Safety Management : A Quantitative Systems Approach

Professionals striving for accident reduction must deal with systems in which both technical and human elements play equal and complementary roles. However, many of the existing techniques in ergonomics and risk management concentrate on plant and technical issues and downplay human factors and "subjectivity." Safety Management: A Qualitative Systems Approach describes a body of theories and data that addresses safety by drawing on systems theory and applied psychology, stressing the importance of human activity within systems. It explains in detail the central roles of social consensus and reliability and the nature of verbal reports and functional discourse.

This text presents a new approach to safety management, offering a path to both greater safety and to economic savings. It presents a series of methodological tools that have proven to be reliable through extensive use in the rail and nuclear industries. These methods allow organizational and systems failures to be analyzed much more effectively in terms of quantity, precision, and usefulness.

The concepts and tools described in this book are particularly valuable for reliability engineers, risk managers, human factors specialists, and safety managers and professionals in safety-critical organizations.

'A much needed and overdue academic contribution to the field of safety management...some excellent insights and arguments ...very valuable reading
Ergonomics, 48 (1), 98

A new perspective ...distinctive...a unique resource worth buying. This book truly presents a philosophical challenge to the precepts held in the disciplines of safety management and occupational psychology.
E-Streams June 2004, Vol 7, No. 6
Essential reading for an up-to-date perspective on near miss reporting and safety management.
Risk Analysis 25, 775, June 2005

This book presents a new 'Qualitative Systems Approach' to safety management, offering both greater safety and economic savings. It presents a series of methodological 'tools' whose reliability and validity have been shown through extensive work in the rail and nuclear industries and that allow organizational and systems failures to be analyzed much more effectively in terms of quantity, precision and usefulness.

This is a textbook for undergraduate and graduate students in occupational psychology, human factors, ergonomics and HCI, and the sociology of disasters and risk. It is also useful for safety managers and professionals in many safety critical firms and organizations, reliability engineers, risk managers, and human factors specialists.