Management policies factors

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. 

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... 

Management policies have an all pervasive effect on the activities of individuals at every level in the organization. The safety-related factors at the management level which have been considered in the organizational systems perspective in Chapter 2, will be summarized here to complete the general classification scheme of PIFs. 

Evaluation of effects of management influences and policy factors on error causation... 

With regard to evaluating these factors, it is recommended that structured checklists be used, such as those provided by the HFAM method described in Chapter 2. These checklists provide an explicit link between the direct causal factors and management policies. Figure 2.12 shows how these checklists could be used to investigate possible procedures deficiencies, and the policies that led to the deficiencies, as part of the incident investigation. Similar checklists can be used to investigate possible culture problems (e.g., inappropriate trade-offs between safety and production) that could have been implicated in an accident. 

Around 1900, Frederick Taylor began studying efficiency in manufacturing with the purpose of identifying the impact of various factors on efficiency, productivity, and profitability. Although safety was not a major focus of his work, Taylor did draw a connection between lost personnel time and management policies and procedures. 

Figure 28.1 shows two sources of internal variability internal factors that produce volume variation (middle box) and process variability (bottom box). Internal factors are caused by management policies and procedures. A common one is an end-of-period production spike to manage financial performance. Such efforts are symptomatic of poor management, an unintended consequence. 

In any accident investigation, consider the aspect of multiple causation. The contributing factors surrounding an accident, as well as the unsafe acts and unsafe conditions, should be considered. If only the unsafe acts and conditions are considered when investigating an accident, little will be accomplished toward any accident prevention effort because the root causes still remain. This leaves the possibility for an accident to recur. The root causes are items such as management policies and decisions, and the personal and environmental factors that could prevent accidents when corrected. 

Accidents are usually complex and are the result of multiple causes. A detailed analysis of an accident will normally reveal three cause levels basic, indirect, and direct. At the lowest level, an accident results only when a person or object receives the release of an amount of energy or exposure to hazardous material that cannot be absorbed safely. This energy or hazardous material is the direct cause of the accident. The second causal areas are usually the result of one or more unsafe acts or unsafe conditions, or both. Unsafe acts and conditions are the indirect causes or symptoms. In turn, indirect causes are usually traceable to poor management policies and decisions, or to personal or environmental factors. These are the basic causes. 

While we often think of hazardous acts and conditions as the basic causes of accidents, actually they are symptoms of failure on another level. Unsafe acts and unsafe conditions can usually be traced to three basic causes poor management policies and decisions, personal factors, and the physical facility design. 

We often think of unsafe acts and unsafe conditions as the basic causes of accidents. They are only symptoms of failure. The basic causes are poor management policies and decisions, and personnel and environmental factors. Fortunately, most employers now realize that safety and health must be a necessary part of the total operating system. These anployers take the responsibility to prepare a written safety policy and guidelines to instill safety awareness in their employees. Selection of best employees for the job, training, employee plaeanent, and the purchase of safe equipment and supplies are important to a successful accident prevention program. 

The generic formulation obviously needs to be adjusted to include factors relevant to a particular decision-making problem. The literature analysis suggests that the most frequently considered factors are international factors, inventory, capacity treatment, transportation, and supply chain management policies. We discuss these below. 

Basic causes (management policies personal or environmental factors)... 

We said that although unsafe acts and conditions appear to be the basic causes of accidents, they can actually be traced to such things as management safety policies and decisions, and personal factors. These things (management policies and decisions, personal and environmental factors) are the basic causes of accidents. 

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