Critical incident technique

The critical incident technique was first described by Flanagan (1954) and was used during World War II to analyze "near-miss incidents." The war time studies of "pilot errors" by Fitts and Jones (1947) are the classic studies using this technique. The technique can be applied in different ways. The most common application is to ask individuals to describe situations involving errors made by themselves or their colleagues. Another, more systematic approach is to get them to fill in reports on critical incidents on a weekly basis. One recent development of the technique has been used in the aviation world, to solicit reports from aircraft crews in an anonjmrous or confidential way, on incidents in aircraft operations. Such data collection systems will be discussed more thoroughly in Chapter 6. 

Case study 5 provides an example from the offshore oil and gas production industry, and illustrates the fact that in solving a specific practical problem, a practitioner will utilize a wide variety of formal and informal methods. Table 7.1, which describes some of the methods used in the study, includes several techniques discussed in Chapter 4, including interviews, critical incident techniques, walk-throughs and task analysis. 

Critical Incident Technique Personnel were asked to recall any incidents or near misses. This produced far more useful information for this study than the incident reports. 

Flanagan, J. C. (1954). The Critical Incident Technique. Psychology Bulletin 51,327-358. Folkard, S., Morrk, T. H., Lobban, M C. (1979). Towards a Predictive Test of Adjustment to Shift Work. Ergonomics 22,79-91. 

Callan, R.J. (1998) The critical incident technique in hospitality research An illustration from the UK lodge sector. Tourism Management 19 (1), 93-98. 

Flanagan, J.C. (1954). The critical incident technique. Psychological Bulletin,... 

This information gathering technique is also known as "critical incident technique" and is a means of collecting both poor and good experience from operationally experienced personnel. 

Another group of methods uses the assessment of service encounters or moments of truth (i.e., the contact between customers and the service provider) for measuring service quality. An example of those methods is the critical incident technique (Bitner et al. 1990). This method uses structured interviews to gather information about customers experiences that have roused either very negative or very positive emotions. From those interviews, the most relevant problem areas are determined. This type of method allows the customer to describe the service encounter from his or her point of view instead of assessing it by predefined criteria. The method normally leads to the most significant causes of service failures. 

Flanagan (1954) developed the procedure known as the critical incident technique. This relatively simple process involves interviewing job incumbents and asking for descriptions of critical incidents in their job, and also asking what they did in the particular simation. Critical incident information could also be obtained by supervisors keeping a record of simations they have observed, and employees responses to the simation. Thus, a critical incident represents a specific job simation and a particularly effective response to that simation. The critical incident technique can easily be applied to gather safety-specific examples. A sample of employees would be asked to describe a simation which had a safety aspect and then to describe how the safety issue was handled or resolved. Of course it is necessary to ensure that the response to the simation is indeed the correct response in that it is what the organization would want an employee to do when the particular safety simation occurred. Once a number of these critical incidents have been identified, they can be formed into employment interview questions. The job applicant is presented with the question (or scenario) and is assessed on their description of how they would (or have) handle or responded to the simation, and in particular how... 

The critical incident technique (also referred to as incident recall and the significant incident technique)... 

The purpose of the critical incident technique is to identify and take action on the hazards in an operation that have serious injury potential, utilizing the knowledge of skilled safety practitioners and of the work staff. In applying the technique, skilled observers interview a sampling of persons, eliciting their recall of criticar incidents that have occurred that exposed them to operational or physical hazards that gave them cause to be concerned, whether the incidents did or did not result in injury. 

For additional comment on the critical incident technique, see Safely Management by Grimaldi and Simonds, p. 248 Accident Prevention Manual Administration Programs, 12th edition. National Safety Council, p. 101 The Critical Incident Technique as a Method of Identifying Potential Accident Causes, Chapter 17 in The Measurement of Safety Performance by William E. Tarrants.)... 

Whatever the system is called — significant incident recall technique, incident recall technique, or critical incident technique — adding such an element to a safety management system to identify hazards that particularly pertain to low probability-high consequence incidents will have value. 

The survey system to be discussed here had its origins in what has been known as the Critical Incident Technique. Although the technique has not been broadly used, it has real possibilities in identifying hazards before their potentials are realized. Also, application of such a system would build a body of predictive, hazard-specific knowledge. 

The critical incident technique is regarded as an outgrowth of studies in the Aviation Psychology Program of the U.S. Army and Air Forces in World War 11. It is an accident study method in which an interviewer questions a nnmber of persons who have performed particular jobs and asks them to recall within a specified time period unsafe acts and/or conditions they have committed or observed [p. 303]. 

The Critical Incident Technique is one means by which previously experienced difficulties can be determined by interviewing persons involved. 

A modification of The Critical Incident Technique was published by the Division of Safety, Standards, and Compliance of the United States Energy Research and Development Administration in 1976. Because the method was also to be applied in the nuclear industry, where the terms Critical and Incident have their own connotations, a new name was used Reported Significant Observation (RSO) Studies. In a paper with that title, it is said that RSO was formally recognized as a significant hazard reduction tool. ... 

Why make so much of the idea on which the Critical Incident Technique is based A system that seeks to identify causal factors before their potentials are reahzed would serve well in attempting to avoid low prob-abihty-severe consequence events. Chapter 9, Addressing Severe Injury Potential, is devoted to that subject. In that chapter, in support of the premises I put forth, I quoted from Dan Petersen who said the following in his book Safety Management, 2nd edition ... 

Critical Incident Technique This is a method for direct observation of human behavior that is critical and important. A critical incident may a positive or negative activity. Some have used this approach in observing important or critical safety procedures. The approach provides a way to create feedback for the activity. 

Another approach emphasizes use of task observation by peers and providing feedback as a way to modify behavior. Workers learn how to make observations and provide useful positive and negative feedback to reduce behaviors that can lead to accidents and injuries. In some ways, this approach is similar to the critical incident technique. Some feel that a weakness of this approach is management pushing... 

Critical Incident Technique (CIT) - this service quality technique attempts to identify critical incidents in order to understand customer-perceived quality and engineer its improvement. Critical incidents are events that contribute towards, or detract from, perceived service/product performance in a significant way, either positively or negatively. CIT analysis usually comprises two questions, asking customers to think of a time when ... 

At http //www. ul ie/ infopolis/methods/incident html on the Internet, you will find a bulletin on Ergonomics Methods and Tools titled Task Analysis Methods Critical Incident Technique. Note that the authors say utilizing a critical incident system is inexpensive and provides rich information. ... 

The critical incident technique is inexpensive and provides rich information. This technique is helpful in emphasizing the features that will make a system particularly vulnerahle. 

A system that seeks to identity causal factors before their potentials are realized would serve well in attempting to avoid low-probabiUty/serious-consequence events. The National Safety Council s Accident Prevention Manual Administration Programs, 12th Edition, is good reference on the critical incident technique. Additional resources are listed in the references at the end of this chapter. 

Task Analysis Methods Critical Incident Technique. Infopolis at www. ul ie/ infopolis/ methods/incident- html... 

Welker, Paul A. et al. The Critical Incident Technique A Manual for Its Planning and Implementation. www.tiu.edu/psychology/TweIker/critical incidenttechnique.htm... 

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