Leadership and Social Change
This platform is examining the evolving risks in workforce safety due to social changes.
Our vision is to build a resilient and adaptive workforce by understanding how leadership, social change, and emerging technologies influence workplace health, safety, and wellbeing. We aim to equip leaders and organisations with the knowledge and tools needed to navigate evolving work environments, support diverse workforces, and foster inclusive, healthy, and safe workplaces.
Scope
This platform explores the intersection of leadership, social dynamics, and technological change in shaping workplace safety and wellbeing. Key areas of focus include:
- AI and data analytics for safer workplaces: We investigate how artificial intelligence and data science can enhance regulatory compliance, predict and prevent workplace incidents, and support smarter risk assessments through Safety Tech and predictive tools.
- Digital tools for health and wellbeing: We explore the use of digital health monitoring, ergonomic AI, and wearable technologies to reduce stress, fatigue, and musculoskeletal disorders. Our work also examines how digitalisation impacts mental health in the workplace.
- Safety in emerging technologies: We assess the health and safety implications of advanced technologies such as AI, the Internet of Things (IoT), robotics, autonomous systems, and cyber-physical systems. This includes the use of digital twins and simulation modelling to design safer systems.
- Data-driven regulation and policy: We leverage big data, real-time monitoring, and digital risk intelligence to inform smarter, more responsive regulatory frameworks that address technical and policy challenges in safety management.
- Digital safety in the net zero transition: We examine the safety risks associated with decarbonisation technologies—such as hydrogen and energy storage—and explore how digital solutions can help monitor and manage climate-related risks in the workplace.
Objectives
- To identify key stakeholders to invite to a face-to-face leadership and social change platform workshop.
- To work closely with other themes and platforms to identify, and take forwards areas for multidisciplinary projects.
- To expand and continue to collaborate on violence and aggression research. Specifically, to maximise the VARN network and other related projects.
Research platform team
- UoM Lead: Sara Willis
- HSE Leads: Phoebe Smith (Until April 2026), Jo Rick (April 2026 onwards)
- HSE Strategic Science Adviser: Derek Morgan
- HSE Science Business Partner: Kerry Poole
- HSE ERCL lead: TBC
At TAI, we worked with colleagues at Alliance Manchester Business School on a project exploring an issue that often goes unnoticed in safety-critical industries: the hidden psychological biases that shape regulatory decisions. From nuclear safety to environmental protection, regulators operate in complex environments where assumptions, habits, and mental shortcuts can quietly influence how risks are judged.
Our project brought together inspectors and regulators from across the UK to understand how these “blind spots” emerge — and what can be done to manage them. Through workshops, reflection exercises, and practical tools, participants explored strategies for questioning their own assumptions, examining emotional responses, and creating team environments where challenge and alternative viewpoints are genuinely welcomed.
The work revealed something important: managing bias isn’t about eliminating human judgement, but about supporting it. Regulators told us how valuable it was to step back, reflect, and recognise the thinking patterns shaping their decisions. The research also highlighted that meaningful change requires ongoing practice, not one-off sessions.
This collaboration has helped strengthen regulatory decision-making by making space for awareness, openness, and critical thinking.
For more information about this project, read the blog Managing Psychological Blind Spots on the Alliance MBS website.