A substantial part of the project has been dedicated to investigating and characterizing ‘safety leadership’, set in the context of literature on safety leadership, safety culture and safety management, in order to build a solid theoretical basis. The authors have delved deeply into the theories and conceptualizations of leadership and analysed this area in order to further the understanding of safety leadership in the light of resilience applications.
The study proposes a constructivist approach to safety leadership and its effectiveness and suggests four assessment dimensions: identity, story, strategy and persuasion. Examples from the Swedish nuclear industry were used to illustrate organizational performance and exemplify resilient properties. Two contrast cases were selected: healthcare and aviation; both adding value to the understanding of leadership and the important differences emphasized between reliability and resilience.