PhD Student

Email: d06110196@mytudublin.ie

Military Logistics through the lens of High Reliability Theory:                                                                                   Irish Defence Forces Logistics Branch on United Nations Peace Support Operations and E.U. Battle Group Rotations

RESEARCH MOTIVATION: Supply Chain and Logistics Management practitioner, Master of Science in Supply Chain Management: T.U. Dublin, Book author: ‘Supply Chain Disruption: aligning Business Strategy and Supply Chain Tactics’ (2019). Supply Chain Management has escalated to a state of ‘perma-crisis’ and the threat of disruption is the most critical concern of business firms operating in a global environment. SCM academic concept of SCRes calls for an exploration of High Reliability Theory, such as:

There are considerable similarities between the formative elements of SCRes and the characteristics                                                              of HROs, and the theory is ‘congruous’ to the aims of SCRes (Sawyerr and Harrison, 2019)

SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT: The discovery of the above similarities arose from an SCM academic literature review. Keywords: Supply Chain Disruption, Supply Chain Risk Management, Supply Chain Resilience (Date Range: 1981-2024): 648 Academic Journal Publications, 18 Theses, 15 Conference Proceedings, 18 Books. 46%: ABS 2021 Ranked 3-4* and 8 Journals dominate the review: Supply Chain Management: An International Journal (40) International Journal of Production Economics (36) Sustainability (26) International Journal of Production Research (25) The International Journal of Logistics Management (21) International Journal of Operations & Production Management (20) Journal of Operations Management (19) International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management (19): This research is of interest to SCM practice, rather than a contribution to SCM theory.

HIGH RELIABILITY THEORY (HRT): It has been generally concluded that most formal organisations that perform complex, inherently hazardous, and highly technical tasks under conditions of tight coupling and severe time pressure will fail spectacularly at some point, with attendant human and social costs of great severity. The notion that accidents in these systems are ‘normal,’ that is, to be expected given the conditions and risks of operation, appears to be as well grounded in experience as in theory. Yet, there is a small group of organisations in American society that appears to succeed under trying circumstances, performing daily a number of highly complex technical tasks in which they cannot afford to ‘fail,’ whereby devotion to a zero rate of error is almost matched by performance.

HRT PERIOD: 1984-2024. Formed from 1984-1987 by the ‘Berkeley Group’ at the University of California through the observation of United States Navy nuclear powered aircraft carriers, utility grid management, nuclear power plants and air traffic control systems.

HRT LITERATURE: Keywords: High Reliability Organisations, High Reliability Theory (Date Range: 1979-2024). Academic Journal Papers (400 - Healthcare 26%), Doctoral Theses (2), HRT Books (3). Dominant Journal: Safety Science. Review categorised as HRT seminal period (Berkeley Group) 1986-1999, HRT theory from Weick et al, 1999, HRT application (Healthcare), SCRes-HRT research. Acknowledgement of alternative Crisis theories: Normal Accident Theory, Disaster Incubation Theory, Resilience Engineering.

HRT ENACTMENT: Weick, K., & Sutcliffe, K. Obstfeld (1999). Organising for high reliability: processes of collective mindfulness. Research in Organisational Behaviour, 21, 100. HRT is enacted through a cognitive infrastructure of Collective Mindfulness, within which there are 5 processes of mindful organising: Small failures must be noticed  (preoccupation with failure) and their distinctiveness retained rather than lost in a category (reluctance to simplify interpretations). People need to remain aware of ongoing operations if they want to notice nuances that portend failure (sensitivity to operations). Attention also is crucial for locating pathways to recovery (commitment to resilience) and the expertise to implement those pathways (under-specification of structures - deference to expertise).

