And it’s all too easy for blame to cascade down an
organisation to those at the frontline who are often least able to defend
themselves.
As Sidney Dekker [1] tells us the ‘few bad apples’ argument
is a convenient explanation that is invariably unhelpful in improving safety.
The few-bad-apples approach seals lips and discourages safety reporting. It
creates a climate of fear in which self-preservation is the only response. That
results in organisations which do not learn and which are consequently less
safe.
The first response of all those involved in a tragedy such
as that which occurred in Rochdale should be to seek an objective understanding
of what went wrong. Naming, blaming and shaming makes this much more difficult.
[1] Dekker, S. Just Culture: Balancing Safety and
Accountability (Ashgate 2007)