The critical re-action: Learning from accidents

► Searching for one single learning process after a major accident is futile. ► Learning is explored as actors’ reflections of practice and organizational interplay. ► Emphasis is given to the actors’ perceptions of how learning is ‘produced’. ► Learning inhibitors, promoters, and paradoxes are iden...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Safety science 2012-12, Vol.50 (10), p.1977-1982
Main Authors: Størseth, Fred, Tinmannsvik, Ranveig Kviseth
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Accident investigation
Biological and medical sciences
Major accidents
Medical sciences
Miscellaneous
Organizational interaction
Organizational learning
Public health. Hygiene
Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine
Transport
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Summary:► Searching for one single learning process after a major accident is futile. ► Learning is explored as actors’ reflections of practice and organizational interplay. ► Emphasis is given to the actors’ perceptions of how learning is ‘produced’. ► Learning inhibitors, promoters, and paradoxes are identified. How do organizations react and learn from accidents? The current paper deals with the justified necessity of acting upon, and learning from accidents. The aim is to discuss organizational dynamics and interplay, evoked and put into (re)action ‘after the fact’. The paper is part of an interview study that was designed to invite individuals to reflect back, and search for patterns in terms of how they interpret the learning impact of an accident, not just in terms of changes within their own organization that can be traced back to accidents, but for the sector as a whole. A presumption for this study was the importance to look at organizational interaction, i.e. how organizations act, affect, and speak with each other. In all 30 people from the rail and marine sector were interviewed with regard to (1) revealed changes in the aftermath of the accident, and (2) conditions for learning from accidents. Thematically, the interviews had two major accidents in Norway as a background theme: The high-speed craft MS Sleipner-accident (1999) and the railway accident at Åsta (2000). The paper reports and discusses key findings from the study, with a specific focus on the interplay between actors and parallel processes in the aftermaths of an accident.
ISSN:0925-7535
1879-1042
DOI:10.1016/j.ssci.2011.11.003