NOSA’s very own Head of Innovation, Dr Deonie Botha, deliberated the fact that the business environment is complex in nature and that organisations need to function like complex adaptive systems to be robust and ensure long-term sustainability. ISO 45001 emphasises a multitude of technical and non-technical factors, which organisations need to manage in order to ensure compliance. However, Deonie also highlighted how it will also serve as a tool to assist organisations in being robust and ensuring sustainability.
ISO 45001 and Organisations as Complex Adaptive Systems
1. Speaker : Deonie Botha
Presentation Title: ISO 45001:2016 and organisations as complex
adaptive systems
2. Table of contents
• Objectives
• Executive summary
• The world of work and megatrends
• Occupational health and safety trends
• Organisations and risk
• Organisations as complex adaptive systems (CAS)
• ISO 45001
• ISO 45001:2016 and risk management
3. Objectives
• What does the organisation of the future look like and the megatrends shaping
them?
• What is risk and why should organisations become complex adaptive systems?
• What trends shape and define OH&S?
• What is ISO 45001?
• Which clauses in ISO 45001:2016 enable organisations to become
CAS?
• Does ISO 45001:2016 decrease or increase uncertainty and
complexity?
4. Executive summary
• The world of work is changing and similarly organisations are required to adapt
(or die);
• Organisations are exposed to different types of risks due to the increasingly
complex nature of the world and work;
• The above is also applicable to OH&S and OH&S management;
• Organisations need to be managed as adaptive systems in order to survive;
• ISO 45001:2016 assist organisations to mitigate OH&S risks;
• New clauses can either lead to more uncertainty and complexity if
not managed effectively
8. • Pervasive technologies and increased levels of
mechanization and automation
• Rise of big data and internet of things/tactile internet
• Predictive analytics to prescriptive analytics
• Health, safety and environment interrelating with
productivity
• Importance of occupational and psychosocial
wellness
Future OSH
9. • Experiential workplaces and training become increasingly virtual and visual
• Wearables as a new form of personal protective equipment
• Auditing moving beyond commonalities to extremities
• Neurosafety and the science of safety leadership
• Equipment reliability and safety
• Cybersecurity
Future OHS
10. • Impact of information and communication technology
• Impact of globalisation of trade on managing work
• Impact of financial crisis on the nature of work
• Impact of changing location of work
• Trends in human resource management practices affecting
worker well-being
Source: European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (2014)
Unresolved aspects in OH&S - risk
12. Risk management is the process of identifying, quantifying, and
managing the risks that an organisation faces. As the outcomes of
business activities are uncertain, they are said to have some
element of risk.
Risk
13. Complex adaptive systems
“Companies today are more focused than ever on the short term.
They often neglect exploration activities and move inexorably toward
a “success trap”. To avoid the success trap, companies should keep
strategy in tune with their environment, master exploratory (as
opposed to exploiting) capabilities, and exercise new forms of
leadership.”
This is also true of a company’s approach towards and
occupational health & safety management system.
Reeves, Haanaes & Harnoss, 2016. Tomorrow never dies.
14. Complex adaptive systems
• Maintain heterogeneity of people, ideas and endeavours
• Sustain a modular structure
• Preserve redundancy among components
• Expect surprise, but reduce uncertainty
• Create feedback loops and adaptive mechanisms
• Foster trust and reciprocity in the business ecosystem
15. ISO 45001
Specifies requirements for an occupational
health and safety management system,
together with guidance for its use, to
enable an organization to proactively
improve its OH&S performance in
preventing injury and ill-health. ISO 45001
is applicable to any organization that
wishes to establish an OH&S management
system.
16. ISO 45001
• Eliminate or minimize those OH&S risks
associated with its activities.
• Establish, implement, and continually improve an
OHSMS together with its OH&S performance.
• Assure itself of its conformity with applicable legal
requirements as well as other requirements to
which it subscribes.
• Demonstrate conformity with the requirements of
the global principal Occupational Health and
Safety Management Standard.
