The Field Guide to Understanding Human Error

by Sidney Dekker

Overview

The old "Bad Apple Theory" of human error promotes the idea that a system is basically safe, with the exception of a few unreliable people. Breaking new ground beyond its successful predecessor, The Field Guide to Understanding Human Error guides you through the traps and misconceptions of the old view. Sidney Dekker presents the view that human error is an organizational problem, and suggests how to apply new theories to your organization, handling questions about accountability and constructing meaningful countermeasures.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781472408419
Publisher:	Ashgate Publishing Ltd
Publication date:	03/28/2013
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Sidney Dekker is Professor and Director of the Key Centre for Ethics, Law, Justice and Governance at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia. Previously Professor at Lund University, Sweden, and Director of the Leonardo Da Vinci Center for Complexity and Systems Thinking there, he gained his Ph.D. in Cognitive Systems Engineering from The Ohio State University, USA. He has worked in New Zealand, the Netherlands and England, been Senior Fellow at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, Visiting Academic in the Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, Monash University in Melbourne, and Professor of Community Health Science at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Manitoba in Canada. Sidney is author of several best-selling books on system failure, human error, ethics and governance. He has been flying the Boeing 737NG part-time as airline pilot for the past few years. The OSU Foundation in the United States awards a yearly Sidney Dekker Critical Thinking Award..

Table of Contents

Contents: Acknowledgments; Preface; The Bad Apple Theory; The new view; The Hindsight Bias; Put data in context; 'They should have...'; Trade indignation for explanation; Sharp or blunt end?; You can't count errors; Cause is something you construct; What is your accident model?; Human factors data; Build a timeline; Leave a trace; What went wrong?; Look into the organization; Making recommendations; Abandon the Fallacy of a Quick Fix; What about people's own responsibility?; Making your safety department work; How to adopt the New View; Reminders for in the rubble; Index.