Safety Management: Root Causes of Human Behavior

Human errors occur quite frequently. To prevent recurrence of the same errors, careful analysis is required to identify and eliminate the root causes of those errors. However, determining the root causes of incidents caused by worker behaviors is typically more difficult than finding the root causes of mechanical failures. This module will describe some different models and analysis methods that can help identify root causes of human errors and behavior problems.

• Describe the difference between looking for faults by the person or the process • List the factors that affect human behaviors • Define active and latent failures • Describe the types of human errors • Describe the conditions that cause human errors • Describe how supervisory actions and consequences affect human behaviors • Describe organizational factors that affect human behaviors • Describe general strategies for determining the root causes and implementing corrective actions for improving human behaviors