Skip to main content
IOSH Magazine: Safety, Health and Wellbeing in the world of work - return to the homepage IOSH Magaazine logo
  • Visit IOSH Magazine on Facebook
  • Visit @ioshmagazine on Twitter
  • Visit IOSH Magazine on LinkedIn
Gender equality
Practice meets perfect
May/June 2023 issue

Main navigation

  • Home
    • Browse previous issues
    • Member accolades
    • Member tributes
  • Health
    • Mental health and wellbeing
      • Bullying
      • Drugs and alcohol
      • Mental health
      • Stress
      • Wellbeing
    • Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs)
      • Ergonomics
      • Manual handling
      • Vibration
    • Occupational cancer
      • Asbestos
      • Hazardous substances
      • Radiation
  • Safety
    • Incident management
      • Chemicals
      • Electricity
      • Fire
      • First aid
      • Slips and trips
    • Non-health related fatalities
      • Road safety
      • Work at height
    • Risk management
      • Confined spaces
      • Disability
      • Legionella
      • Lifting operations
      • Lone workers
      • Noise
      • Personal protective equipment
      • Violence at work
      • Work equipment
      • Workplace transport
  • Management
    • Human factors
      • Accident reduction
      • Behavioural safety
      • Control of contractors
      • Migrant workers
      • Older workers
      • Reporting
      • Safe systems of work
      • Sickness absence
      • Young workers
    • Leadership and management
      • Employee involvement
      • Management systems
    • Management standards
      • ISO 45001
      • ISO 45003
    • Planning
      • Assurance
      • Compliance
      • Emergency planning
      • Insurance
    • Rehabilitation
      • Personal injury
      • Return to work
    • Strategy
      • Corporate governance
      • Performance/results
      • Regulation/enforcement
      • Reputation
    • Sustainability
      • Human capital and Vision Zero
  • Skills
    • Communication
    • Personal performance
      • Achieving Fellowship
      • Career development
      • Competencies
      • Personal development
      • Professional skills
      • Qualifications
    • Stakeholder management
    • Working with others
      • Leadership
      • Future Leaders
  • Jobs
  • Covid-19
  • Knowledge Bank
    • Back to basics
    • Book club
    • Infographics
    • Podcast
    • Reports
    • Webinars
    • Videos
  • Products & Services
  • Management
    • Human factors
      • Sickness absence
      • Accident reduction
      • Behavioural safety
      • Control of contractors
      • Migrant workers
      • Older workers
      • Reporting
      • Safe systems of work
      • Young workers
    • Leadership and management
      • Employee involvement
      • Leadership
      • Management systems
    • Management standards
      • ISO 45001
      • ISO 45003
    • Planning
      • Assurance
      • Compliance
      • Emergency planning
      • Insurance
    • Strategy
      • Corporate governance
      • Performance/results
      • Regulation/enforcement
      • Reputation
    • Sustainability
      • Human capital and Vision Zero
  • Health
    • COVID-19
    • Mental health and wellbeing
      • Bullying
      • Drugs and alcohol
      • Mental health
      • Stress
      • Wellbeing
    • Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs)
      • Ergonomics
      • Manual handling
      • Vibration
    • Occupational cancer
      • Asbestos
      • Hazardous substances
      • Radiation
  • Safety
    • Incident management
      • Chemicals
      • Electricity
      • Fire
      • First aid
      • Slips and trips
    • Non-health related fatalities
      • Road safety
      • Work at height
    • Risk management
      • Confined spaces
      • Disability
      • Legionella
      • Lifting operations
      • Lone workers
      • Noise
      • Personal protective equipment
      • Violence at work
      • Work equipment
      • Workplace transport
  • Skills
    • Communication
    • Personal performance
      • Career development
      • Competencies
      • Personal development
      • Qualifications
      • Professional skills
      • Achieving Fellowship
    • Stakeholder management
    • Working with others
      • Leadership
      • Future Leaders
  • Transport and logistics
  • Third sector
  • Retail
  • Mining and quarrying
  • Rail
  • Rehabilitation
    • Personal injury
    • Return to work
  • Utilities
  • Manufacturing and engineering
  • Construction
  • Sector: IOSH Branch
    • Sector: Northern Ireland
    • Sector: Midland
    • Sector: Merseyside
    • Sector: Manchester and North West Districts
    • Sector: Ireland East
    • Sector: Ireland
    • Sector: Edinburgh
    • Sector: Desmond-South Munster
    • Sector: Qatar
    • Sector: Oman
    • Singapore
    • Sector: South Coast
    • Sector: South Wales
    • Sector: Thames Valley
    • Sector: Tyne and Wear
    • Sector: UAE
    • Sector: West of Scotland
    • Sector: Yorkshire
  • Healthcare
  • Sector: Fire
  • Sector: Financial/general services
  • Sector: Energy
  • Education
  • Sector: Communications and media
  • Chemicals
  • Sector: Central government
  • Catering and leisure
  • Agriculture and forestry
  • Sector: Local government
  • Sector: IOSH Group
    • Sector: Financial Services
    • Sector: Sports Grounds and Events
    • Rural industries
    • Sector: railway
    • Public Services
    • Sector: Offshore
    • Sector: Hazardous Industries
    • Sector: Food and Drink
    • Sector: Fire Risk Management
    • Education
    • Construction
    • Sector: Aviation and Aerospace
Quick links:
  • Home
  • Categories
  • Topics
  • Management
  • Human factors
Leadership
Safe systems of work
Professional skills
Transport and logistics
Review

