human error Flashcards
what is the traditional approach to addressing accidents in the workplace
- states accidents are uncontrollable, random events combined with unsafe behviour
- focusses on legislation and training people to work safer
- why doesn’t the traditional approach reduce accidents
- because training is not ongoing and people tend to have a “its not going to happen to me” attitude
what is the engineering approach to addressing accidents in the workplace
- design out accidents through hazard identification (changes the environment)
what challenges are associated with the engineering approach
- warnings go unnoticed, safety procedures are cumbersome, doesn’t cater to individual needs or consider organizational culture
what is the systems approach to addressing accidents in the workplace
considers organizational, personal and task factors; also considers both accidents AND near misses
what is human error
- it is not random; it is systematically connected to the design of tools, environment and work organization
how does leadership affect accidents
- those who perceive stronger leader support for safety were more attentive to it
- greater quality of a leader-member relationship
- poor leadership under reports or allocates blame elsewhere
how does job involvement/job insecurity relate to accidents
- increased involvement = decreased accidents
- increased insecurity = increased accidents
What factors of young workers do NOT contribute to greater injury
- risk perception, peer influence, social “rules”, limit testing, impulsive behaviours
What factors of young workers do contribute to greater injury
- insufficient training, low social cohesion, perceived work overload, unaware of labor laws, intimidation, newness…
why do older workers tend to have less accidents
- generational experience; experience in general, “healthy worker effect”
what are some direct pathways to accidents
- lack of job control
- job demands (under and overload)
- job pace
- work schedules/shift work
- role ambiguity
- bullying in the workplace
what are some indirect pathways that lead to accidents
- reduced sleep
- over medication
- depression/anxiety
- change in cognitive style
- all this can result in distraction, errors in judgement, increased susceptibility, reduced hand-eye coordination
what motivation theories apply to safety
- reinforcement, vroom, goal setting, job characteristic
how can physical design reduce human error
- must consider how people process information and what human limits and capabilities regarding: attention, working memory, long-term memory, reaction time
- design for capabilities
