Management of Organizational Change

Introduction to Management of Change (MOC)

Management of Change (MOC) has been a challenge in today’s workplace and has been a major contributor to most accidents. However, the United Sates Regulator OSHA has issued a Process Safety Management requirement and spelled out what is expected of industry and how to comply. Many companies have embraced this but have not yet gotten their hands around one of the less known requirements within MOC, Management of Organizational Change (MOOC). However, since this was stated as a contributing factor in the BP Texas City incident, many companies are looking for new ways to meet the requirements in this area. In the UK this topic was embraced by industry, as the UK Health & Safety Executive introduced a methodology to address this issue.

Importance of MOOC

So, what is MOOC? Just like an MOC will ensure that changes are justified, safe, and documented, we need to do the same when we make organization changes. In many cases, we add equipment and responsibilities when we consolidate or remove an operator position. During normal operations, the operator may be able to manage the workload, but what if an abnormal situation occurs? Can he or she still manage the workload? Management of Organizational Change will ensure that safety is not compromised during normal and abnormal situations before staffing changes are made.

UCDS's Enhanced Methodology

UCDS worked with many leading companies using this methodology, however, we soon discovered it was very limiting and only suitable for either dedicated inside console operators or inside/outside operators but it really did not address the roles and responsibilities of outside operators. Therefore, UCDS enhanced this methodology and added additional items such as Task Analysis and time-lining to understand the workload of the field operator who often can have repetitive jobs like tanker loading/unloading.

MOOC Workshop

UCDS offers a workshop to train your personnel to be able to incorporate this methodology with your own MOOC processes and with your PHA studies. Alternatively, UCDS can provide a chair person to lead your MOOC studies and, together with your own staff, provide a solution that is endorsed by regulators and unions.