A point has been reached in the development of technology where the greatest dangers stem not so much from the breakdown of a major component or from isolated operator errors, as from the insidious accumulation of delayed-action human failures occurring primarily within the organizational and managerial sectors. These residual problems do not belong exclusively to either the machine or the human domains. They emerge from a complex and as yet little understood interaction between the technical and social aspects of the system. Such problems can no longer be solved by the application of still more "engineering fixes" nor are they amenable to the conventional remedies of human factors specialists. Further improvements in reliability will require more effective methods of risk management. These, in turn, depend upon acquiring a better understanding of the breakdown of complex socio-technical systems, and the development of new techniques of risk assessment.
Source: The contribution of latent human failures to the breakdown of complex systems, James Reason, 1990
