MCA: Interactions of Human Performance, Physical Failure Mechanisms, and Organizational Phenomena in Socio-Technical Risk Analysis of Complex Technological Systems

University Of Illinois At Urbana-Champaign, Urbana IL

Investigators

Abstract

Compelling historical evidence from accidents such as the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, the Boeing 737 Max accidents, and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill has shown that human performance (e.g., errors, confusion), physical failure mechanisms (e.g., material degradation), and organizational factors (e.g., organizational culture and training) all played important roles in contributing to the outcomes. To prevent catastrophic technological accidents, risk engineers need to consider the interactions of technical, human, and organizational factors, yet they rarely do so. This project aims to (a) advance modeling of potential risks in technological systems, (b) apply new methods to diverse industry and regulatory settings, and (c) develop an educational platform for socio-technical risk analysis. By integrating knowledge from risk science and engineering with insights from organizational and social sciences, this initiative informs regulation and policymaking. Next-generation leaders can utilize the results to contribute to ensuring they deliver safe, resilient, sustainable, and socially responsible technological advancements. The solutions derived from this project help to protect the public and environment and foster a new generation of risk engineers equipped to tackle socio-technical challenges. Despite progress in Probabilistic Risk Assessment (PRA) and Human Reliability Analysis (HRA) within engineering systems, the spatiotemporal interplay of human, physics, and organizational (HPO) factors has not been fully captured. The Principal Investigator has advanced theoretical foundations, methodologies, and computational platforms for (i) incorporating organizational factors into PRA (ii) spatiotemporal coupling of physical failure mechanisms with human performance, and (iii) incorporating spatiotemporal human-physics coupling into PRA. Yet there is still the need to account for the complex interplay of HPO factors in a unified manner and to demonstrate how the spatiotemporal interactions among them influence the safety risk of technological systems. The project bridges this gap by focusing on causal relationships among HPO factors and enhancing the theoretical and methodological bases to incorporate HPO interactions into risk models. The project focuses on bringing about the mid-career advancement of Principal Investigator Mohaghegh by enabling her to work intensively over time with senior experts in organizational psychology and behavior (Ostroff), risk regulation and policymaking (Rowell), and the PRA of critical infrastructures (Bier). This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.