Karl Weick is the most prominent HRT scholar. Despite not being a member, he was a consultant for the Berkeley Group (together with their theoretical opponent, Charles Perrow of Normal Accident Theory). Weick coined the term High Reliability Organisation. Once Weick published Collective Mindfulness and the five processes of mindful organising (1999), it was effectively universally accepted as ‘gospel’ in the proceeding literature, and the processes became the ‘characteristics’ of High Reliability Organisations. The processes fall within Anticipation and Resilience. Weick expanded on the individual mindfulness concept (3 ways of awareness) of Langer (1989) to group level because it is as much about what people do with what they notice as it is about the activity of noticing itself. However, the seminal literature suggests that the five ‘universal’ processes are not universally ‘what people do’ in HROs. What is certain is that collective mindfulness has been at the forefront of HRT since the first paper in 1985. The processes of mindful organising came 15 years after this, based on a consolidation of literature, and is effectively a perspective.

The actual theoretical 8 simultaneously enacted characteristics of HROs are: 1. Hyper Complexity: extreme variety of components, systems, and levels, 2. Tight Coupling: reciprocal time-dependent interdependence across many units and levels with invariant sequences, 3. Extreme Hierarchical Differentiation: all decisions consider the priorities of all entities, 4. Large numbers of decision-makers in complex communication networks: redundancy in control and IS systems, and requisite variety requiring operators to be as complex as the systems they regulate, 5. Degree of accountability that does not exist in most organisations: extreme tension and continuous cross-checking, 6. High frequency of immediate feedback about decisions: delayed response increases risk, 7. Compressed time factors: measured in seconds, 8. More than one critical outcome that must happen simultaneously: inability to withdraw from decisions. Further three HRO features that influence HRO research strategies: 1. Response of the organisation’s constituencies when it fails (salience of failure), 2. Operation at edge of human capacity, 3. Diverse constituencies (interrelatedness of designers, policy makers, managers, operators).

HRT RESEARCH GAP (empirical studies): HRT acknowledges, but did not directly observe during its theoretical formation, the sub-units that support the primary production units in the default organisational types, such as, Supply Chain and Logistics Management: the initial focal point of HRO relationships are the units closest to the hazardous production technology. ‘Aircraft carriers have supreme importance for any Navy and consequently have significant land-based and battle group support, not a factor captured through observations’. There are three SCRes-HRT papers (not based on empirical research): ‘Most people who write about HROs have never been in one’. HRT has not significantly evolved past the original characteristics and hallmarks, nor has there been any advancement in existing theories since 2010. Healthcare is the single largest category of HRO publications and the conceptualisation and application of HRO principles in healthcare settings dominates the literature. 2912 HRT Publications 1989 - 2022: ‘The identification of only five empirical studies with an inclusive consideration of the specific theory signals that there is a limited body of literature on the practical implementation, measurement, and recorded results of HRO theory as a single, all-encompassing and cohesive approach. Several studies that have implemented HRT-inspired approaches or contextualised specific principles of HRT, there is a minimal amount of academic literature on empirical applications of HRT as a unified and cohesive paradigm.

HRT RESEARCH GAP (assimilation): Despite its criticality, HRT acknowledges (collective acceptance of direct responsibility for safe and efficient operation, internalised in belief structures, values, and goals, or, the U.S.N. as the underlying structural determinant (not operational processes, which differ across operational units and environments: formal instructions become fluid and dynamic): Rochlin, 1985, 1986), but does not explore in depth how the cognitive conditions and factors that enable the enactment of the processes of mindful organising are fostered and developed. Rousseau (1989) discusses selection, adaptation, attrition, and La Porte (1991) discusses recruiting, socialisation, incentives. This research posits that Collective Mind enables and empowers the processes of organising, but its importance transcends the physical processes. The processes alone do not achieve HRO status. Electrical utilities and air traffic control emphasise the importance of long training, careful selection, task and team stability, and cumulative experience. U.S.N. emphasises frequent personnel rotation, self-design, self-replication, authority overlays, decision and management redundancy. Standardising these processes across diverse organisational contexts seems counter-intuitive. Many processes have similarities in the business domain, such as crew resource management, TQM, 6-Sigma. The latter have the intended positive benefits within the capacity of their concepts, but do not of themselves achieve HRO status, as demonstrated by U.S. Healthcare, due to the social and political challenges of either top-down or bottom-up approaches. The differentiating factor between HROs and Business firms is a cognitive infrastructure of Collective Mindfulness. How is this created? Is Collective Mindfulness generalisable?: The concept was based on the U.S.N. and assumed to apply to other HROs (Weick and Roberts, 1993). For a prosaic organisation to become a HRO, is assimilation more important than the cognitive infrastructure of Collective Mindfulness?

