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thumbnail of The Adaptive Organisation Progress in understanding adaptation in safety management

Author
Craig Foster, Katherine Plant & Rich McIlroy
Abstract
In the last 20 years, new theories, ideas, and disciplines of safety have emerged to address the evolving nature of safety management in complex sociotechnical systems. The literature increasingly recognises the importance of adaptation; whereby the people in the system use their skills and experiences to make continuous, real-time demand compensations to ensure safety through trade-offs, self-organisation, informal practices and strategies. This paper presents the results of an investigation into the nature of adaptation and the emerging understanding of the role it plays with reference to the safety of UK air traffic control.