This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Collinson, D. L. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

`Surviving the Rigs': Safety and Surveillance on North Sea Oil Installations

IROB Group, Warwick Business School, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK

This article examines the politics of accident reporting on North Sea oil installations. In the context of an all-pervasive safety culture and performance assessment system, offshore workers restricted the reporting of accidents. Other studies suggest that workers often respond to increased monitoring by engaging in defensive practices that manipulate performance information. Accordingly, a central contention of this article is that performance assessment frequently creates employee performances. In turn, the paper highlights the value of linking the work of Goffman to that of Foucault for the critical analysis of culture, performance assessment and safety in contemporary organizations.

Key Words: safety • surveillance • performance assessment • concealment and declassification of accidents • impression management and performances

Organization Studies, Vol. 20, No. 4, 579-600 (1999)
DOI: 10.1177/0170840699204003


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				N. Chikudate If human errors are assumed as crimes in a safety culture: A lifeworld analysis of a rail crash Human Relations, September 1, 2009; 62(9): 1267 - 1287. [Abstract] [PDF]

				K. J. Lauver and S. W. Lester Get Safety Problems to the Surface: Using Human Resource Practices to Improve Injury Reporting Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies, November 1, 2007; 14(2): 168 - 179. [Abstract] [PDF]

				T. B. Lawrence and S. L. Robinson Ain't Misbehavin: Workplace Deviance as Organizational Resistance Journal of Management, June 1, 2007; 33(3): 378 - 394. [Abstract] [PDF]

				R. Iedema, C. Rhodes, and H. Scheeres Surveillance, Resistance, Observance: Exploring the Teleo-affective Volatility of Workplace Interaction Organization Studies, August 1, 2006; 27(8): 1111 - 1130. [Abstract] [PDF]

				D. Collinson Dialectics of leadership Human Relations, November 1, 2005; 58(11): 1419 - 1442. [Abstract] [PDF]

				D. Collinson Questions of Distance Leadership, June 1, 2005; 1(2): 235 - 250. [PDF]

				C. E. Connelly and D. G. Gallagher Emerging Trends in Contingent Work Research Journal of Management, December 1, 2004; 30(6): 959 - 983. [Abstract] [PDF]

				D. L. Collinson Identities and Insecurities: Selves at Work Organization, August 1, 2003; 10(3): 527 - 547. [Abstract] [PDF]

				D. L. Collinson A Response to Wray-Bliss: Revisiting the Shopfloor Organization, February 1, 2002; 9(1): 41 - 50. [PDF]

				S. Gherardi and D. Nicolini The Organizational Learning of Safety in Communities of Practice Journal of Management Inquiry, March 1, 2000; 9(1): 7 - 18. [PDF]