Organizational Failure Analysis for Industrial Safety

Abstract

Organizational and management errors and failures represent a very significant causal influence in industrial accidents. A method, organizational failure analysis (OFA) is described for in-depth identification of organizational deficiencies and failures that can lead to accidents. The method was developed on the basis of an extensive data collection from safety management audits, accident and incident investigations, and emergency training exercises led by the author over a period of 26 years. From these data, a number of models of organizational performance and management behavior are derived. The models allow a semi-automated application of the method, which is important for the application to large organizations. The method is described with examples, and the results of several studies aimed at validating the method are given.