An Industry’s Call to Understand the Contingencies Involved in Process Safety: Normalization of Deviance

Abstract

Marathon Petroleum Company (MPC), Illinois Refining Division (IRD) adopted a behavior science approach to its safety operations becoming one of the first sites accredited for its behavioral safety program by the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies (CCBS). Beyond success in managing personal safety, there is increased and intense attention toward Process Safety in the oil and gas industry where equipment, processes, and behavior are managed to reduce the potential for catastrophic loss, damage, and impact on human life and livelihood. The oil and gas industry is increasingly looking to the behavior science community to understand the contingencies related to “normalization of deviance”, where behaviors begin to drift from process standards and become the norm among work teams over time. Further, the oil and gas industry seeks to understand how interlocking contingencies may both shape and maintain normalization of deviance, as well as how systemic interventions can address the issue.

KEYWORDS:

• normalization of deviance
• process safety
• oil and gas industry