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Title:

ORGANIZATIONAL COMPETENCE IN STRATEGIC SAFETY MANAGEMENT: SELF-ASSESSMENT IN U.K. RAIL INDUSTRY

Accession Number:

00985959

Record Type:

Component

Availability:

Transportation Research Board Business Office

500 Fifth Street, NW
Washington, DC 20001 United States
Order URL: http://www.trb.org/Main/Public/Blurbs/155519.aspx

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Order URL: http://worldcat.org/isbn/0309094917

Abstract:

Competence Assurance Solutions Ltd. (CAS) produced the "Good Practice Guide" in 2000, the first version of Railway Safety's "Good Practice Guides" for strategic safety management. The guides and accompanying software contain a self-assessment process that enables the top management teams of railway companies to determine whether the team and the organization are sufficiently competent to discharge their strategic safety management responsibilities. To support the "Good Practice Guides," CAS provides, on behalf of the Rail Safety and Standards Board (which succeeded Railway Safety on April 1, 2003), a mentoring process to guide top management teams through the self-assessment process. The findings and conclusions from the ongoing mentoring process are presented. At present, 27 leading U.K. rail companies are being mentored. They are in different stages of the process, although many have completed a self-assessment in all four of the key strategic areas considered: policy and strategy, risk assessment and control, organizational resourcing and support, and operational control. Already, a pattern has emerged among those companies that have completed the assessment. Almost all consider themselves stronger in the areas of strategy and policy and operational control and weaker in the areas of risk control and resourcing and support. The weaknesses are particularly marked for human factors. Furthermore, companies differ significantly in their self-ratings, with these differences being reflected in some aspects of safety performance. Consideration is given to the safety issues that dominate the minds of senior teams, their areas of strength and weakness, the characteristics of high- and low-scoring companies, and the sources of unrealistic self-assessments.

Supplemental Notes:

This paper appears in Transportation Research Record No. 1899, Driver and Vehicle Simulation, Human Performance, and Information Systems for Highways; Railroad Safety; and Visualization in Transportation.

Monograph Accession #:

00985941

Language:

English

Corporate Authors:

Transportation Research Board

500 Fifth Street, NW
Washington, DC 20001 United States

Authors:

Johnson, C
Nelson, A

Pagination:

p. 135-144

Publication Date:

2004

Serial:

Transportation Research Record

Issue Number: 1899
Publisher: Transportation Research Board
ISSN: 0361-1981

ISBN:

0309094917

Features:

Figures (5) ; References (33) ; Tables (1)

Uncontrolled Terms:

Geographic Terms:

Subject Areas:

Administration and Management; Highways; Policy; Railroads; Safety and Human Factors

Files:

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Created Date:

Feb 16 2005 12:00AM

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