Investigating design office dynamics that support safe design

In the design environment, primary responsibility for differing project goals is divided between discipline engineers (safety and quality) and project managers (cost and schedule). This research suggests that the best long-term safety outcomes are likely to be fostered where these groups have similar levels of power over key decisions so that competing goals can be openly discussed. An ethnographic study such as this necessarily provides data with depth, rather than breadth. Nevertheless, it has brought to the attention of the safety community some key issues regarding design team dynamics that have, to date, been largely ignored by social science researchers.