Citation

Cowley S, Borys D. J. Health Saf. Res. Pract. 2014; 6(2): 18-22.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2014, Safety Institute of Australia, Publisher LexisNexis Media)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This paper describes a model of organisational elasticity that conveys an image of work and hazards as inextricably linked and maintained under control through safeplace measures. It draws on systems theory and moves beyond linear views of accident causation to depict workplace system failures as emergent rather than resultant properties of the system. The model applies to work and safety and is based on the recognition that people "at the blunt end" who design the systems and processes used in organisations make a number of assumptions about the reality of life for people at the work face, "at the sharp end". Generally there is a gap between work as imagined (at the blunt end) and work as actually done (at the sharp end). In such systems, human performance must be variable and it is the variability that is both the reason for successful operation of workplaces and sometimes the reason for accidents. Therefore, failures cannot be prevented by eliminating performance variability. Instead risk and safety analyses should try to understand the nature of variability of normal performance and distinguish between drift that is adaptive and improves organisational performance and drift that exposes people to risk. The drift can be conceptualised as elasticity in the system and when the limits of elasticity are reached there is exposure to risk. Thus the elasticity model can be used to illustrate both the need for and the implications of adaption and highlights that people need to be able to correctly anticipate risks before failures and harm occur.

Language: en