ABSTRACT
My task in this section is to argue for a no-blame approach to risk management. Although few ever feel comfortable with any argument taken to its extreme, I am certainly much happier promoting a no-blame approach than one that aims to seek out the guilty and punish them “pour encouragez les autres”. I do not believe that guilt or blame have any legitimate part to play in a system of risk management. Why? Because the management of risk suggests that we seek, by various means, to control our exposure to risk and the consequences of human error. That, in turn, implies the creation of a system through which we will actively attempt to manage risk. An effective system will, necessarily, have many layers and employ multiple techniques (International Civil Aviation Organisation 1993, Orlady 1993).
