Interdisciplinary research for occupational safety and health knowledge

Abstract

In this article, we argue for an interdisciplinary and pluralistic account of how occupational safety and health (OSH) is enacted in practice, informed by a critical understanding of OSH management and flow knowledge in organizations. We compare how in human factors and ergonomics, organization studies, and safety science this question is approached through different theoretical ‘lenses’, and with different analytical consequences. These approaches work with different concepts (systems, practices and behaviours) that situate human agency, and possibilities for practical intervention differently. To demonstrate this we draw on interdisciplinary research in to ‘Management of OSH in Networked Systems’, showing how mobilizing the concept of knowledge through different disciplinary frameworks can have implications for understanding safe working in networked organizations.

Keywords:

• Occupational safety and health knowledge
• interdisciplinarity
• highly networked organizations

Notes

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to IOSH, and in particular to Robert Dingwall and Jane White, for their support of our work. We also note that part of the text of this paper was included in our report to IOSH, prepared at Loughborough University (Gibb et al., 2015). The version included in this article has been edited further.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article.

Funding

The research described in this paper was conducted within the ‘Management of OSH in Networked Systems of Production or Service Delivery: Comparisons between Healthcare, Construction and Logistics’ project, funded by the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH), in their Health and Safety in a Changing World programme.

Notes

1 This is moreover a paper co-authored across disciplines. We note that in seeking to undertake an interdisciplinary task, we are effectively seeking to reconcile the irreconcilable, and we do not always represent the views of all authors as the text progresses. Yet this is a worthwhile endeavour because to do so is to create an advantage for OSH practice.

2 http://dictionary.cambridge.org/.