Human Error or Cultural Failure that Cause Serious Incidents and Implications for Industry

People may think that human error means fixing an individual for incidents. This paper clarifies that human error is linked to organisational culture which needs to be fixed, not the individuals. Insufficient training of key employees can lead to a non-precision approach to risk control. Human errors (such as non-judgment, and lack of confidence) can cause serious incidents even in the most advanced technology workplaces or digitalised world. Human errors could be due to cognitive, physical, perceptual and behavioural deficiencies. Every human error can be understood in terms of a sequence of events such as a lack of top management safety culture, cost cutting, and so on. Human errors also show direct and indirect connections with organisational factors, human factors, profit-making attitudes, not keeping the worst in mind while making safety decisions, and not adhering to previous safety recommendations. Temporary repairs and maintenance over time again and again, and not replacing costly parts are greater hidden human issues. Financial implications force companies to carry out temporary repairs but not permanent replacements. Above all, regulatory audits and approvals for faulty repairs increase safety problems even bigger. Maintenance and financial problems heighten the safety issues of companies. Continuing human errors are potential enough to shut down companies, as reviewed in the literature. There could be a possibility of human errors not being identified or resolved with all systems in good condition which is why a particular human error or system error occurred? Whatever is left and whatever is improbable must be the cause of the least understandable incidents. Do companies have a human safety ethics committee that could look into human errors? This paper shares rich qualitative data from seven organisational stories on how they fixed human errors to convert into a positive safety culture towards zero-harm objectives. Vision Zero-harm Interventions are explained to fix human errors, which necessitates that we consider human errors in the antecedents and perspectives of every organisational culture. Don’t fix people, fix cultures.