Organizational Reliability : From Professional Organizations to Social Articulation

Various occupations working in a same High Reliability Organization (HRO), because of their working activities and their complexity, the nature of the hazards they deal with, can develop several organizations to manage industrial safety. By taking support on a specific HRO, this communication will show that the operators develop a "collegial" model (Waters, 1989[1]; Lazega, 1999[2]), the automation specialists develop a model of expertise (Caron, 2007)[3] and the assayers develop a model of the "joint regulation" (Reynaud, 1989[4]). They also develop professional safety cultures in conformity with these professional models of management. Gaps between representations and models of safety can occur. They are consubstantial with the complexity of the technical systems and even desirable when the managers seize the diversity of points of view and hazards to gather specialized knowledge. They articulate them and develop a collective consensus which wins the collective approval. The coordination of the representations and the knowledge can also come out of cross-business spaces of deliberations. At least, the industrial safety is a reality, individually acquired according to the experiences and shared collectively by learnings. At least the performance of a productive organization is a result of on an articulation between organizational and professional cultures.

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[1] Waters M. , 1989, “Collegiality, bureaucratization and professionalization. A weberian analysis”, American Journal of Sociology, vol. 94 ,n°5, pp 945-972

[1] LAZEGA E., 1999, «  Le phénomène collégial : une théorie structurale de l’action collective entre pairs », Revue Française de Sociologie, vol. 60, n°4, pp 639-670.

[1] REYNAUD J-D.,1989,  Les règles du jeu. L’action collective et la régulation sociale, A. Colin, Paris

[1] CARON C. « Le temps de travail dans les organisations d’expertise : structures de contraintes et recompositions sociales », in L’organisation à l’épreuve, Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2007.