Socio-technical systems

Systemic Socio-Technical Causation Model for Hazards-Related Incidents At least 25 incident causation models are referenced in safety literature. They present a great diversity of thinking. None of those models have achieved anything close to universal acceptance. Yet, safety professionals are obligated to have the advice they give be effective as clients take action to avoid, eliminate, or control hazards and to achieve acceptable risk levels. That advice must be based on a sound and studied thought process that takes into consideration the reality of the sources of hazards. This author builds a case in support of what he proposes for a systemic sociotechnical causation model for hazards-related incidents. 

Figure 8.1 A systemic socio-technical model for an operational risk management system.

SYSTEMIC SOCIO-TECHNICAL CAUSATION MODEL FOR HAZARDS-RELATED INCIDENTS... 

Systemic Socio-Technical Causation Model for Hazards-Related Incidents... 

Figure 13.1 A systemic socio-technical causation modei for hazards-reiated incidents.

For the causation model described in Chapter 13, Systemic Socio-Technical Causation Model for Hazards-Related Incidents, MORT is exceptionally valuable because it requires extensive consideration of the influence of management decisions on the development of or the... 

The last requirement, i.e. if all (root)cause areas are included, was used to retrieve three pro-active methods indicating safety risks. All three methods address the entire socio-technical system (technical, human and organizational). These three methods are used to construct a new pro-active method of indicating safety risks, which includes the benefits and addresses the limitations of these three existing methods. The three methods evaluated are MORT, Johnson (Johnson, 1980), TRIPOD, Hudson (Hudson et al., 1991), and PRISMA, van der Schaaf (Schaaf van der, 1992). 

Kirwan B., 2001. Coping with accelerating socio-technical systems, Safety Science (37), pp. 77-107. 

Our society is characterized by the deployment of large, complex infrastructures which are interconnected among them in intricate ways. These infrastructures are composite socio-technical systems-of-systems, whose functioning comes out from the interaction of multiple components and organizations, mostly loosely coupled and weakly coordinated [15]. 

In addition, it should be considered that the picture is further complicated by the fact that security solutions require the application of additional socio-technical systems, vulnerable themselves, and which can be used themselves as attack means (cf. attack to the Twin Towers on September 11th, 2001). 

With less than perfect (i.e., real) systems, in the absence of (successful) fault tolerance, failures may occur and will presumably need to be tolerated somehow by the encompassing (possibly socio-technical) system. However, this notion of failure tolerance is just fault tolerance at the next system level. 

The successful design and deployment of any complex system that interacts directly with humans thus calls for socio-technical as well as technical expertise. One particular problem is that of how best to partition an overall task between humans and computers so as (i) to reduce the probability of failures due to misunderstandings across the human-machine interface, and (ii) to make best use of the greatly differing abilities that humans and computers have with respect to following complicated detailed sequences of instructions, and recognizing that a situation is both novel and potentially dangerous. 

Socio-technical systems and autonomous work groups... 

Rousseau, D. M. (1977), Technological Differences in Job Characteristics, Employee Satisfaction, and Motivation A Synthesis of Job Design Research and Socio-technical Systems Theory, Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, Vol. 19, pp. 18-42. 

Tiist, E. (1981), The Evolution of Socio-technical Systems, Ontario Ministry of Labor—Quality of Working Life Centre, Toronto. 

Technical system dominance Socio-technical integration... 

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