Professional misconduct does not explain the real cause of accidents

Just like human error, a lack of professionalism from frontline staff is frequently invoked when looking for the cause of accidents. However, automatically attributing accidents to human behavior is a little short-sighted when it comes to risk management. Instead, we must look for the root causes, particularly in terms of human and organizational factors (HOF).

In their Thoughts on Safety Culture, Mario Poy and Diego Turjanski invite us to look beyond the obvious, and search for the real causes of accidents. This approach makes it possible to put in place corrective actions on a collective scale. If this does not happen, it is likely that similar, undesirable events will recur.