How do audits fail to avert major disasters? What do investigations after a major accident say about the performance, or failures, of audits? Today’s article is Hutchinson, B., Dekker, S., & Rae, A. (2024). How audits fail according to accident investigations: A counterfactual logic analysis. Process Safety Progress, 43(3), 441-454. Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0GiQ6QeAYGFZhxmppb5n3k?si=gB3Hvpi3RpaPtLsGChZSZw Make sure to subscribe to… Continue reading Safe As 36: How audits fail prior to major accidents
Tag: auditing
Safe AF #9: How certified systems & auditing mask psychosocial factors
We design, implement and ISO-certify our safety systems with best intentions. We hope these systems help us to identify and address workplace hazards. However, is it possible that certified management systems can instead mask particular complex sociotechnical issues, simplifying psychosocial matters into neat, auditable matters, devoid of their depth and nuance? Can auditing transform functional… Continue reading Safe AF #9: How certified systems & auditing mask psychosocial factors
Safe AF #6: Audit Masquerade – How audits provide comfort rather than treatment for serious risks
Are audits effective checks and verifications of our risk control systems? Are they diving deep into the functionality and effectiveness of systems and practices, and evaluating actual daily, hazardous work? Or, are they mostly rustling paperwork at the expense of operational hazards? Ref: Hutchinson, B., Dekker, S., & Rae, A. (2024). Audit masquerade: How audits… Continue reading Safe AF #6: Audit Masquerade – How audits provide comfort rather than treatment for serious risks
Failing audits and ‘comprehensively shallow’ evaluations of system performance
Do (some) audits focus too greatly on paperwork? Or is the paperwork focus a strength of audits? In our previous paper, we reviewed 44 major accident reports to assess the accident inquiries’ descriptions of pre-accident audit performance. We argued that: “many audits exhibited a ‘comprehensive shallowness,’ delving excessively into minor system details and paperwork rather… Continue reading Failing audits and ‘comprehensively shallow’ evaluations of system performance
Safety audits almost never target the actual sources of operational danger
Reflecting on my first audit study – we found things many would expect (image 1), like audits largely focusing on administrative items, and superficial matters. And for my construction friends, we found ‘toolboxes’ used a lot to address an issue, even if that issue didn’t have any reasonable connection to something that you’d need to… Continue reading Safety audits almost never target the actual sources of operational danger
Audits, excessive compliance focus and risk blindness
Still genuinely surprised that our last paper on audit failures has generated, relatively speaking, so much interest: now the second-most accessed paper in the Process Safety Progress journal. [* It shows as number 1 but that’s a glitch in the matrix. There’s a study on ‘red squirrels tests’ that has HEAPS more views.] No doubt… Continue reading Audits, excessive compliance focus and risk blindness
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