Systemic Approach to Failure Analysis: A Study of Sociotechnical Organization

The paper is an attempt to explore systemic approach to accidents analysis within sociotechnical organization. Unsafe behaviors can result in systemic failures and accidents. The research data came from within an industrial radiography organization where radiation source is used to detect cracks or hidden flaws within machinery and welding joints. The radioactive source can cause severe detrimental effects, even death, if not used safely. This paper is on two isolated events happen in the same company, Industrial Services Private Limited (not real name). The company top management was dealing with the financial crisis and to maintain quality of its services and the safety of staff. The leadership of the company made several business and operational decisions to manage the financial crisis. During that time, several near miss incidents took place, but the first major incident took place when the radiography gamma projector, along with the radioactive source, fallen out of the vehicle because of improper back door closure of the vehicle. In the second incident, the radioactive source remained unshielded after a radiography job, this caused overexposure to radiography workers. The paper provides an opportunity to understand how an organization’s leadership can create conditions for errors and mistakes that result in poor safety culture and ultimately the accident which resulted the system failure and operation shutdown. The paper also tries to propose a conceptual framework to improve safety culture within the sociotechnical systems for the future research in this area.

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TRAFFIC SIGN COMPREHENSION AND RISKY TRAFFIC BEHAVIORS

The current study investigates the relationship between risky traffic behaviors and traffic sign comprehension (TSC). It is hypothesized that, as traffic sign comprehension increases, unsafe traffic behaviors decrease. The data were collected online through Qualtrics from 275 participants, 177 of whom were drivers. The questionnaire package included 25 open-ended traffic sign questions, Pedestrian Behavior Scale, Mini-Driver Behavior Questionnaire with 3 additional aggressive violation items, and a demographic information form. The results indicated that TSC was significantly related to reported driver errors and lapses after controlling for age and gender. In addition, pedestrian-related TSC was significantly related to reported pedestrian transgressions, lapses, aggressive behaviors, and positive behaviors after controlling for age, gender, driver's license, and driving experience. Generally, the results were consistent with the expectations: the better that road users (drivers and pedestrians) understand traffic signs, the fewer drivers and pedestrians reported unsafe behaviors (errors and lapses for drivers; transgressions, aggressive behaviors, and lapses for pedestrians), and the more pedestrians reported positive behaviors. This finding can be explained by the fact that as the need of people to understand traffic signs increases, they avoid behaviors that will lead to accidents in traffic. For this reason, it can be predicted that comprehensively introducing children to traffic signs from an early age will contribute positively to road safety.

Cascading vulnerability analysis of unsafe behaviors of construction workers from the perspective of network modeling

PurposeThe construction industry is an industry with a high incidence of safety accidents, and the interactions of unsafe behaviors of construction workers are the main cause of accidents. The neglect of the interactions may lead to serious underestimation of safety risks. This research aims to analyze the cascading vulnerability of unsafe behaviors of construction workers from the perspective of network modeling.Design/methodology/approachAn unsafe behavior network of construction workers and a cascading vulnerability analysis model were established based on 296 actual accident cases. The cascading vulnerability of each unsafe behavior was analyzed based on the degree attack strategy.FindingsComplex network with 85 unsafe behavior nodes is established based on the collected accidents in total. The results showed that storing in improper location, does not wear a safety helmet, working with illness and working after drinking are unsafe behaviors with high cascading vulnerability. Coupling analysis revealed that differentiated management strategies of unsafe behaviors should be applied. Besides, more focus should be put on high cascading vulnerability behaviors.Originality/valueThis research proposed a method to construct the cascading failure model of unsafe behavior for individual construction workers. The key parameters of the cascading failure model of unsafe behaviors of construction workers were determined, which could provide a reference for the research of cascading failure of unsafe behaviors. Additionally, a dynamic vulnerability research framework based on complex network theory was proposed to analyze the cascading vulnerability of unsafe behaviors. The research synthesized the results of dynamic and static analysis and found the key control nodes to systematically control unsafe construction behaviors.

An Unhealthy World

This chapter explains how the world that faced COVID-19 was not a world free of existential threats, merely from the widespread knowledge of them. The pandemic revealed just how vulnerable we have always been, and how vulnerable we will remain unless we learn its lessons. The first step to doing so is understanding the ways in which the world is still unhealthy and the forces which enable this poor health. This means looking at health disparities, which emerge from the misalignment of the structures that underlie health—the social, economic, political, and geographic factors which unfold across time and distance to shape our world. Creating a healthy world means engaging with health on this level—and we cannot prevent the next pandemic without creating a healthy world. The chapter discusses how we can do so, by first looking at the ways we have fallen short. The challenges of widespread disease, the proliferation of unsafe behaviors like smoking, and other forms of preventable mortality all speak of a world that is still unhealthy. The chapter then looks at how these challenges intersected with COVID-19. Finally, it considers the role global cooperation and international institutions played in addressing COVID-19, and their importance for creating a better future for health.

Design, Implementation, and Evaluation of an Information System to Enhance Road Safety Level for Pedestrians in China

Pedestrians’ unsafe behavior is one of the most critical factors causing traffic incidents in China. The primary objective of this study is to explore the cause of pedestrians’ unsafe behavior and provide possible solutions. We interviewed pedestrians and experts to investigate pedestrians’ unsafe behaviors. Results from interviews indicated that pedestrians were likely to exhibit unsafe behavior at intersections owing to use of smartphones, reluctance to obey the rules, and unawareness of risk. According to the experts, attracting the attention of pedestrians and guiding them to exhibit safe behaviors can improve their safety. Based on these results, we designed “LookMe,” which is a multimedia information system placed at the intersections, to guide pedestrians across the road and improve their experience of waiting in traffic. The results of user tests indicated that pedestrians had relatively high acceptance of LookMe. Moreover, participants wanted to see diverse multimedia information on the screen of LookMe such as news, videos, maps, and traffic information. Findings from this study can be useful in understanding why Chinese pedestrians exhibit unsafe behaviors and proposing effective solutions to enhance their safety.

Research on Management and Control of Miners’ Unsafe Behavior Based on Gray Theory

A large number of accidents and scientific researches show that miners’ unsafe behavior affects coal mine safety production seriously. In order to effectively reduce the incidence of miners’ unsafe behavior, to improve their safety level, and reduce accidents caused by it, this paper used gray relational analysis method to analyze the miners’ unsafe behavior of W mine and quantitatively calculated the risk value of miners’ unsafe behavior. The results showed that the risk value of unsafe behavior in violation of labor discipline was 0.4358, which was much higher than that of other miners’ unsafe behaviors. Therefore, unsafe behavior in violation of labor discipline was determined as the key point of control in the next stage. Then, GM (1, 1) method was used to establish a predicted model for unsafe behavior, to predict the number of unsafe behaviors in violating labor discipline in next quarter, and to determine reasonable unsafe behavior control target. This study plays a driving role in controlling unsafe behaviors of miners and improving safe production water of coal mine.