H&M research
Profits generated by the sale of the Hearts and Minds toolkit are used to update and extend it by funding research and development, aimed at helping companies improve their HSE performance. Shell and the Energy Institute have close links with Leiden, Manchester and Aberdeen universities, and currently fund two PHD studentships:
1. Learning from incidents: A social approach to reducing incidents in the workplace
This is with Caledonian Academy, Glasgow Caledonian University in collaboration with the Energy Institute (EI) and Shell International BV. Applications have just closed for the 3-year fellowship to carry out research leading to a PhD investigating and developing new approaches to enhancing learning from health and safety incidents in the industrial workplace. The research will be conducted in three real-life testbeds in Shell, BP and ConocoPhillips. The fellowship offers a unique opportunity to work with three leading, global corporations as well as an internationally-renowned research team.
2. The influence of senior management on safety performance: Differentiating the good from the great safety leaders
The proposed subject matter is an investigation into one aspect of organisational resilience (Hollnagel et al, 2006), namely the resilience of senior managers to maintain an appropriate prioritisation of safety against competing business drivers. The research will be directed to consider issues relating to these sacrificial decisions, such as risk conditions which drive prioritisation in one direction rather than another. The project is being completed by a PhD student, and is being completed over 3 years, with estimated completion of September 2011.
