Modelling the Reporting Culture within a Modern Organisation

Research shows that there are many factors that can influence the operation of a "Reporting Culture" within organisations, ranging from the attitudes to the workers, to the methodology implemented, to the managerial attitudes within the organisation (Reason, 1998). Understanding and modelling these factors may help develop an optimum reporting system. Historically, research has focused on the concept of "Near Miss Reporting" which is based on the idea of identifying the "bottom" of the safety triangle concept put forward in Heinrich (1941) which suggests that for each accident there are dozens of near misses, and identifying these near misses will hopefully allow faults, errors, design problems to be assessed and mitigated before they can allow an accident to develop. Reporting near misses is a key factor in a proactive Reporting Culture. Before any improvement strategy for the reporting culture or system can be developed an organization should be able to understand its current practices and the key influencing factors around them. Therefore in the current paper we start by presenting a model based on a real world case study developed to highlight areas where improvements can be made. Concurrently, a model of best practice is also to be developed as a terms of comparison with the current practice to help generate recommendations to improve reporting. The model could also potentially allow any new practice to be assessed before it is tested in the real world. The mapping of current practices was based on a number of semi-structured interviews with both managerial staff and the day-to-day staff in a pharmaceutical company. This was undertaken to determine the culture within the organisation, the reporting process, the factors that influence the reporting culture, etc. The data from these interviews allowed the drafting of a model detailing the reporting process and structure within the organisation. In modelling these processes a software tool called SCOPE was used to create a visual model of the main reporting tasks and the actors and equipment involved. The tool also facilitated the mapping out of relationships between actors, managers, resources, information systems, KPIs etc. Those relationships and the factors that than can influence these entities can then be analysed using a preliminary hazard analysis and an information-mapping module within the tool. The expected benefit of the work is the improvement of reporting practices in the organisation and the validation of the factors influencing reporting.