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The Human Factors of Process Safety and Worker Empowerment in the Offshore Oil Industry Proceedings of a Workshop (2018) / Chapter Skim
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5 Barriers to Effective Worker Empowerment
Pages 37-46

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From page 37...
... Substantial barriers stand in the way of worker empowerment. As with the stakeholders in the offshore oil industry, these barriers exist on different levels and interact across levels.
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From page 38...
... Western Regional Office, began by suggesting that, given its history of involvement with the offshore oil industry, CSB is well positioned to identify and investigate barriers to worker empowerment.1 He explained that CSB, which is modeled after the National Transportation Safety Board, is an independent nonregulatory federal agency that investigates catastrophic chemical accidents in the United States. It determines causes, identifies lessons learned, and makes recommendations for safety improvements, including prevention measures and policies to avoid future accidents, but is prohibited by statute from assigning blame.
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From page 39...
... . He stated that "human error" is not a root cause of accidents, and that by focusing on human error, "you're going to miss a lot of important findings and potential changes that could be made that can prevent an incident from occurring." Even when companies say TABLE 5-1  Distinctions between Process Safety and Personal Safety Process Safety Personal Safety Scope Complex sociotechnical and Preventing injuries and organizational systems fatalities in workplace behaviors/actions Prevention Management and organizational Procedures, training, personal systems: design, targeted risk protective equipment, reduction, mechanical integrity, behavioral observation effective barriers programs Risk Incidents with catastrophic Slips, trips, falls, health potential exposures, etc.
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From page 40...
... "The negative pressure test wasn't even delivered to the rig on the day of the incident," he observed. In addition, Holmstrom reported, Transocean's key safety performance indicators focused on process safety, but the primary means of participation for Deepwater Horizon workers was the safety observation program focused on personal safety.
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From page 41...
... It urged the issuance of participation regulations and training requirements for workers and their representatives that would include the following: worker-elected safety representatives and safety committees, stop-work authority with mechanisms to seek regulator intervention if the issue remains unresolved, an annual tripartite forum for workforce representatives to advance prevention of major accidents, protections for workers participating in safety activities that create a workplace free from fear, and process safety culture assessments that measure the effectiveness of workforce empowerment initiatives. Holmstrom emphasized the importance of safety culture leadership.
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From page 42...
... For example, he said, an atmosphere of fear and blame can discourage workers from raising complaints. "Government regulations are important," he acknowledged, "but at the end of the day those changes have to occur in the plant, they have to occur in the leadership." In brief comments after Holmstrom's presentation, Claude Allen, senior SEMS specialist with Shell, noted that many offshore processes are too complicated, often because they are written by people in an office.
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From page 43...
... FOUR BARRIERS TO OVERCOME Chris Beckett, former chief executive officer (CEO) of Pacific Drilling, pointed to four key barriers to worker empowerment.
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From page 44...
... Camille Peres, assistant professor in the Departments of Environmental and Occupational Health and Industrial and Systems Engineering at Texas A&M University, summarized some of the main messages from this workshop session. She began with the observation that the offshore oil industry deals with complex sociotechnical systems and complex problem spaces.
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From page 45...
... Other barriers, she argued, originate in the tension between a dynamic environment and the need for standardization in a global industry and in the tension between procedural discipline and worker empowerment. Meetings such as this workshop are important, Peres said, because they demonstrate where research and practice need to be communicating.
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Key Terms

  • worker empowerment
  • personal safety
  • oil industry
  • offshore oil
  • safety culture

  • effective worker
  • investigation report
  • safety management
  • chemical safety
  • hazard investigation

  • performance indicators
  • safety performance
  • sonal safety
  • key performance
  • personal injuries

  • macondo blowout
  • major accidents
  • procedural discipline
  • pressure test
  • injury rates

  • risk reduction
  • complex sociotechnical
  • technical knowledge
  • holmstrom reported
  • rig explosion

  • negative pressure
  • major accident
  • key processes
  • macondo disaster
  • beckett identified


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