Organizational contradictions between safety and security – Perceived challenges and ways of integrating critical infrastructure protection in civil aviation

• The article documents challenges and disparities between the ways flight safety and aviation security are organized.
• Introduces a theoretical framework characterizing the differences in organizational principles between safety and security.
• Strategies for integrating critical infrastructure protection are described and discussed.

This research article documents results from a survey conducted among employees in a regional Norwegian airline, highlighting challenges and disparities between the way flight safety and aviation security is organized in civil aviation. The results indicated that the introduction of new security regulations in Europe and Norway are changing communication and information sharing at airports. It is argued that these challenges are due to conflicting institutional demands and principle contradictions in the way safety and security are approached within the civil aviation system. This argument is based on descriptions of the organizational foundations for flight safety and characteristics of how aviation security is organized. A theoretical framework characterizing the differences in organizational principles between safety and security is presented, which may also be relevant for other critical infrastructures. The article also describes strategies for integrating critical infrastructure protection. In addition to discussing the survey results, concerns are raised about organizational contradictions between safety and security and the ability of aviation to manage the competing logics and contradictory organizational principles. Not integrating critical infrastructure protection is seen as a systemic vulnerability and, in the case of civil aviation, a concern for both flight safety and aviation security if not sufficiently moderated. The article proposes paying better attention to the organizational realities of aviation operations and performing critical evaluations of existing and new protective measures as possible solutions to the situation.