The Counterintuitive Characteristics of High-Reliability Organizing (HRO): Infrastructures Impair the Implementation of HRO.

Becoming reliable and safe appears straightforward: identify effective traits from high-reliability organizations (HROs) in hazardous environments and adopt them in other contexts. However, adopting HRO principles in less hazardous environments has been limited and often misunderstood. Decades of research and attempts to incorporate HRO practices have not consistently achieved their intended outcomes. This paper, drawing on the extensive experience of its authors, explores the counterintuitive nature of HROs, mainly focusing on the concept of organizational infrastructure. Typically seen as physical structures, organizational infrastructure can be better understood as relational and context dependent. Infrastructure in HROs supports agency and individual action, fostering an environment where reliability and safety are continuously enhanced through practical engagement and adaptability. Key elements making HRO infrastructure counterintuitive include relational hierarchies, standards, adherence to objective frameworks, information flow, enactment, and improvisation. Effective HRO infrastructure is not merely about rigid hierarchies and objective standards but involves adaptive, subjective frameworks that facilitate continuous learning and responsive actions. This infrastructure enables organizations to operate reliably in dynamic and uncertain environments by emphasizing vigilance, communication, and the ability to interpret and respond to emerging threats. The paper elaborates on how these elements contribute to the unique operational dynamics of HROs and the challenges of translating these principles to other organizational contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]