TRIPOD: Professionalism versus amateurism in the management of safety

Abstract This paper will discuss the role of human error in the accident causation process and indicate what the most effective way is of human error prevention. Human error is an important contributing cause in up to at least 90% of all accidents. Consequently the elimination of human error should be a most promising target for accident prevention. Tripod concentrates upon systemic factors and the way in which management decisions can propagate into unsafe conditions at the work place. It attempts to help the organization to control the accident causation process and not to focus mainly on the individual worker or the negative outcomes like accidents and incidents. Optimal control of the controllable environmental conditions that cause human error makes an organization maximally intrinsically safe. Managing these conditions is the next step in getting as close to zero accidents as economically and logistically feasible. Introduction Since the publication of Human Error1 a consistent trend in the interest in the contribution of human error to industrial accidents can be noticed. The common factor in this trend is the theory that prevention of human error is most effectively gained by controlling the working environment instead of focusing at the individual who ‘failed’.2,3 Safety does not, as many experts believe, depend on the number of sprinklers and hydrants installed, but a high proportion of accidents and catastrophes are the obvious result of management error.4 According to Rasmussen5 accidents are the result of lack of control: ‘A closer look at major accidents indicates that the observed coincidence of multiple errors cannot be explained by a stochastic coincidence of independent events. Accidents are more likely caused by a systematic migration toward accidents by an organization operating in an aggressive, competitive environment. [..] Safety is a control problem.’ World wide a variety of different methods are utilized to reduce human error and Tripod is one of them. To prevent human error a range of techniques are available, some more effective than others. So, why is a new approach to managing safety like Tripod still necessary, with a whole new package of actions to be taken, if other initiatives as Accident Analysis, Unsafe Act Auditing, Qualitative Risk Assessment and Technical Safety Auditing are in place?. In many companies these techniques are applied to increase safety. These techniques may be necessary but are not yet sufficient to further decrease the number of accidents. Essential in trying to improve the safety state of individuals is to acquire insight into the situations that lead to accidents and how those specific situations can be avoided. These factors are not only present at the work floor but also at other supervisory and managerial levels. The most successful ones focus on the managerial responsibility in identification and elimination of adverse conditions at the workplace. Due to the complexity of dynamic organizations, management cannot develop fail-safe long term solutions. They should therefore not focus on the complete elimination of human error and the corresponding dynamics of human behavior by enforcing strict compliance with procedures but on the soundness of their organization. They have to control the processes they initiate to remedy deficiencies in the structure of the organization.