Flashcards
03. Human Factors
Cards in this deck (27)
- 1The HSE defines human factors as:“environmental, organisational and job factors, and human and individual
characteristics which influence behaviour at work in a way which can affect health and
safety.” - 2A simple way to view human factors is to think about three aspects:the individual,
the job, and the organisation and how they impact on people’s health and safety-
related behaviour. - 3The Organisation 5Culture, leadership,
resources, work patterns,
communications…… - 4The individual 5Competence,
skills, personality.
attitudes, risk
perception…… - 5The job 5Task, workload,
environment,
displays and
controls,
procedures…. - 6The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) describes the culture of an organisation as:“the ideas and beliefs that all members of the organisation share about risk, accidents
and ill health." - 7Some key aspects of an effective culture include: 5Management commitment
Visible management
Good communications
Active employee participation
Effective health and safety training - 8Factors Influencing Individual Behaviour 6Attitudes
Personality
Abilities
Motivation
Perception
Training - 9People are generally well motivated at work if: 3 they understand the importance of the objectives they are tasked to achieve;
the objectives are realistic and achievable; and
satisfactory achievement of the objective results in personal fulfilment and/or a
tangible reward. - 10Intentional failures, or deliberate deviation from a rule or procedure, are known asviolations
- 11Unintentional failures are known ashuman errors
- 12Active failureshave an immediate consequence and are usually made by front-
line people such as drivers, control room staff or machine operators - 13Latent failuresare distant in time and space from the consequences. They are
typically failures in health and safety management systems (design,
implementation or monitoring) and are often attributed to designers, decision
makers and managers - 14Violations are divided into three categories:routine, situational and exceptional
- 15Routine violations occur whenbreaking the rule or procedure has become a normal
way of working within the work group. - 16Routine violations can be due to: 5 the desire to cut corners to save time and energy;
the perception that the rules are too restrictive;
the belief that the rules no longer apply;
lack of enforcement of the rule; and
new workers starting a job where routine violations are the norm and not realising
that this is not the correct way of working. - 17Situational violations occur whena rule is broken due to pressures from the job
such as being under time pressure, insufficient staff for the workload, the right
equipment not being available or even extreme weather conditions. - 18Exceptional violationsrarely happen and only then when something has gone
wrong. When solving a problem during an emergency it may be necessary to break a
rule, regardless of the risk, because it is believed that the benefits outweigh the risks - 19Errors fall into three categories:slips, lapses and mistakes.
- 20Slips and lapses occurin very familiar tasks which can be carried out without much
need for conscious attention. These tasks are called 'skill-based' and are very
vulnerable to errors if attention is diverted, even momentarily. - 21Slipsare failures in carrying out the actions of a task. They are described as 'actions-
not-as planned', e.g. picking up the wrong component from a mixed box, operating
the wrong switch, transposing digits when copying out numbers or doing steps in a
procedure in the wrong order. - 22Typical slips might include: 5 performing an action too soon in a procedure or leaving it too late;
omitting a step or series of steps from a task;
performing the action in the wrong direction (e.g. turning a control knob to the
right rather than the left, or moving a switch up rather than down);
doing the right thing but on the wrong object (e.g. switching the wrong switch);
and
carrying out the wrong check but on the right item (e.g. checking a dial but for the
wrong value). - 23Lapsescause actions to remain undone or workers to lose their place in a task. They
can be reduced by minimising distractions and interruptions to tasks and by providing
effective reminders especially for tasks which take some time to complete or involve
periods of waiting. - 24Mistakes area more complex type of human error where the wrong thing is done in
the belief that it is right. - 25Mistakes may be (2 types)Rule-based mistakes
Knowledge based mistakes - 26Rule-based mistakes occurwhen behaviour is based on remembered rules or
familiar procedures. There is a strong tendency to use familiar rules or solutions even
when they are not the most convenient or efficient. - 27Knowledge based mistakes occurwhen it is necessary to solve problems from first
principles. Misdiagnoses and miscalculations are natural consequences of learning by
trial and error.
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- Degree IOSH MS Flashcards on 03. Human Factors, created by adamharries on 27/11/2013.
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