Introduction to Safety Science: People, Organisations, and Systems

by David O'Hare

Overview

The book is designed as an accessible and readable introduction to a rapidly expanding area that is in demand worldwide. A variety of professionals from different backgrounds are being tasked with managing health and safety risks in a wide variety of settings. Many lack current and up-to-date knowledge of the key developments that have taken place in Safety Science in recent decades, as well as a sense of how these developments fit in with previous approaches.

• This book takes readers on a ‘journey’ across three broad developments in safety science.
• It covers topics that focus on the individual including human error, risk and the role of cognition in human performance.
• It then shifts to research in safety science that uses organizations as the basic unit of analysis, questions about organizational decision making and the characteristics that dispose towards or against organizational failure and it introduces perspectives based on systems science that address issues that arise out of complexity and interdependence.

Those who will purchase this book are students taking courses in human factors, ergonomics, applied psychology, occupational health and safety management. Professionals working in safety management in any field from agriculture, construction, shipping, aviation, power generation, oil exploration, manufacturing to healthcare will find this book useful, as well as general readers interested in why systems fail.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781032231969
Publisher:	CRC Press
Publication date:	04/08/2022
Series:	Transportation Human Factors
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

David O’Hare is Professor of Psychology at the University of Otago. He joined the department in 1982 after graduating with a First Class Honours degree in psychology (1974) and a PhD (1978) from the University of Exeter followed by a several years lecturing at Lancaster University in the UK. At the same time he became a glider pilot and also obtained a UK Private Pilots Licence becoming increasingly interested in the human-machine relationship involved in aviation. He received a Prince and Princess of Wales award in 1987 and undertook a course in aircraft accident investigation at Cranfield University. After coming to NZ he started researching aeronautical decision making and spent time as a visiting scholar at The Ohio State University. Subsequently he and Professor Stan Roscoe wrote a book (‘Flightdeck Performance: The Human Factor’, published 1990) summarising the scientific literature on human perception and performance in aviation. In the ensuing years he has conducted research on a range of issues involving human interaction with technology, aviation safety, aircraft accidents, and pilot decision making with sponsors including the Health Research Council, NZ Civil Aviation Authority, the US Federal Aviation Administration and NASA. He edited the book: “Human Performance in General Aviation” published by Ashgate in 1999. He was a founder member of the NZ Human Factors and Ergonomics Society and established courses in Human Factors, Cognitive Engineering and Safety Science at the University of Otago. He is on the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Aerospace Psychology; the International Journal of Human Factors and Ergonomics and the Journal of Safety Research.

Table of Contents

Preface xi

Acknowledgements xiii

Author biography xv

Chapter 1 Introduction to Safety 1

The Toll of Toil 1

Workplace Safety Legislation Around the World 4

Relative Burdens of Workplace Injury and Illness 9

Does 'Regulated Self-Regulation' Work? 11

Transportation Safety 13

The 'Safety Journey' 15

Notes 18

Section 1 Individuals

Chapter 2 Risk 23

Perceiving Risk 24

Risk Tolerance 28

Risk-Taking and Accidents 30

Adapting to Risk 33

Quantifying Risk 35

Managing Risk 40

Safety Management Systems 42

Conclusions 45

Notes 46

Chapter 3 Human Error 51

The Varieties of Human Error 52

Coming Together: Academic Consensus on Human Error 58

Freudian Slips 60

Remembering to Remember 60

Error and Skill in Context 63

Error as an Industrial Safety Problem 64

The 'Swiss Cheese' Metaphor 67

Human Error Analysis in Practice 70

Summary and Conclusions 71

Notes 72

Chapter 4 Safety by Design 75

Designing for Flight Safety 76

Controls and Displays 80

Design for Action 85

Designing Tasks for Human Abilities 92

Attention and Performance 96

Decisions, Decisions 99

Light, Heat and Reach 101

Summary and Conclusions 104

Notes 106

Section 2 Organisations

Chapter 5 Normal Accidents 113

People in Context: Societies and Organisations 113

Normal Accident Theory 116

Error-Inducing Systems 121

The Management Paradox 124

The Dynamics of Normal Accidents 127

Assessing Normal Accident Theory 130

Notes 132

Chapter 6 High-Reliability Organisations 135

Aviation and the Mid-Air Collision 135

The Berkeley Project 137

Defining a High-Reliability Organisation 142

Performance Under Trying Conditions: The Importance of 'Collective Mindfulness' 143

Can We Rely on Healthcare? 147

The Contribution of HRO Theory 149

Notes 151

Chapter 7 Normalisation of Deviance 155

Social Influence 155

The Launch Decision 157

Normalisation of Deviance 162

Safety Oversight at NASA 164

Nothing Fails Like Success 166

Applications of the 'Normalisation of Deviance' Concept 169

Drifting into Failure 171

Notes 173

Section 3 Systems

Chapter 8 Cognitive Engineering: Constraints and Boundaries 179

Constraints 179

The Decision Ladder 182

The Abstraction Hierarchy 184

Ecological Interface Design 186

The Boundaries of Safe Work 192

Mad Cows and Englishmen 196

'Workarounds' in Healthcare 197

Summary and Conclusions 199

Notes 200

Chapter 9 The Cybernetics of Safety: Information and Control 203

Feedback and Control 203

Information: The Difference that Makes a Difference 207

The STAMP Model of System Safety 209

Management Cybernetics: The Viable System Model 219

Conclusions 222

Notes 223

Chapter 10 Resilience, Adaptability and System Safety 227

Resilience Engineering 228

Resilient Healthcare 233

'Safety II' 235

Resilience in Action 237

Safety Management: The New Agenda 239

Safety as a System Science 241

'Safety II' in Practice 242

Critique of 'Safety II' 245

Conclusions 248

Notes 249

Chapter 11 Making Sense of Failure: Beyond Accident Investigation (with Karl Bridges) 253

Accident Investigation 253

The 'Herald of Free Enterprise' Ferry Disaster 255

Human Factors Analysis and Classification System 255

AcciMap 258

Functional Resonance Analysis Method 262

Systems Theoretic Accident Modelling and Processes Approach 265

Comparisons between the Accident Analysis Models 270

Systems Thinking in Accident Analysis 271

Conclusions 274

Notes 275

Index 279