If we want to understand why the activity of operators has a particular characteristic, it is often necessary to look for reasons other than those that are immediately visible.
The operator working on an aspect of the process is placed in a working environment that will play a part in determining his/her activity and, therefore, his/her observable behavior.
If we take a photograph of him/her, some of this working environment will be visible:
A portion of the facilities, The tools, A co-worker, etc. But many more components of the workplace environment will not be visible in the photo:
The company’s strategy, The history of the facilities, that of the operator, The social relationships, The rules of the organization, The workgroups, The time needed to carry out an operation, The temperature and The odors that emanate in this area, etc. These other aspects of the situation influence the operator’s activity just as much as those visible in the photo. If we want to understand why the activity of operators has a particular characteristic, it is often necessary to look for reasons other than those that are immediately visible.
Source: Daniellou, F., Simard, M. and Boissières, I. (2011). Human and organizational factors of safety: a state of the art. Number 2011-01 of the Cahiers de la Sécurité Industrielle, Foundation for an Industrial Safety Culture, Toulouse, France (ISSN 2100-3874). DOI: 10.57071/429dze. Available at foncsi.org/en
