The ETTO principle : efficiency-thoroughness trade-off : why things that go right sometimes go wrong / Erik Hollnagel.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hollnagel, Erik, 1941-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Performance technology.

Performance--Psychological aspects.

Performance.

Industrial accidents.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (163 p.)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Farnham, England ; Burlington, VT : Ashgate, c2009.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

"Accident investigation and risk assessment have for decades focused on the human factor, particularly 'human error'. Countless books and papers have been written about how to identify, classify, eliminate, prevent and compensate for it. This bias towards the study of performance failures, leads to a neglect of normal or 'error-free' performance and the assumption that as failures and successes have different origins there is little to be gained from studying them together. Erik Hollnagel believes this assumption is false and that safety cannot be attained only by eliminating risks and failures. The ETTO Principle looks at the common trait of people at work to adjust what they do to match the conditions - to what has happened, to what happens, and to what may happen. It proposes that this efficiency-thoroughness trade-off (ETTO) - usually sacrificing thoroughness for efficiency - is normal. While in some cases the adjustments may lead to adverse outcomes, these are due to the very same processes that produce successes, rather than to errors and malfunctions. The ETTO Principle removes the need for specialised theories and models of failure and 'human error' and offers a viable basis for effective and just approaches to both reactive and proactive safety management."--Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Cover; Contents; List of Figures; List of Tables; Prologue; 1: The Need to Understand Why Things Go Wrong; 2: From Rationality to ETTOing; 3: Explaining Human Irrationality; 4: Efficiency-Thoroughness Trade-Off in Practice; 5: The Usefulness of Performance Variability; 6: ETTOs of the Past; 7: ETTOs of the Future; Epilogue; Subject Index

Notes:

Includes index.

OCLC-licensed vendor bibliographic record.

ISBN:

9786612243349

9781315616247

1315616246

9781317033615

1317033612

9781317033608

1317033604

9781282243347

1282243349

9780754693499

075469349X

OCLC:

432428967