Product Description

The purpose of this book is to explore the human contribution to both the reliability and resilience of complex well-defended systems. The predominant mode of treating this topic is to consider the human as a hazard, a system component whose unsafe acts are implicated in the majority of catastrophic breakdowns. But there is another perspective, one that has been relatively little studied in its own right, and that is the human as hero, a system element whose adaptations and compensations have brought troubled systems back from the brink of disaster on a significant number of occasions. What, if anything, did these heroes have in common? Can these abilities be 'bottled' and passed on to others?Insightful, eloquent and extremely accessible, James Reason provides the reader with an essential guide to human behaviour on individual and organisational levels, examining the human from both perspectives.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #124645 in Books
• Published on: 2008-12-28
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 310 pages

About the Author
James Reason was Professor of Psychology at the University of Manchester from 1977-2001, from where he graduated in 1962. His primary research interest has been the human and organizational contributions to the breakdown of complex, well-defended systems. He has written books on absent-mindedness, human error, aviation human factors, on managing the risks of organizational accidents and, most recently, on error management in maintenance operations. He has researched and consulted in the fields of aviation, railways, nuclear power generation, maritime safety, oil exploration and production, mining, chemical process industry, road safety, banking and health care. He received the Distinguished Foreign Colleague Award from the US Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, the Flight Safety Foundation/Airbus Industrie Award for achievements in human factors and flight safety, and the Roger Green Medal from the Royal Aeronautical Society for contributions to human factors as applied to aerospace, and the Flight Safety Foundation/Boeing Aviation Safety Lifetime Achievement Award. He is a Fellow of the British Academy, the Royal Aeronautical Society and the British Psychological Society. He received an honorary DSc from the University of Aberdeen, and was awarded a CBE for contributions to patient safety. In 2006, he was made an honorary fellow of the Royal College of General Practitioners.

Customer Reviews

Humans and errors
I read this book because I work in healthcare and risk management is a major part of my job. It was facinating to read how incidents can occur and what consequences there can be from such small beginnings. Also, how the investigation and management of risk can be done effectively.

A facinating story from someone who literally has a world of experience to draw from.

A tremendously valuable book
Like many people I've used aspects of the work of James Reason - in particular his Swiss Cheese Model, and at the same time heard some very experienced people criticise him for his over-simplification of various safety and human factors issues.

So, I decided that this was my entry point into trying to understand him better. And a very worthwhile entry point it is too.

In large part, what I felt was going on as I read this book was that Professor Reason: clearly a very eminent scholar in the field of human factors and human error, was leading me by the hand through his own understanding of the major issues of human factors, together with how he reached that level of understanding of that.

And a deep understanding it is - he shows very well the function and nature of the human being in safety critical systems, both as "hero" - compensating for the deficiencies of the management system or equipment, and in some cases retrieving a situation from the point of disaster, and as the weak point whose deficiencies lead to many problems. For anybody either studying safety and/or human factors, or managing in a safety critical environment, I'd regard this as an excellent and worthwhile read.

It has a few minor deficiencies - the introductory couple of chapters are a bit dry compared to the more readable later material, the diagrams are rarely all that impressive, and whilst it certainly appears to me that there are lessons here for a whole range of non-safety-critical management issues, Prof. Reason doesn't tend to point this out. But, this is quibbling and doesn't stop me giving the book five stars.

Well worth reading
Author of the Swiss cheese model. Goes much further and although it has a lot about hospitals and aircraft industry it is suitable for any high hazard industry.
Explains why humans makes errors in an easy to read style with loads of examples.