PhD defence: Katharina Christiane Jeschke

In order to obtain the PhD degree, Katharina Christiane Jeschke has submitted her thesis entitled:

Balancing Safety in Everyday Work
A case study of construction managers’ dynamic safety practices

The construction industry continues to have one of the highest risks of occupational accidents and injuries, and the fields of occupational safety and safety management have been characterized by an understanding of safety as being in direct competition with other organizational goals and thus applying an ‘either-or’ mindset. This dissertation is based on eight months of ethnographic inspired fieldwork obtaining data from managers at three construction sites in Denmark. Focus is on the managers’ daily safety practices by exploring how they integrate safety into their daily operational work activities and the tensions they face in their pursuits of attaining competing goals and demands. These findings provide novel insights into how actors on the ground balance safety in everyday work when facing multiple demands in an environment replete with complexity. In essence, the dissertation shows how managers enact safety management in a dynamic more flexible way by separating and reconnecting practices fluidly during their workday. Thus, the dissertation advocates for a complimentary ‘both-and’ safety management strategy and shifts attention to the role of construction managers’ professional identities in the changing of safety management strategies.

Primary Supervisor:
Associate Professor Susanne Boch Waldorff
Department of Organization
Copenhagen Business School

Secondary Supervisors:
Professor with special responsibilities Morten Thanning Vendelø
Department of Organization
Copenhagen Business School

Senior Researcher Johnny Dyreborg
Division of Safety Research

National Research Center for the Working Environment

Assessment Committee:
Associate Professor Elisabeth Naima Mikkelsen (Chair)
Department of Organization
Copenhagen Business School

Professor Christian Koch
Department of the Built Environment
Aalborg University

Professor Michael Smets
Saïd Business School
University of Oxford

Thesis:
The thesis will be available from research.cbs.dk

Reception:
The CBS PhD School will host a reception, which will take place immediately after the defence at the tables outside the kitchen of IOA. 4th floor.