The recent release of a new book on Operation Mincemeat has again raised the term “yesmanship” in the media. Online definitions explain the term as “An atmosphere in which people claim to agree with leadership for political reasons, even when they don’t actually agree with leadership” . The significance of the term in relation to the current trend of “safety culture” should … Continue reading “Yesmanship – the biggest threat to safety culture”
FutureMedia has finally issued a clarification on its claim that Professor Andrew Hopkins was nominated for the US Commission of Inquiry into the BP Gulf of Mexico oil spill as discussed at SafetyAtWorkBlog on 3 June 2010. It advises that it took its nomination story from comments by the “former Research Director of the US Chemical Safety … Continue reading “Clarification on Andrew Hopkins and the US Commission of Inquiry”
On 8 July 2010 the United States government asked its Chemical Safety Board (CSB) to consider investigating the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. It would be good news for safety and the environment for the CSB to take on this role. Primarily, CSB is well placed to consider any issues concerning the safety management structure … Continue reading “Independent safety investigation into BP’s Gulf disaster requested by Congress”
Can a country be run in a similar way to running a business? Does corporate leadership equate to political leadership? It would be possible to find examples in support of both these questions and as much evidence to counter them but the contextual difference is important to note when considering leadership in general. A crucial difference in the two sectors is … Continue reading “Does corporate leadership equate to political leadership?”
On 1 June 2010, the Safety Institute of Australia (SIA) informed its 3,000 members that Professor Andrew Hopkins has been “nominated for a spot on the US commission’s inquiry into the disaster’s causes”. Andrew Hopkins has advised SafetyAtWorkBlog that the nomination is not true and that the article is inaccurate. His name was included in … Continue reading “Inaccurate claims made of BP spill inquiry membership”
The Australian business newspapers and websites are all reporting on the “dud” contract that Downer EDI has been saddled with over the construction of 78 eight-car trains for New South Wales’ RailCorp. Market analysts say that company has lost $A1.7 billion in value this year. CEO Geoff Knox, a man in genuine risk of becoming unemployed, is … Continue reading “The contract for building safe trains is a “dud” according to CEO”
A new survey on CEO attitudes to safety has been released by Peter Wagner & Associates entitled “Safety – A Wicked Problem, Leading CEOs discuss their views on OHS transformation“. There is some interesting information in report but Wagner is being generous in the report’s title. There are some CEOs who seem knowledgeable on safety management who … Continue reading “A wicked OHS problem in more ways than one”