Health, safety and the environment is a priority area for high reliability organisations (HROs), yet the past 30 years have seen various major accidents including Piper Alpha (1988) and Fukushima (2011). While HROs initially focused on the technical factors causing major accidents, there is increasing recognition of human and organisational factors (HOF) as an important issue. The relevance of near misses and critical incidents is particularly important: for these organisations, even apparently insignificant errors can combine to pose a major threat to organisations, individuals, and the environment.
Kate Robertson,James Black,Sarah Grand-Clement,et al. Human and Organisational Factors in Major Accident Prevention: A Snapshot of the Academic Landscape. 2016-01-01.