Investigating Human Error: incidents, accidents, and complex systems

Open-access content Tuesday 12th September 2017
From the archive:  Just so you know, this article is more than 3 years old.

investigating-human-error-book-review

Rating:

But investigations often fall short when they get to the difficult issue of human error, seeing it as a principal cause of accidents.

Psychologist Barry Strauch argues such an approach misses the point: no investigation can be considered to be complete until those leading it have understood why people acted as they did.

In the second edition of his book, Strauch explores human error from the investigator's point of view. His focus is transport accidents, including air and rail crashes, but the findings are relevant to other complex system tasks such as running a power station control room or carrying out a surgical procedure in an operating theatre.

There are four main sections: section 1 "errors and complex systems" sets the scene, then "antecedents" delves into latent factors such as the equipment, operator and corporate culture. The third section reviews the various sources of data on which investigators can draw, while the fourth ("issues") includes chapters on "maintenance and inspection", "situation awareness and decision making" (important because at one stage "loss of situational awareness" became the new catch-all accident cause"), "automation" and "final thoughts". This last section also includes an extended case study based on the crash of an Asiana Airlines Boeing 777 at San Francisco in July 2013 (the burnt-out and tail-less aircraft shown on the front cover).

The book has a strong structure that aids understanding and it gives enough detail so that the reader understands the complexity of the issues involved.

The theory is there too and helps the reader to understand the facts of what happened. If you want to delve into the sources, they are copiously referenced and indexed, and each chapter has an introduction and summary so that you can see at a glance what it covers. Almost all the chapters include a practical checklist for the investigator: a useful feature.

Like systems, no investigator is perfect. As investigators we hope to show objectivity, attention to detail and painstaking persistence, but exercising these positive attributes sometimes leads us to lose touch with the human side of what we are investigating: empathy, tact and consideration are important qualities for the effective investigator.

Strauch brings together all these qualities in this book: he is technically thorough, but never loses sight of the human cost of accidents. He rightly presents being an investigator as a great calling and gives hope that future tragedies may be prevented -- if only we avoid short cuts as we seek to learn from what's gone wrong. Highly recommended, and excellent value at the price.

Barry Strauch | CRC Press (www.crcpress.com) | £32.99 paperback | £23.09 e-book (2nd edition)

You may also be interested in...

