Risky Work Environments: Reappraising Human Work within Fallible Systems

Abstract

It is likely that most researchers and practitioners operating within (that is, 'with'and 'in') complex technological systems would agree with the observation thathumans contribute positively to mitigating risk. Indeed, there is a growing consensusthat researching error alone cannot help us to fully understand how reliability insystems is accomplished. The contributors in this book show how such reliabilityis created in the ways in which humans work within their systems, positivelytaking into account the tallibility of those systems. This book is, therefore, aboutshedding light into the ways in which reliability is accomplished most of the time,despite imperfect systems, technologies and organizational procedures.