A risk perspective supporting organizational efforts for achieving high reliability

Abstract

Many industries and organizations are actively searching for approaches that can help them enhance the reliability of their operations and avoid mishaps. The concept of high reliability organizations (HROs) has been given considerable attention in this regard. HRO theorists have emphasized the process of mindfulness as a characteristic that allows for better interaction with risk and uncertainty, in order to minimize the potential for failures. From a risk management perspective however, it is not straightforward how to best proceed to obtain a mindful infrastructure which enables such capabilities. Various perspectives on risk and uncertainties exist, which call for different approaches and solutions. A key question studied in this paper is to what extent are traditional risk perspectives based on probability and historical data limited in their ability to support an HRO mindset for managing risk. The main purpose of the paper is to draw attention to an alternative risk perspective that replaces probability with uncertainty in the definition of risk, and to show how such a risk perspective can better support the implementation of HRO theory than the more traditional perspectives. We discuss the implications of such a shift in thinking – from focusing on probabilities to the broader domain of uncertainties regarding risk – for organizations that are seeking to improve their risk management capabilities and enhance the reliability of their operations.

Keywords:

• risk perspectives
• high reliability organizations
• uncertainties