Organizational Silos and System Safety is the result of the 2025 NeTWork seminar held in January 2025, with Siri Wiig (Stavanger University, Norway), Teemu Reiman (Lilikoi, Finland), and Catherine Calderwood (University of Strathclyde, United-Kingdom) as godmothers and godfather.

Read and download this book:
Organizational Silos and System Safety. Exploring How Industry, Society and Regulators Can Work Together

 

What is it about?

This academic open access book explores the complex relationship between siloed operations and performance, focussing on high-consequence sectors such as safety-critical industries and healthcare. The authors asks why silos form and analyses their benefits and disadvantages for social systems: more efficient working and faster development of skills within the working group at the cost of retarded information sharing, misunderstanding and potential threats to safety.

Different case studies of practices and organizational innovations that encourage cross-fertilization and cross-sectoral learning are presented.

This book then analyses the role of context and adaptation when learning and transferring safety interventions and improvement efforts within and across industry sectors. The authors study the common barriers of ‘not invented here’, ‘we are special’, suspicion and poor communication.

 

The articles and their authors

Twelve articles from international experts composed this book:

  1. “The Need to Understand Silos in Safety Work: An Introduction”, from Siri Wiig (University of Stavanger, Norway), Catherine Calderwood (University of Strathclyde, United Kingdom) et Teemu Reiman (Lilikoi, Finland)
  2. “The Coziness of the Silo”, from Mathilde Bourrier (University of Geneva, Switzerland)
  3. “Improving Aviation Safety with Psychological Safety: A Critical Review”, from Marc Baumgartner (IFATCA, Switzerland) and Anthony Smoker (Lund University, Sweden)
  4. “Connecting Silos with Words: The Power of Language for Safety Modelling”, from Riccardo Patriarca (Sapienza University of Rome, Italia)
  5. “The Mutual Impact of Nuclear Regulatory Bodies and Licence Holders from a Safety Culture Perspective”, from Walter Glöckle (Ministry of the Environment, Climate, and Energy, Germany) and Marc McBride (Office for Nuclear Regulation, United Kingdom)
  6. “Sector Support and Reality Check from a Regulator’s Point of View”, from Kim Drews (European Union Agency for Railways, France)
  7. “Cross-Industry Innovation Does Not Happen by Chance: The Role of Facilitation”, from Hilda Bø Lyng (University of Stavanger, Norway)
  8. “Resilience and the Interconnections”, from Pia Therese Jansen (Equinor, Norway) and Maria Kjærland-Haga (Equinor, Norway)
  9. “Understanding and Supporting Unpaid (Informal) Carers in a Digital Age: It Is Time to Bridge the Silos of Knowledge”, from Kieren J. Egan (University of Strathclyde, United Kingdom)
  10. “Generating Collaboration and Learning: Generative Spaces and the Governance of Complex Systemic Risks”, from Carl Macrae (University of Nottingham, United Kingdom) and Christopher K. Ansell (University of California, USA)
  11. “How Might We Design Learning Opportunities that Transcend Silos?”, from Kiku Pukk Härenstam (Karolinska University Hospital, Sweden)
  12. “Beyond Silos in Safety Management: Postscript”, from Teemu Reiman (Lilikoi, Finland), Siri Wiig (University of Stavanger, Norvège) et Catherine Calderwood (University of Strathclyde, United Kingdom)

 

An internationally renowned academic collection

Since 2016, Foncsi has been publishing an open-access series with the scientific publisher Springer: “SpringerBriefs in Safety Management.”

Organizational Silos and System Safety is the 19th book published by Foncsi in its Springer open access series.


View all the « SpringerBriefs in Safety Management »

 

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