RESEARCH ONTOLOGY: Heraclitus, the founding father of the process method, determined that the world is comprised of dynamic processes and activities that are in a constant state of interaction, fluctuation and evolution that result in ‘changing outcomes.’ Heraclitus famously said that a river is not an object but an ever-changing flow, in that a man cannot step into the same river twice, and that the sun is not a thing, but a flaming fire. High Reliability Theory is an ‘ongoing accomplishment’. A nuclear-powered naval aircraft carrier is ‘a living unit possessed of dynamic processes of self-replication and self-reconstruction’. HROs demonstrate an adaptive organisational evolution to circumstance.

RESEARCH EPISTEMOLOGY: Interpretivism ‘focuses on the complexity of human sense making as the situation emerges and attempts to understand phenomena through the meanings that people assign to them’, making less critical readings of phenomena due to the social and political organisational environment characterised by power structures and vested interests that restrict the resources available to research participants in their pursuit of strategic goals’. Interpretivism ‘views the organisational world as a dynamic, co-created system whose parts are so interrelated that one part inevitably influences the others. In this perspective, to understand a phenomenon, its parts cannot be separated but must be examined in a holistic context’. HRT is a ‘social construction’. In the interpretivism paradigm, ‘theories do not express the underlying engines of generalised empirical patterns. Rather, they are instruments that provide illumination, insight, and understanding’. HRT is such an instrument.

RESEARCH DESIGN: An exploratory Qualitative case study of multiple Óglaigh na hÉireann (Irish Defence Forces) Logistics Branch U.N. Peace Support Operations and E.U. Battle Group rotations: It is almost impossible to design most of the research a priori. A significant challenge for a civilian and novice researcher, was a Military HRO that was ‘relatively inaccessible to Organisational Research by its technical complexity and sensitivity to scrutiny’. The ‘Berkeley Group’ found that HRO research requires a different  (unique) approach to traditional organisational research. To gain access, several considerations needed to be met. researchers should first undertake training in the ways of the organisation: Socialisation: residential certification courses at the U.N. Training School Ireland in the Irish Military College: International Civil Military Relations Certification (2019) United Nations Staff Officers Certification (2019). Semi-structured interviews and documentation analysis: 30 participants across management scales. Each discreet DF case is distinct, standing on its own as an analytical unit, and combine with multiple UNPSOs and E.U. Battle Group cases to provide replications, contrasts, and theoretical extensions. The Defence Forces (DF) operates under the extreme conditions and ‘unique contexts’ that are increasingly considered as insightful sources that characterise phenomena under research, despite its unconventionality. DF can provide unique insights that traditional organisations are not able to, although there is no claim in this research that DF is representative of all HROs. DF is ‘unusually revelatory, an extreme exemplar’, and an opportunity for innovative research access. Critics of a single organisation may demand either a ‘talking pig’ or evidence from additional cases, but ‘it would be too complex and demanding to study multiple cases’. Data will be analysed in a ‘systematic and consistent manner’ using NVivo 1.0.

The first consideration was whether or not the DF is a theoretical HRO (8 characteristics). Without diminishing the importance of the processes of mindful organising, they are not the determinant of HRO status. Once HRO status was established, the next consideration was how the HRO (DF Logistics Branch) enhances reliability (it doesn’t have to match the five processes). Finally, the theoretical contribution was to determine how Collective Mind is fostered through the assimilation process.

RESEARCH QUESTION 1: Practice

What role does Military Logistics play in enhancing Reliability in a High Reliability Organisation?

