The Human Contribution

by James Reason

This book explores the human contribution to the reliability and resilience of complex, well-defended systems. Usually the human is considered a hazard - a system component whose unsafe acts are implicated in the majority of catastrophic breakdowns. However there is another perspective that has been relatively little studied in its own right - the human as hero, whose adaptations and compensations bring troubled systems back from the brink of disaster time and again. What, if anything, did these situations have in common? Can these human abilities be ’bottled’ and passed on to others? The Human Contribution is vital reading for all professionals in high-consequence environments and for managers of any complex system. The book draws its illustrative material from a wide variety of hazardous domains, with the emphasis on healthcare reflecting the author’s focus on patient safety over the last decade. All students of human factors - however seasoned - will also find it an invaluable and thought-provoking read.

Genres: Nonfiction

310 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2008

About the author

James Tootle Reason was a professor of psychology at the University of Manchester, from where he graduated in 1962 and where he was a tenured professor from 1977 until 2001. He wrote books on human error, including such aspects as absent-mindedness, aviation human factors, maintenance errors, and risk management for organizational accidents. In 2003, he was awarded an honorary DSc by the University of Aberdeen. He was a Fellow of the British Academy, the British Psychological Society, the Royal Aeronautical Society, and the Royal College of General Practitioners. He received a CBE in 2003 for his services in the reduction of the risks in health care. In 2011 he was elected an honorary fellow of the Safety and Reliability Society.
Among his many contributions is the introduction of the Swiss cheese model, a conceptual framework for the description of accidents based on the notion that accidents will happen only if multiple barriers fail, thus creating a path from an initiating cause all the way to the ultimate, unwanted consequences, such as harm to people, assets, the environment, etc. Reason also described the first fully developed theory of a just culture in his 1997 book, Managing the Risks of Organizational Accidents.

Reviews

[Emanuele Gemelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

First of all, this is a good book; however for me the central part is not really that well rounded. I mean, I totally get it that in dire circumstances only exceptional people can save the day (and the opposite is true), but these seem to be partially related with the first part and the third part (being about what an error is and the new definition of safety). Nevertheless, the last chapter is worth the price of the whole book and it’s another recommended book for every safety professional

[Gallottino · Rating 4 out of 5]

Poteva J. Reason scrivere un libro ancora più bello sul risk management? Era assai difficile ma ci è riuscito. Questo libro spiega non solo molto accuratamente la teoria dello "swiss cheese" nell'ambito degli incidenti, ma dedica un ampio spazio agli eventi avversi in sanità e soprattutto una parte corposa su disastri che sembravano inevitabili e che sono stati evitati grazie al fattore umano.
Il fattore umano è indispensabile e le macchine non potranno mai risolvere problemi quasi impossibili senza la capacità della nostra mente. Manca purtroppo l'eroico salvataggio di "Sully", il Comandante Sullivan, il pilota che è ammarato sull'Hudson. Ma all'epoca dell'uscita del libro questo eccezionale evento non era ancora avvenuto.

[Ladybug33 · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is written in a very academic style, which is probably beneficial if you are studying the subject, however it is quite trying if you are just reading it out of interest. I found the case studies really interesting, however that was a small component of the book.