168 Int. J. Business Excellence, Vol. 19, No. 2, 2019 Copyright © 2019 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. Non-technical skill development strategy to enhance safety performance of railway system: an interpretive structural modelling approach Sudarson Nayak and Sushanta Tripathy* School of Mechanical Engineering, KIIT Deemed to be University, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India Email: snayak03@gmail.com Email: sushant.tripathy@gmail.com *Corresponding author Aishwarya Dash Department of Industrial and System Engineering, IIT Kharagpur, West Bengal, India Email: aishwaryadashiitkgp@gmail.com Abstract: Despite massive technological advancement and up gradation in transport sector, operational safety largely depends on the front-line operator. The manager of transport industry, remains chronically stressed to ensure system safety along with productivity. It is always a challenge for them to deliver system safety while managing routine task along with providing system resilience against emergencies, abnormalities along with occasional operator’s fallibility. To handle these challenges effectively, development of suitable non-technical skill for front line managers has been attempted in the paper. Generic NTS proposed could provide the necessary fillip to their technical skill and likely to enhance their overall managerial skill. This shall also demonstrable commitment for adopting NTS for the entire organisation to enhance safety and productivity. Keywords: non-technical skill; NTS; front line managers; interpretive structural modelling; ISM. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Nayak, S., Tripathy, S. and Dash, A. (2019) ‘Non-technical skill development strategy to enhance safety performance of railway system: an interpretive structural modelling approach’, Int. J. Business Excellence, Vol. 19, No. 2, pp.168–188. Biographical notes: Sudarson Nayak is a PhD Scholar at the KIIT University, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India. He is currently working as a Chief Commissioner of Railway Safety, Ministry of Civil Aviation, Government of India. He is an Officer of Indian Railway Services of Electrical Engineer (IRSEE) and had worked for almost three decades in Indian railway in the field of electric locomotive maintenance and operation. Sushanta Tripathy is presently working as a Professor at the School of Mechanical Engineering in KIIT University, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India. He completed his PhD from the Department of Industrial Engineering and