Abstract/Summary

Attacks on critical national infrastructure (CNI) are becoming more frequent and more sophisticated. The motivations include espionage, financial gain and terrorism. High reliability organisations (HROs) are entrusted with the responsibility of operating CNI and protecting physical and information assets. The consequences of failure are severe and regulatory oversight is complex. The proliferation of new technology throughout primary systems, supply chain partners and an increasingly mobile workforce has also increased the risks for high reliability organisations. Preceding research on high reliability organisations has primarily focused on theoretical analysis of single case studies and the development of HRO hallmarks. The hallmarks have also been applied to many other industries as key components of business change programmes designed to develop high reliability cultures. Research within the information systems domain has highlighted some of the enabling HRO IS capabilities but existing studies have not applied them holistically to safety critical contexts. The aim of the research is to generate an HRO information systems framework to extend the existing knowledge of the information systems required to maintain ultra safe operations. To achieve the aim, an explanatory case study was conducted within an operational defence high reliability organisation. The research was conducted through an embedded research role accumulating 697 contact hours that provided a rich dataset of interview and observational data from 47 research participants. It included 54 real-time product activations where product users avoided life threatening injuries (or in some cases, death). The HRO information systems framework is presented across four interacting levels that span safety, systems value chain, dynamic capabilities and sociotechnical foundations. The framework provides a blueprint for the development of safety critical information systems thus contributing to the information systems domain. It can also be used as a basis for organisational comparison and generalisation across supply chains, regulators and wider industry.