Since the early 1970s there has been a considerable growth in the literature published on the topic of human reliability. However, the main emphasis has been on technical aspects of human reliability, rather than on an integrated safety approach combining safety engineering, organization and human factors. Up till now, information on the subject of occupational safety which covers human reliability as one aspect has been widely scattered in technical reviews or briefly mentioned in textbooks.This book provides a comprehensive overview on occupational safety with special emphasis on the human element. Examples of empirical studies as well as suggestions for practical measures are included to help in the understanding and application of the contents of the text. Although the prime objective of the book is to cover occupational safety from a human factors point of view, nevertheless some of the related areas are also discussed. Among others, they include problem solving in complex systems, judgmental and heuristic biases in decision making as well as characteristics of decision support systems in high risk industry. The inclusion of these topics clearly indicates the shift in attention of occupational safety from work activities on the shop floor to tasks of operators and supervisors in automated and semi-automated systems.The text will prove useful to students of psychology and human factors engineering. Additionally, it holds great utility for persons with an engineering background, such as industrial engineers, quality control engineers, system and design engineers and safety practitioners.

The investigation and modelling of aviation accident causation is dominated by linear models. Aviation is, however, a complex system and as such suffers from being artificially manipulated into non-complex models and methods. This book addresses this issue by developing a new approach to investigating aviation accident causation through information networks. These networks centralise communication and the flow of information as key indicators of a system’s health and risk. This holistic approach focuses on the system environment, the activity that takes place within it, the strategies used to conduct this activity, the way in which the constituent parts of the system (both human and non-human) interact and the behaviour required. Each stage of this book identifies and expands upon the potential of the information network approach, maintaining firm focus on the overall health of a system. The book’s new model offers many potential developments and some key areas are studied in this research. Through the centralisation of barriers and information nodes the method can be applied to almost any situation. The application of Bayesian mathematics to historical data populations provides scope for studying error migration and barrier manipulation. The book also provides application of these predictions to a flight simulator study for the purposes of validation. Beyond this it also discusses the applicability of the approach to industry. Through working with a legacy airline the methods discussed are used as the basis for a new and prospective safety management system.

A prominent safety consultant provides a multidisciplinary approach to workplace safety, detailing how managers, by controlling the physical and psychological situations under which workers operate, can modify employees' behavior in such a way as to reduce error, accidents, and consequently on-the-job injuries and illnesses. Petersen emphasizes the role of upper and middle management in implementing programs that can reduce system-caused human error. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR