Organizational controls and safety: The varieties of rule‐related behaviour

Abstract

Companies operating in hazardous environments employ a variety of organizational controls both to manage the enterprise as a whole and to minimize their risks. This paper critically reviews the use of procedures, rules and regulations to restrict individual behaviour to those courses of action considered safe and productive. In particular, it discusses the psychological, situational and organizational factors influencing compliant and non‐compliant behaviour (i.e. violations and circumventions of safe operating procedures). Ten kinds of rule‐related behaviour are identified. The paper concludes by arguing for the extended use of social and self‐controls to compensate for the inevitable limitations of prescriptive procedures in guiding safe behaviour.