 Global gathering

Thursday 21st September 2017
Andragogy, digibesity, people-centred safety; even to those with English as their first language, the global gathering of OSH practitioners in Singapore offered some potentially novel terms.Almost 3,500 delegates from more than 80 countries attended the 21st World Congress on Safety and Health at Work in Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands Convention Centre from 3 to 6 September.
Open-access content

 The first global OSH campaign that aspires to zero harm

Monday 25th September 2017
New figures which begin to quantify this stark truth were revealed at the World Congress on Safety and Health at Work in Singapore (September 2017), a triennial gathering where leading organisations for safety and health connect with ministers, policymakers and some of the world’s largest corporations.
Open-access content

 Derran Williams, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development

Friday 25th August 2017
Unusually among the leaders interviewed for this magazine, Derran Williams CMIOSH has no one reporting to him. Yet he is responsible for overseeing the safety and health of hundreds of thousands of workers in massive infrastructure projects from road schemes to power stations across eastern Europe and beyond.As associate director and senior health and safety adviser at the London-based European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Williams has to verify that the standards of protection are acceptable on the schemes the bank funds.
Open-access content

 Occupational Safety and Health: fundamental principles and philosophies

Monday 18th September 2017
Rating: Readers outside the US will have to accept that Reese’s book is aimed at that market so its regulatory references are to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the studies it cites are mainly from the US.
Open-access content
©Sean824

 Government support package aims to cut sickness absence

Thursday 14th September 2017
The new advice, developed jointly by Public Health England (PHE) and health and wellbeing services provider Healthy Working Futures (formerly the Fit For Work Team), aims to help employers promote good health. The guidance includes information on carrying out a workplace health needs assessment (HNA) – a series of questions that staff answer anonymously. Businesses can use the findings to tailor activities to improve health and wellbeing.
Open-access content

 Three degrees of separation

Wednesday 20th September 2017
Sellafield’s nuclear decommissioning and reprocessing site on the Cumbrian coast is home to one of the largest and most complex construction projects under way in the UK.The site is undergoing a 100-year-long programme to replace the original treatment and storage facilities, which have deteriorated since construction at the start of the cold war in the late 1940s and 1950s (see our feature in November 2016’s IOSH Magazine, bit.ly/2wLvqSN Sellafield, nuclear decommissioning).
Open-access content
Topics
Human factors
Leadership
Safe systems of work
Professional skills
Transport and logistics
Review
Share
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Linked in
  • Mail
  • Print

Latest Jobs

Health and Safety Improvement Manager

Leeds
£35000 - £50000 per annum
Reference
5452992

SHEQ Systems Advisor

Up to £40000.00 per annum + Car Allowance
Reference
5452988

Senior Health and Safety Manager

Reading
Up to £65000.00 per annum + Great Car Allowance & Benefits
Reference
5452983
See all jobs »

Sign up for regular e-alerts

Receive the latest news and features, free to your inbox

Sign up

Subscribe to IOSH magazine

Receive the print edition straight to your door

Subscribe
IOSH Covers
​
FOLLOW US
Twitter
LinkedIn
YouTube
CONTACT US
Contact us
Tel +44 (0)20 7880 6200
​

IOSH

About IOSH
Become a member
IOSH Events
MyIOSH

Information

Privacy Policy
Terms & Conditions
Cookie Policy

Get in touch

Contact us
Advertise with us
Subscribe to IOSH magazine
Write for IOSH magazine

IOSH Magazine

Health
Safety
Management
Skills
IOSH Jobs

© 2023 IOSH • IOSH is not responsible for the content of external sites

ioshmagazine.com and IOSH Magazine are published by Redactive Media Group. All rights reserved. Reproduction of any part is not allowed without written permission.

Redactive Media Group Ltd, 71-75 Shelton Street, London WC2H 9JQ