Dr Mark Noort successfully defended his PhD investigation
On 30 October 2020, Dr Mark Noort successfully defended his PhD investigation at the London School of Economics and political science (LSE) into "The Behavioural Nature of Safety Voice". His work pioneers an experimental paradigm to better conceptualize and measure speaking-up behaviours in the face of a threat to safety, and, in particular, explains why people often remain silent when their own safety (or those near to them) is put at risk. Moreover, his published systematic review and an analysis of cockpit voice recorders (‘black boxes’) of 172 aviation accidents reveal how speaking-up as a fundamentally social behaviour can enable the effective prevention of harm.
The examiners (Dr Michaela Kolbe and Dr Ilka Gleibs) were very impressed with Mark's investigation: he presented 14 studies that make a clear contribution to social psychology and safety management through proposing the Threat Mitigation Model that indicates how people can prevent accidents when situations enable people to be concerned, raise their concerns and listen effectively. More broadly, his findings have direct application for organisations that aim to enable a culture in which people can freely speak-up about their concerns.
Mark joins Leiden University from the LSE where, between 2011-2020, he undertook an MSc in Social and Cultural Psychology, worked as a researcher on a project investigating organisational safety culture in aviation, temporarily left LSE to take a job in industry, and has now completed a highly selective ESRC-funded PhD. His future research will expand on his findings and explore the translation and application to empirical legal science.