TO BLAST OR NOT TO BLAST: LEANING ON THE VALUES

DECISION SHEET

Summary :

Susan Thorn was a 25-year-old mechanical engineer who was working as Asst. The engineer
for the Nelson region was responsible for advising on gas line construction and maintenance
and forming teams that supported the preparation of engineering drawings
and designs. One day, while she was heading toward her office, she happened to drive by a
construction site; after looking at the site, she found that there was something wrong with that
site. So, she had to pull over and give an inspection. She saw rubber blasting mats, typically
used to help absorb shocks and prevent flying rocks and debris. She asked the reason for the
use of these rubber by the crew who greeted her, but she was not convinced by the reasons
they gave. Also, she was unaware of any such activity in her assigned region. So, she
calculated the risk of that blast which would affect the innocent lives around the site. She
identified a safety risk in a construction project. She decided to shut down the project in a
residential neighbourhood for the time being until a proper investigation takes up to continue.

Problem :

Will the blast put neighbours' lives at risk?

Was she right to stop the construction project? Could she have done things differently?

Criteria :

Detailed inspection – Lack of information

Superior advice
Intuitive Decision

Evaluation of Alternatives :

Superior advice- Thorn would have called and informed her head so that solo decision-
making risk would have been reduced. Because now her two-year job is at risk if her decision
is wrong.

Intuitive Decision – It is hard to analyse the situation right at first look. So, the Lack of
information was not there. Although, she spoke to one of the crewmen at the site, not the
head. Because workers would not be knowing all the details of the construction.

Recommendations/Solutions :

From Thorn's point of view, the decision made by her is very firm by calculating all the risks
after the blast, which would affect the lives of the people who stay around there. But from a
construction point of view, they have invested a lot in the blasting and also the workers'
salaries would be paid even though the work is done or not, so delay in the project would cost
them a lot of dollars. Hence the construction crewmen were angry about the solo decision-
making on the spot. My recommendation would be, the investigation is a long process, in
some cases that would extend to delay in days, which will be a huge hit for the project also
the crew has to continue with other projects after this one. So, Thorn could have called her
team on the spot to investigate and gather information regarding the blast and also called her
manager in order to report the case and also decide together what could have been done.
Since she has only two years of experience, anyway experience does matter in decision-
making in order to handle situations which cause financial risk to the opposite people.
Because no one will be ready to face losses in their way. So, her manager would probably
have seen many cases like this and also could have helped her to analyse the situation and
also in decision making.