This open access book provides an analytical and critical outlook by leading scholars of the
impact of various trends in the quality of collaboration and resulting safety outcomes that
arise from the evolution of traditional integrated production within a single firm into a
complex web of partnerships and supply chains. In the face of increasing fragmentation within
industrial production and the associated rise in the complexity of inter-organizational
communication and transaction this book analyses causal factors such as cost pressures
globalization of demand increasingly flexible resource allocation and work organization
changes in legal liability and the possibilities afforded by information technology. Various
case studies focus on the effects of crossing boundaries between organizations between
different trades and professions and between countries assessing the effect of variations in
regulatory structures and national cultures. Furthermore they illustrate the wide range of
organizational forms to be found in high-hazard industries today and the impact potential or
real of the variety of forms of partnership on safety and well-being at work. The contributors
assess the effect of out-sourcing and of various forms of partnership and governance on safety
at work and how they can be made to support the prevention of major accident hazards.
