A Study on the Organizational Process for Shaping Safety of Technological Systems

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 22530407
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Business administration
• Research Institution: Kobe University
• Principal Investigator: HARA Takuji 神戸大学, 経営学研究科, 教授 (60252756)
• Project Period (FY): 2010-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 技術経営 / 安全 / 組織プロセス / 技術の社会的形成 / 技術システム

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This is a theoretical and empirical study on the organizational process for shaping safety of technological systems. It proposes “the social shaping of safe technological system” perspective as an analytical framework, which is a constructive combination of two major perspectives in organizational theories on relationship between technology and organization: the essentialist and the constructivist. From the viewpoint of the social shaping perspective, this study conducts case studies of rapid transit railways, air traffic control, and nuclear power plants in Japan. The study finds that the combination of sophisticated safety technologies and “high reliability organizations” has a tendency to increase material risk of technological systems under the pressures of competition and institutional interests. The study also finds the importance of paying attentions to material entities and institutional and structural factors in analyzing the process between technology and organization.

Free Research Field

技術経営