14. Safety and Human Behavior

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14. Safety and Human Behavior
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Definitions

• What is human error?
• An inappropriate or undesirable human decision or
  behavior that reduces or has the potential for
  reducing effectiveness, safety, or human
  performance
• Classification scheme for human error
• Discrete (Swain and Guttman, 1983)
• Omissionfailure to do something
• Commissionperform an act incorrectly
• Sequenceperform an act in the wrong order
• Timingfailure to perform the act in the allotted
  time period
• Unintentionalaccidental performance of an act
  (knew it was wrong)
• Confusionuncertain of what/which act to perform

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Accidents

• Factors contributing to accidents
• Trait theories (later) such as accident proneness
• Age (younger and over 60 more)
• Immediate environment (noise, temperature, light,
  workspace)
• Equipment (controls, displays, compatibility,
  visibility, guarding)
• Work (pacing, physical workload, mental workload,
  motor skills, etc.)
• Worker (skill, experience, training, etc.)
• Management (policies, safety, productivity
  requirements, incentives)
• Psychosocial (morale, climate, union,
  communication)

• How is an accident defined?
• An unanticipated event which damages the system
  and/or individual or affects the accomplishment
  of the system mission or individual task
• It can but not necessarily result in an injury
• Analysis of accidents
• Nature of the injury (death, amputation,
  laceration, etc.)
• Part of the body affected
• Type of accident (struck by, caught between,
  etc.)
• Source of injury (tools, body movement, etc.)

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Accidents

• Strategies for reducing accidents
• Critical incident techniqueinvolves the
  description of observed unsafe acts or near-miss
  accidents
• There are more critical incidents than accidents,
  therefore, a database can be developed and enough
  data collected to reflect patterns of behavior
  and events that can be useful in developing
  preventive measures
• Alter behavior methodschecklists, training,
  feedback, reinforcement strategies (rewards),
  incentive programs

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Accidents

• Theories for describing/explaining accident
  occurrence
• Accident pronenesssome people more prone to have
  accident due to chance
• Accident liabilitysome people more prone to have
  accident due to situation
• Job demands vs. worker capabilityaccident
  liability increases as job demands exceed worker
  capabilities
• Psychosocialdeals with the organizations
  practices and procedures

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Factors Contributing to Accidents

• Physical Environment
• Illumination
• Noise
• Temperature
• Vibration
• Humidity
• Radiation
• Fire hazards
• Airborne pollutants
• Social/Psychological Environment
• Management practices
• Social norms
• Morale
• Training
• Incentives

• Personnel
• Trait theories (later) such as accident proneness
• Age
• Experience
• Gender
• Job
• Workload (mental/physical)
• Work-rest cycles
• Shift
• Pacing
• Procedures
• Arousal, fatigue
• Equipment and tools
• Control/displays
• Electrical hazards
• Mechanical hazards
• Thermal hazards
• Pressure hazards