RESEARCH CONTRIBUTION TO PRACTICE:

Based on Weick et al. (1999) and the subsequent 2 decades of publications, a reasonable prior model is to ascertain if the processes of mindful organising are evidenced within the DF Logistics Branch, and if these are enacted similar or different to the HRT literature:

1. This the first empirical study of Supply Chain Management (Logistics) in a HRO (Irish Defence Forces). HRT was formed at the individual (micro) and organisational (macro) levels of analysis. This research uniquely provides an insight into a sub-unit support function and finds evidence that the processes of mindful organising are enacted at this (meso) level of analysis
2. Whilst Collective Mindfulness is evident within the Irish Defence Forces Logistics Branch, the processes (although similar) are enacted more prescriptively and structured than the HRT literature: Operational enactment includes MREs, TTPs, mission analysis, mission command, military decision-making process, CIMIC, collaboration, building social capital

RESEARCH QUESTION 2: Theory

How are the cultural conditions created that form the critical antecedent of Collective Mind in the Logistics branch of a HRO?

RESEARCH CONTRIBUTION TO HIGH RELIABILITY THEORY: Collectiveness in the Defence Forces Leadership Doctrine is categorised as Moral Component (moral cohesion, motivation, leadership values) and there are 27 associated actions: Collective competence, response, will, security, sense of mission, character, respect, training, team building, responsibility, effort, operate as an outstanding one, at organisational, network and external actor levels.

1. This research de-couples Collective Mindfulness from the processes of mindful organising, expands its’ meaning, describes how it is fostered, and positions assimilation as the sine qua non of operational reliability, achieved through: Recruitment - Doctrine - Induction: Transformational Value-based Leadership Doctrine. Standard Cadet Course: Stage 1: Induction (3 Months) Stage 2: Development (7 Months) Stage 3: Empowerment (5 Months) Stage 4: Synthesis (2 Months). Creation, expression, safeguarding and preservation of Defence Forces values and standards. ‘Operating as an outstanding one’. This broadens HRT from anticipation and resilience to: assimilation, anticipation and resilience

RESEARCH MILESTONES:

Book authorship:

• Supply Chain Disruption: Aligning Business Strategy and Supply Chain Tactics (2019) KoganPage (London and New York)
• Supply Chains in Action: A Case Study Collection in Supply Chain, Logistics, Procurement and Operations Management (2019) Chapter Contribution (Supply Chain Disruption): Professor Richard Wilding M.B.E. (Editor)

Confirmed:

• D. Confirmation Exam (2021): Dr. Kirstin Scholten (University of Groningen)

Teaching:

• Assistant Lecturer (T.U. Dublin): Bachelor of Science in Logistics and Supply Chain Management (2015)

ECTS modules:

• University of Oxford: Philosophy (2016) Globalisation (2018) Age of Revolution (2018)
• Trinity College Dublin: Social Science Research Methods and Social Science Research Philosophy (2014-2015)
• Irish Defence Forces Military College (United Nations Training School Ireland): International Civil Military Relations Certification (2019) United Nations Staff Officers Certification (2019)
• An Bradán Feasa Certification (2019): Hostile Environment Awareness Training

Publications:

• CILT LinkLine Journal (2017) ad omnia paratus (prepared for anything): The Role of Ireland in the Nordic Battle Group
• Irish SME Association bISME Journal: Towards cost effective Supply Chain Digital Transformation for SMEs (2022) Bridging the Resilience Gap (2021) Covid-19: Respond and Succeed (2020)

Presentations:

• Technological University Dublin College of Business Ph.D. Conference (2021)
• Logistics Research Network: University of Plymouth (2018) Southampton Solent University (2017)
• Irish Academy of Management: University College Cork (2018) Queens University Belfast (2017)
• Technological University Dublin Annual Graduate Research Symposium (2015)

Steve O’Sullivan M.Sc.: Technological University Dublin - D06110196@mytudublin.ie