Field study - Perceptions of change and safety implications in the petroleum industry

RNNP: Questionnaire-based survey 2017

The questionnaire-based survey in RNNP 2017 shows a negative trend in respect of the psychosocial working environment and safety culture. There is also an increase in serious personal injuries.

We have followed up these findings in a qualitative study to investigate the background to this negative trend in employees' assessments of psychosocial working environment, perceived risk and safety culture – not least, in the light of the positive development in indicators associated with major accident risk. The survey was conducted as a field study involving a series of interviews.

Results

The results show that more employees express uncertainty and concern over whether changes made in recent years have had unintended negative impacts on risk and the working environment.

• The study detected several factors indicating that organisational changes have had unintended consequences which offshore employees believe could have negative impacts on HSE.
• The study also indicates that there may be interaction effects between some of the measures that may have negative HSE implications.
• For the industry as a whole, the introduction of many measures in a relatively short period of time will represent a challenge in terms of obtaining a complete overview of any changes in the risk picture and the consequences thereof. This imposes requirements on appropriate methods and processes for managing risk.
• The Petroleum Safety Authority Norway’s audits, reported incidents and whistleblowing also show that there are still challenges linked to the management of working environment risk.