ABSTRACT
A Human and Organizational Factors (HOF) approach of safety management is dedicated to study, with human and social sciences lenses, the unsafe acts of workers and the factors of working situations, departments, and companies. This chapter presents qualitative research based on the authors’ experience feedback. It explores the use of some systemic concepts which are currently implemented by HOF specialists and to illustrate them from day-to-day human activities to activities of workers during severe industrial accidents. A HOF specialist may enlarge the system of causes in focusing on the role of humans and organizations concerning for example the maintenance of some barriers. The chapter examines the set of four causes proposed by Aristotle as a way to define and describe a system. It considers several items: the material cause; the formal cause; the final cause; and the moving cause.
