Human Factor Theory - Accident Causation

This theory of accident causation suggests that a chain of events caused by human error is the cause of accident. The chain of events have three broad factors of overload, inappropriate response and not appropriate activities. Overload means that a worker is performing beyond his capacity. The capacity is the function of physical condition, fatigue, natural ability, training, state of mind, and work stress, Besides the work or job to be performed the worker may carry added burden from internal factors like personal problem, women and emotional stress and from external factors such as noise, distraction etc. Level of risks and unclear instruction may as well add to the load of a worker occasionally. A number of inappropriate responses to a specific situation keep coming from workers. Some see a hazardous condition and do nothing to right it before taking next step towards completion of a job.

Some workers shun the make use of a safeguard for increasing productivity. If established procedure of safety is disregarded it is an inappropriate response. Doing a job which a worker does not know completely or doing a job without knowing risk included are inappropriate activities. Human factor theory of accident causation has successfully described increasing number of accidents if a given factory has to produce double or much more than double the capacity. In a factory manufacturing kitchen wares, the production had to be raised three times because new markets were developed. Management in its anxiety to meet the production target offered higher overtime rates and workers accepted to be overloaded. To raise productivity they also removed machine safeguard which was an unsuitable response.