Beyond human error taxonomies in assessment of risk in sociotechnical systems: a new paradigm with the EAST ‘broken-links’ approach

Stanton, Neville A.; Harvey, Catherine

Abstract

© 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. Risk assessments in Sociotechnical Systems (STS) tend to be based on error taxonomies, yet the term ‘human error’ does not sit easily with STS theories and concepts. A new break-link approach was proposed as an alternative risk assessment paradigm to reveal the effect of information communication failures between agents and tasks on the entire STS. A case study of the training of a Royal Navy crew detecting a low flying Hawk (simulating a sea-skimming missile) is presented using EAST to model the Hawk-Frigate STS in terms of social, information and task networks. By breaking 19 social links and 12 task links, 137 potential risks were identified. Discoveries included revealing the effect of risk moving around the system; reducing the risks to the Hawk increased the risks to the Frigate. Future research should examine the effects of compounded information communication failures on STS performance. Practitioner Summary: The paper presents a step-by-step walk-through of EAST to show how it can be used for risk assessment in sociotechnical systems. The ‘broken-links’ method takes a systemic, rather than taxonomic, approach to identify information communication failures in social and task networks.

Citation

Stanton, N. A., & Harvey, C. (2016). Beyond human error taxonomies in assessment of risk in sociotechnical systems: a new paradigm with the EAST ‘broken-links’ approach. Ergonomics, 60(2), 221-233. https://doi.org/10.1080/00140139.2016.1232841

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 24, 2016
• Online Publication Date: Sep 22, 2016
• Publication Date: Sep 22, 2016
• Deposit Date: Nov 14, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 21, 2020
• Journal: Ergonomics
• Print ISSN: 0014-0139
• Electronic ISSN: 1366-5847
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 60
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 221-233
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00140139.2016.1232841
• Keywords: Physical Therapy, Sports Therapy and Rehabilitation; Human Factors and Ergonomics
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/3278453
• Additional Information: Peer Review Statement: The publishing and review policy for this title is described in its Aims & Scope.; Aim & Scope: http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?show=aimsScope&journalCode=terg20