17. ISO 45001:2016 - Structure
• Scope
• Normative reference
• Terms and definitions
• Context of the organisation
• Leadership
• Planning
• Support
• Operation
• Performance evaluation
• Continual improvement
18. ISO45001:2016 - Clauses
• Understand your organisation and it’s business context
• Understand the need and expectation of interested parties
• Hierarchy of controls
• Management of change
• Outsourcing
• Procurement
• Contractors
• Communication
19. ISO45001:2006 - Summary
• Context of the organisation (4.1) a high-level understanding of the
important issues that can affect, either positively or negatively manage its
responsibilities
• Needs and expectations of interested parties (4.2) establish whom the
interested parties are and whether or not they are relevant to OH&S
• Leadership (5.0) top management has to demonstrate leadership
and commitment
• Policy (5.2.) needs to make mention of the organisation’s
commitment to continual improvement and should be
committed to worker participation and consultation
20. ISO45001:2006 - Summary
• Planning (6.0) Consider risk and opportunities associated to the issues
identified in 4.1
• Support (7.0) Resources, Competence, Awareness, Communication and
Documented information (as opposed to documents and records)
• Operations (8.0) Operational planning and Control, Management of
change, Outsourcing, Procurement, Contractors and Emergency
preparedness and Response.
• Performance evaluation (9.0) Monitoring, Measurement,
Analysis and Evaluation, Evaluation of Compliance, Internal
Audit and Management review
21. ISO45001:2006 - Summary
• Improvement (10.1) Incident, Nonconformity and Corrective Action and
Continual Improvement. Preventive Action is no longer mentioned, as this
is managed under the concept of risk based thinking which is explicit
throughout the standard.
22. Context of the organisation
• Factors and conditions affecting the organizational operation e.g.
regulation, governance, stakeholders
• What drives the culture of the organization
• Who is an interested party and what are their needs and expectations
e.g. workers, customers, shareholders, competitors etc.
• The scope of the OH&S management system in relation to the
organizational operation and the expectations of interested
parties
• No changes in terms of OH&S management system and process
23. Leadership and worker participation
• Leadership (not management) and commitment
• Engaging (not ensuring) with workers to protect, improve performance,
and support OH&S systems
• More attention to the communication and participation of workers in
the OH&S policy;
• No changes to roles, responsibilities, accountabilities and
authorities
• More focus on capturing and promoting worker participation,
engagement and communications.
24. Planning for the OH&S system
• Increased focus on opportunities and measures of effectiveness in
terms of addressing risks – proactive rather than reactive
• Achieving OHS objectives and plans in line with available resources
• Indication of roles and responsibilities, timing and measures to
establish progress and whether the objectives have been
achieved
• Objectives and plans to achieve them will be documented
information
25. Support
• Organization will determine and provide resources needed
• Procedures are no longer required but documented OHSAS information to
support competence evaluation and development
• Awareness creation among workers about policy requirements, hazards
and risks and their part in OH&S performance
• What is the objective of communication and was it effective
• Documented information replaces the procedural requirements
• Controls for documented information (external and internal)
26. Operation
• Hazard and risk controls must be planned in to the operational controls
• Hierarchy of controls specified in order of preference wrt risk management
preference
• Requirements and potential sources for planned change i.e. change
management
• Standard requirements in relation to outsourced processes
• Procurements of goods
• Contractors and the establishment of controls and communication wrt
contractors
• Emergency preparedness and response strengthened and expanded
27. Performance evaluation
• Monitoring, measurement, analysis and evaluation; evaluation of
compliance with legal requirements and other requirements; internal audit
objectives increased focus on documented information
• Internal audit process includes communication with workers and
worker representatives, to aid continual improvement of the OH&S
system.
• Management review with added emphasis on improvement and
communications based on risks, opportunities and system
effectiveness
28. Improvement
• Direct action must be taken in a timely manner to control the incident or
nonconformity and deal with the consequences . More emphasis on corrective
rather than preventative action
• Root cause analysis
• Documented information for continual improvement actions,
communications and the review of effectiveness shall be retained
• Continual improvement objectives remain the same
• Continual improvement process should be the output of the
management system achieved from various elements in the system
29. Conclusion
• Different types of organisations and work
• Megatrends creates complexity and uncertainty
• The nature of occupational health and safety
• This creates risk for organisations
• Organisations need to become complex adaptive systems
• ISO 45001:2016 should enable organisations to become complex
adaptive systems
• But if not implemented and managed effectively can create
even more uncertainty
