Developing and sustaining safety culture in the Norwegian petroleum industry: Leadership, Psychological Capital and Situational Awareness.

This aim of this project is to optimize HSE objectives in the Norwegian petroleum industry. Previous research from the IPRC on the petroleum industry on the UK Continental Shelf has indicated that health, safety climate, and HSE outcomes are substantially influenced by perceptions of the priorities of local production management and employee attitudes to health and safety. These findings constitute the point of departure for this project aimed at R&D challenges related to safety outcomes in the petroleum industry. The current research proposal is inspired by recent developments in positive organizational psychology and aims to gain a better understanding of how leadership behaviour, employee characteristics and safety perceptions could influence safety cl imate and favourable safety outcomes. Thus, the overall goal of the proposed project is to gain a fuller understanding of how Psychological Capital and Situational Awareness (SA) mediates between Authentic Leadership (AL) and safety climate (SC) affecting Safety outcomes in the Norwegian petroleum industry. Project A; This first project will assess authentic leadership processes in offshore production managers and their followers. The aim of the project will be to identify how production management values , attitudes, and behaviour are linked to safety climate and safety outcomes in the petroleum industry. Project B; The aim of the second project will be to assess how leadership and employee perceptions of PsyCap influence safety climate and safety outcome s in the petroleum industry. Project C; The aim of the third project will be to develop and field test a computer based tool (CBT) for increased ?safety awareness? in offshore workers and leaders.