EMSAFE: Employee Voice and Safety at Work in a time of Scarcity

The EMSAFE project will investigate how employee participation is safeguarded by downsizing in the oil industry and the extensive restructuring that digitalisation entails. The consequences of the economy and profitability which is repeatedly tightened strongly and even showing improvement in the petroleum industry, are themes that have been extensively discussed in the media. But so far, the consequences for employee participation and safety have not been researched in depth over time. It will be researched in EMSAFE. The fact that the employees raise their voices and say no in transition phases, as well as in ups and downs, is assumed by researchers to be of importance for safety - in the oil industry as in many other industries. The project will investigate systematically whether the cooperation climate in the petroleum industry has been challenged, whether employees are to a lesser extent heard by the changes in the industry, whether the cooperation is generally weakened and what HSE consequences this may have. A theme for the research work in EMSAFE will also be whether the model for employee participation in in the petroleum industry is suitable for the landscape one has today with fast and demanding restructuring and demands for digitization.

The Petroleum Safety Authority Norway (PSA) states that involvement of employees is a requirement in all phases of the petroleum sector for every issue which relates to safety and the working environment. The Norwegian petroleum sector is characterized by a complex set of employee voice at individual level, bipartite cooperation at departmental/company level and tripartite arenas at the level of industry. This constitutes what we label the Norwegian model of employee voice in the petroleum sector. During the last few years, increased economic pressure caused by fluctuations in oil prices has led to concerns about this model of employee voice being under pressure, with possible negative effects on work environment and safety. This broad and in-depth study of the Norwegian model of employee voice in the petroleum sector is a direct response to the need for more knowledge of the models functioning and for the detection of possible areas for improvement. We name this: "EMSAFE-employee voice and safety at work in a time of scarcity". We define employee voice as all communication of ideas, suggestions, concerns, or opinions about work-related issues with the intent to influence decisions and contribute to company improvements. By the use of a versatile triangulation of methods the project aims to provide a confluence of evidence that breeds credibility. The analytical ambition is to explore the relationships between organizational and contextual factors, and experiences of employee voice in change processes, and HSE outcomes. The project will be organized in five work packages. Two of the work packages (WP) will study indirect employee voice at cooperating arenas, one WP addresses the use of whistle-blowing and tip-offs, and one WP will investigate direct employee voice at work, including managers' role. The aim of WP 5 is to develop generic knowledge and to contribute in dispersion of this knowledge to the petroleum sector and working life in general.