Safety Clutter

David Provan
Safety Science Innovation Lab
 “Methodology, whilst masquerading as the epitome of
rationality, may thus operate as an irrational ritual, the
enactment of which provides designers with a feeling of
security and efficiency at the expense of real
engagement with the task at hand.”

- Wastell (1996) The fetish of technique: Methodology as a social defence

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What is clutter

“The accumulation and

persistence of ‘safety’ work
that does not contribute to
operational safety”

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Safety Clutter is Industry Wide

Different rules for the same work

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Underlying questions for safety work

1. Contribution: How much safety value does it add?

2. Confidence: How do we know that (evidence or belief)?

3. Consensus: Do all stakeholders involved agree?

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Explaining safety clutter

1. Clutter by Duplication: Two or more activities that fulfill the same function
Inter-organisational : Multiple-relationship : Inter-system duplication : Within-system duplication: Industry standardisation

2. Clutter by Generalisation: Requirements standardised across organisation

Conservatism : Symbolic Application : Attempted simplification : Least common-denominator:

3. Clutter by Over-specification: Unnecessary translation of practice into documents

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Causes of safety clutter
SAFETY RULES AND FORMS ARE
EASIER TO ADD THAN TO TAKE AWAY

• Incidents

• Requests

• Safety Profession

• Regulation
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Negative effects of safety clutter
Safety Clutter in organisations has the following consequences:

1. Damages employee ownership of safety (e.g. company requirements vs supporting work)

2. Creates the problem of in-differentiation (e.g. between necessary and unnecessary activity)

3. Bad for adaptability (e.g. flexibility to perform work in multiple ways and sequences)

4. Erodes trust (e.g. excessive checking and reporting shifts focus from safety to compliance)

5. Creates additional trade-offs between safety and productivity (e.g. time and resources)
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Key Findings – Safety Practices
1. The crews follow strong routines with built-in safety practices.

2. Explicit safety documents and practices have very little to do with maintaining the
safety of routine work.

3. There is some variation and improvisation in response to unexpected circumstances.

4. Explicit safety practices have even less impact when work is varied or improvised.

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Key Findings – Effect of Clutter
1. Explicit safety practices mainly creates work for supervisors and above

2. Explicit safety practices create work for crews only at specific times (e.g.
inductions and pre-starts) or in exceptional cases (e.g. unexpectedly
needing a permit)

3. Explicit safety practices take supervisors off site

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Key Findings – Productivity
1. Decluttering substantially improves the amount of non-paperwork
work that a supervisor can do

2. Decluttering improves crew productivity, mainly by saving time at the

start of the day. This doesn’t directly translate into more work
performed per day

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Key Findings – Compliance
1. In decluttered mode, crews are more meticulous about completing
and signing documents

2. In decluttered mode, delivery partners are better at communicating /

reporting incidents and issues up to the project manager level

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Key Findings – Trust and Locus of Control
1. The trust and Locus of Control had high internal consistency – we believe
that they are reliable measures

2. There was no significant change in any of the dimensions of trust or locus

of control between cluttered and decluttered mode

3. Site observations show more positive proactive safety behaviours, and

fewer negative safety behaviours in decluttered mode

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Key Findings – Summary
1. For these crews, on these projects, reducing the amount of explicit
safety activity was good for productivity and communication

2. There was some safety benefit, but it was subtle, because the safety
practices and procedures were only minor annoyances

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Restrictions on the findings
1. These are single delivery partner projects, doing repeating work

2. The delivery partners are mature, and have been working with the client for
some time

3. The projects do not involve on-site engineering decision-making, or following

detailed prepared plans or diagrams

4. The projects do not involve co-ordination with other delivery partners

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Questions

david.provan@griffithuni.edu.au

Rae, A. J., Provan, D. J., Weber, D. E., & Dekker, S. W. A. (2018). Safety Clutter: The accumulation and persistence of
‘safety’ work that does not contribute to operational safety. Policy and Practice in Health and Safety.
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