This research revealed the role of leaders in relation to incident prevention in organisations. The acquired data showed that Dominance-oriented leaders have a negative influence on safety.... Show moreThis research revealed the role of leaders in relation to incident prevention in organisations. The acquired data showed that Dominance-oriented leaders have a negative influence on safety. Relation-oriented leaders appeared to be friendly people with no real influence on safety. Production-oriented leaders are real achievers, committed to meeting production targets. A new character emerged during our research: the Process-oriented leader. This leader proved a dedicated safety minded leader, who fulfils his production duties in a responsible way, taking care of the reliability of production without compromising the safety of his team members. Also, we developed a Risk Reduction Cycle, showing the risk reduction process. This model revealed that the recognition of risks and implementation of remedial actions are the weakest links. In conclusion, we argue that this research revealed that the effectiveness of incident prevention depends predominantly on the individual behaviour of their leaders. Consequently, in order to foster Process-oriented Safety Leadership, we recommend not to focus on operational safety practices to be carried out by the workforce. Instead, we deliberately emphasise the influential power of their leaders, and propose a set of Process-oriented Safety Leadership Principles, directed at the board room level of organisations and three external parties. Show less
Managing cutbacks has been an important task for many public managers. Given that demands for high-quality public services are ever-present and public organisations cannot simply choose to stop... Show moreManaging cutbacks has been an important task for many public managers. Given that demands for high-quality public services are ever-present and public organisations cannot simply choose to stop their services, public managers are often asked to find ways to “do more with less.” This dissertation examines what public managers do when they are confronted with cutbacks. In this dissertation, different public management perspectives are applied to study managerial behaviour during cutbacks. The perspectives are used to analyse how public managers, during cutbacks, manage upward to their political superiors, downward to their employees, outward to external stakeholders and, finally, how values of public managers manifest themselves in cutback decision-making. The results shed light on the enormous task that public managers face when having to manage cutbacks. Show less
