New challenges in organizational research: high reliability organizations

Abstract

This paper describes a multidisciplinary project concerned with the design and management of hazardous organizations that achieve extremely high lev els of reliable and safe operations. The organizations in which the research is being conducted are the Federal Aviation Administration's Air Traffic Control system, Pacific Gas and Electric Company's electrical distribution system, and two nuclear aircraft carriers of the United States Navy. The paper describes the research strategy and then presents some initial organizational paradoxes and findings. These are discussed in terms of describing the organizations, decision making, interdependence, the "culture" of high reliability and adaptation to technological change. The paper concludes with the admonition that managers in hazardous organizations should consider the cost of safeguards against or ganizational catastrophes versus the costs of catastrophe (in money, lives and public outcry).