The management and organisation of resilience and high reliability
Supervisor: Dr David Denyer
Dr David Denyer is interested in supervising students on the role of management practices and organisation in trapping, mitigating and avoiding serious untoward events and preventing recurrence. David is currently researching these issues in nuclear facilities, fire and rescue teams, high security mental health services, humanitarian aid organizations, manufacturing plants, and numerous National Health Service trusts.
Possible research areas and practical outcomes
- Changing: What roles do managers play in implementing ‘lessons learned’ and embedding changes after serious untoward events? Guidelines for effective change in extreme contexts.
- Anticipating: What conditions and factors lead managers to foresee or overlook the changing nature of risk and the pathways to failure and success? How a culture of ‘healthy uneasiness’ and mindfulness can be developed and sustained.
- Prioritising: What tradeoffs and ‘sacrificing decisions’ (e.g. between short-term efficiencies and long-term reliability) do managers make in extreme contexts and what are the consequences? Implications for management development, support mechanisms.
- Organising: What are the key practices and routines that contribute to reliability and resilience and how are these designed, systematised and consistently applied across the organisation? How an ‘enabling environment’ can be effectively assembled and sustained.
- Adapting: How do organisations accomplish an appropriate balance between compliance with formal policies and procedures and the improvisation and adjustment that is required to meet shifting conditions? How to ensure local practice does not drift from written procedure.
Candidate requirements:
- Should have a background in the social sciences or in a management subject
- Some knowledge of safety, risk, resilience and reliability
- Some research experience (eg. Master's dissertation) desirable
Contact Details:
Dr David Denyer Tel: 01234 754821 email: david.denyer@cranfield.ac.uk