Assumptions - how naval architects can design safer ships

摘要

The UK's Health and Safety Executive (HSE) defines human factors as referring to the environmental, organisational and job factors, and human and individual characteristics that influence behaviour at work in a way which can affect health and safety. This implies that those who 'design' the environment in which the person works have a direct influence upon their behaviour. Likewise those who 'design' the organisation and the job, ie, managers, also have an influence, and so a responsibility, for human behaviour. Increasingly, design, rather than the human, is being viewed as the significant causal factor in accidents. For example, Bennett focuses on air disasters and argues that errors can be induced through bad design, poor training, unrealistic rosters, sub-standard maintenance and other factors totally outside the control of the flight crew. This view is reinforced by Dekker who assesses two views of human error - the old view, in which human error becomes the cause of an incident or accident, or the new view, in which human error is merely a symptom of deeper trouble within the system.