Deference to operational or engineering expertise is considered critical for maintaining safety in many industries. At the same time, legitimating specialized knowledge can help create ''prima donnas,'' expert oper- ators who attain considerable organizational status and informal power. Safety can be used as a lever to gain industrial advantage or maintain inequitable perquisites. This paper first considers the common consensus about the need to defer to expertise in safety-critical organizations and industries and assesses available research on the rela- tionship between deference to expertise and safety. Then, it reviews two psychological literatures that illuminate some of the cognitions, behaviors and organizational dynamics behind a prima donna syndrome: one on entitlement and another on organizational narcissism. Conclusions and recommendations center on how to defer to expertise (not necessarily experts) while dealing with ''prima donnas.''