Building a conceptual framework of organizationally embedded tensions to enhance leadership for safety in high-risk and highly regulated organizations: A complexity leadership perspective

Despite substantial advancements in ensuring safety, high-risk and highly regulated organizations have not been immune to major life-threatening accidents. Growing evidence indicates that these accidents are not solely attributable to the limitations of technical barriers, but rather to the complex interactions among technical, human, and organizational factors. While both the literature and regulatory frameworks have acknowledged the role of leadership in addressing this complexity, traditional views of leadership for safety tend to focus on individual abilities to achieve safety objectives, overlooking its processual and organizationally embedded nature needed to deal with complexity. To address this gap, we draw upon Complexity Leadership Theory, which helps to embrace tensions stemming from complexity. Through a qualitative study based on an international and interdisciplinary workshop on leadership for safety in the nuclear sector, we develop a conceptual framework of organizationally embedded and dynamic tensions that leaders must engage with to enhance safety. Our results contribute to leadership for safety by explaining the embeddedness of this complex process and providing a more nuanced analysis of tensions at multiple levels and their interrelations. We also enrich the Complexity Leadership Theory by going beyond portraying different logics, mechanisms, or processes as irreconcilable polar extremes. By delving into dimensions of complexity related to leadership for safety, our framework provides new insights that can inform more nuanced safety policies and regulations in high-risk and highly regulated environments.