The Theoretical Development of Studies on High Reliability Organizations: An Integrative Framework for Managing the Duality of Structural Control and Social Control

抄録

Can organizations prevent accidents before they occur? There are two opposing viewpoints on this question: Normal Accident Theory takes the pessimistic view that complex systems with high technology cannot avoid accidents because of their complicated interactions and tight coupling; High Reliability Theory, conversely, takes the optimistic view that accident−free systems are obtainable by building redundancies and a high−reliability culture. Thus, this paper explores the possibility of integrating both approaches by comparing differences in their analytical viewpoints and several important points at issue. Moreover, this paper presents an integrative framework for managing the duality of structural control and social control to prevent organizational accidents.