ABSTRACT
Various industries such as healthcare, oil and gas as well as transport including aviation and railways, are all subject to stringent regimes relating to regulations and standardization, and extensive use of procedures in order to ensure safety. Hollnagel’s (2014) view on safety through Safety-II informs us that there is more to actual safe work accomplishment than strict compliance with standards. This approach, Safety-II implies attention on work as done. That is, how work practices within an organization actually (and informally) is performed. This paper addresses the following research question: “How can we explore and understand the performance variability within work practices in safety critical organizations?” The paper draws on a perusal of safety literature together with interview and observational examples. The discussion focuses in particular on aspects related to proximity and distance, as well as meaning versus action in relation to understanding ordinary (safe) organizational practices.
