Business excellence in a U.S. Gulf Coast oil refinery: A process for measuring managerial accountability

Although there has been considerable research on management accountability, there is still a lack of clarity on the systems that produce unanticipated events impacting worker safety. The purpose of this research was to evaluate the effectiveness of managers at one U.S. Gulf Coast oil refinery to create an environment of business excellence and worker safety. Three organizational theories used for this research were Jacques's requisite organizational structures, Kanji's quality management business excellence model, and Reason's prevention of human error. Two survey instruments addressed strength of leadership, focus on people management, and external customer satisfaction. A quantitative analysis was performed utilizing a partial least squares (PLS) regression methodology. A surprising result was that strong leadership behavior and high external customer satisfaction did not necessarily drive internal business excellence. One of the lowest mean scores, 5.1 on a 10-point scale, showed that people management systems were only partially effective in helping to achieve internal excellence. Specifically, stakeholders did not perceive that employees were matched to the right jobs or that they had clear accountability to sustain critical work processes. In this case, refinery managers must take immediate action to clarify work processes, establish clear accountability, and ensure employee competency to sustain safety, quality, reliability, and business excellence. From a societal perspective, the study demonstrated the potential benefits of using these surveys and the 3 comprehensive business theories to analyze the operations of an organization and to highlight where improved accountability and focus on internal excellence can yield improved organizational performance and safety.