Organisational Learning for Safety and Security Through Cyberspace: Adaptive Modelling of the Implementation of Environment Health and Safety Standards

This chapter focusses on using a self-modelling network modeling approach to analyse and predict the behavior of people within organizations, specifically on the implementation of EHS standards. The study focusses on a real-world scenario in which EHS standards are implemented in a multi-level organizational learning scenario. To ensure the health and safety of employees worldwide, the company provides standards for every EHS aspect of activities. The standards are fed by state-of-the-art technologies and science. They require local implementation at every site, also incorporating legislation for the country where it is based. The technique used in this study is dynamic computational modelling wielding the self-modelling network modeling approach. In the base scenario, the organization started with the implementation in a pilot phase. After a while the organization acknowledges it needs to take the lessons learned in the pilot and apply them to all other standards, enabling feed-forward and feedback learning within the organisation. Subsequently five alternative scenarios are described in which the organization is challenged with issues complicating the implementation process. The study shows the possibility of using a self-modelling social network in the execution of EHS activities. It demonstrates the importance of cooperation and open communication between the system owner, EHS expert and department. This is needed to be able to learn about processes and efficiently safeguard the organization and its members.