The Emerging Safety Mindfulness Model: from Concept Definition into Requirements Collection

Abstract

Advanced by Weick and Sutcliffe at the end of the 90ies, ‘collective mindfulness’ enables an organisation to cope with unpleasant surprises by having the collective mindset necessary to detect, understand and recover them before they bring about bad consequences. Although Weick’s ideas on mindfulness are popular, they have proven difficult to implement. This is possibly because they have remained ‘ideas’ and principles rather than concrete proposals on how to support or even engineer better mindfulness into organisations. To overcome this gap, a novel ‘safety mindfulness’ model has been advanced to able to identify solutions to organizational safety across the whole organization in normal and non-normal operations. This paper illustrates the methodological approach that has been used to specify the model. The multiple case study design was used to produce detailed descriptions of the mindfulness phenomenon using theoretical statements and research questions to guide the collection and analysis of data in each case study. Further, it provided the background approach used to ensuring validity and reliability of the findings. Qualitative Content Analysis was used to support the design and application of a systematic process from the research design into the replication of results (i.e. relying on replication logic to provide external validation to the findings). The use of multiple sources of evidence supported data triangulation and consistency of results. Data recording and analysis was supported by NVivo (© QSR International). The case studies were applied in two distinctive organizations from the aviation domain – i.e. an Italian airline company and an ATC (Air Traffic Control) company based in The Netherlands. The case studies followed the same protocol for data collection, but tested two different implementation approaches. The user and functional requirements served to specify the underlying functionalities of the novel model. The model is expected to bring a positive impact on how the organization as a whole can mobilise its resources to identify, understand and respond effectively and adaptively to potential threats embedded in its operations and operational environment, influencing both how people approach their operational responsibilities and how the organization can reflect on, improve and change its systems.