systems, ... more Incidents in which hospital patients are harmed provide an ‘audit’ of an organization’s systems, and thus encourage changes to practice. The post-incident narrative ideally starts with an investiga...
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Papers by David Denyer