Errors organizational

Organizational factors create preconditions for errors, At the operational level, plant and corporate management inadvertently support conditions for errors. The safety culture of the... 

Organizational and plant design policies, directed by senior management plant and corporate management, and implemented by line management affect conditions that influence error. 

At the next organizational level are factors directly causing error 1) job characteristics such o Complexity, time stress, noise, lighting, environment, or mental requirements, and 2) individual factors such as personality, and team performance. These, collectively, are called performance-influencing factors, or PIFs. 

From the organizational view of accident causation presented in the previous section, it will be apparent that the traditional approach to human error, which assumes that errors are primarily the result of inadequate knowledge or motivation, is inadequate to represent the various levels of causation involved. These contrasting views of error and accident causation have major implications for the way in which human error is assessed and the preventative measures that are adopted. 

The last area addressed by the systems approach is concerned with global issues involving the influence of organizational factors on human error. The major issues in this area are discussed in Chapter 2, Section 7. The two major perspectives that need to be considered as part of an error reduction program are the creation of an appropriate safety culture and the inclusion of human error reduction within safety management policies. 

This section illustrates some of the more global influences at the organizational level which create the preconditions for error. Inadequate policies in areas such as the design of the human-machine interface, procedures, training, and the organization of work will also have contributed implicitly to many of the other human errors considered in this chapter. 

Sociotechnical approach (control of error through changes in management policy and culture) Occupational/process safety Effects of organizational factors on safety Policy aspects Culture Interviews Surveys Organizational redesign Total Quality Management More frequent in recent years... 

A combination of on-the-job and off-the-job methods is usually the best solution in most types of training. The following factors should be examined in order to analyze the role of training in preventing human error. Team training will be considered in the social and organizational factors which follow in other sections. 

The first area focuses on the cultural and organizational factors that will have a major influence on the effectiveness of a human error data collection system and how well the information derived from such a system is translated into successful error reduction strategies. Regardless of how effectively the technical issues are dealt with, the system will not be successful imless there is a culture in the organization which provides support for the data gathering process. No data collection system aimed at identifying human error causes of accidents will be workable without the active cooperation of the workforce. 

The two categories of data described above relate to immediate causes of error. However, the question of how these factors came to be as they are, involves a consideration of the effects of organizational, and management and cultural issues. 

Management and Policy Influences on Error and Accident Causation As has been emphasized in Chapters 1,2, and 3, the system-induced error view states that it is insufficient to consider only the direct causes of errors. The underlying organizational influences also need to be taken into accoimt. However, most of the available techniques stop when an immediate cause has been identified, such as less than adequate procedures or poor equipment design. The questions of why the procedures were poor, or why the equipment was badly designed, are rarely addressed at the level of policy. Kletz (1994a)... 

On a scale of 1-5, this essay received a 2. Organizationally, it has three paragraphs and each contains a main idea. However, two of them also include the introduction and conclusion. While they don t detract from or confuse the author s ideas, there are numerous errors in grammar and spelling. Most sentences are very short, and the lack of variety detracts from the essay. A strong point of view is maintained, but it gets lost in the unsophisticated and overly informal vocabulary. 

Organizational Error—latent management system problem that can result in human error. 

Gaba DM. Physician work hours the sore thumb of organizational safety in tertiary health care. In Scheffler AL, Zipperer LA, eds. Enhancing Patient Safety and Reducing Errors in Health Care. Chicago National Patient Safety Foundation, 1998 302-305. 

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