Mindfulness in the regulatory shadow: How institutional rules enhance organizational safety
Publication Type
Conference Proceeding Article
Publication Date
8-2019
Abstract
How is it that some organizations can maintain nearly error-free performance, despite trying conditions? Within research on such high-reliability organizations, mindful organizing has been offered as a key explanation. It entails interaction patterns among front- line operators that keep them attentive to potential failures–and relies on them having the expertise and autonomy to address any such failures. In this study, we extend mindful organizing, which emphasizes local interactions among operators, by considering the broader institutional context in which it occurs. Through interview, archival, and observational data of a high-reliability explosive demolitions firm, we find that external regulators, and their institutional rules, can crucially enhance the mindful organizing of front-line operators. Regulators go beyond the encoding function emphasized in institutional theory, whereby they help operators internalize the content of rules. Rather, regulators also play reinforcing and reinstating functions that ensure rule salience, in addition to ensuring that rule content remains intact. We also find evidence of regulator learning, as interactions with operators help them improve rule content and the techniques by which rules remain salient. These findings expand our model of mindful organizing, and speak to the functions of rules in safety, and the micro- interactional dynamics of institutions.
Discipline
Human Resources Management | Organizational Behavior and Theory
Research Areas
Organisational Behaviour and Human Resources
Publication
Academy of Management Proceedings: 2019, August 9-13, Boston
Identifier
10.5465/AMBPP.2019.18323abstract
Publisher
AOM
City or Country
Briarcliff, NY
Citation
LANG, Tingting; KUDESIA, Ravi S.; and REB, Jochen.
Mindfulness in the regulatory shadow: How institutional rules enhance organizational safety. (2019). Academy of Management Proceedings: 2019, August 9-13, Boston.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/lkcsb_research/6916
Additional URL
https://doi.org/10.5465/AMBPP.2019.18323abstract