The relevance of worker’s risk perception and risk awareness as (human) risk influencing factors for the risk analysis and how they could be integrated in the risk assessment process

Abstract

In today’s complex systems, it is no longer sufficient to assess risks based on technical factors; risk assessments are increasingly challenged to include also human and organizational factors, which since 2010 has also been emphasized by a Norwegian standard. This thesis investigates workers’ risk perception and risk awareness as potential human factors that could be included in risk assessments. As this thesis focuses on workers, traditional risk perception theory is applied to a smaller context i.e., an organization or a company, where workers, and thus their risk perceptions, are part of the risk picture, and could qualify for an inclusion into risk assessment, alongside risk analysis, or even in the analysis itself. The basic assumption for including risk perception or awareness in the risk analysis is that they affect workers’ behavior, their actions, and thus accident risk. However, it has been found in this thesis that even though indications have been found, such a relationship has so far not been proven. Only few sources have been found where they were considered as human factors, and even fewer where they were considered for an inclusion into risk assessment. This thesis takes a novel approach merging traditional research in risk perception and awareness with traditional risk assessment methods. As a part of this, potential methods for integrating risk awareness and risk perception in risk assessment were reviewed and compared, resulting in a three-level approach recommended for including these factors into risk analysis. In addition, it was discussed whether these factors should be included in risk analysis, given that they are deemed as relevant risk influencing factors by future research, and it could be concluded that of the two, risk perception should be included in risk analysis. Several arguments have been found why factors such as workers’ risk perception should be included, however, in comparison with other risk influencing factors, it could not be concluded based on previous research which factors would be the most relevant to include, with the result that this decision will remain a decision relying primarily on expert judgement and varying between different cases; a decision that will have to be reevaluated for every risk assessment to be carried out. This thesis emphasizes the importance of research in this field and the development of practical methodology, providing clear guidance, for making the aim of including human and organizational factors in the risk assessment feasible.

In today’s complex systems, it is no longer sufficient to assess risks based on technical factors; risk assessments are increasingly challenged to include also human and organizational factors, which since 2010 has also been emphasized by a Norwegian standard. This thesis investigates workers’ risk perception and risk awareness as potential human factors that could be included in risk assessments. As this thesis focuses on workers, traditional risk perception theory is applied to a smaller context i.e., an organization or a company, where workers, and thus their risk perceptions, are part of the risk picture, and could qualify for an inclusion into risk assessment, alongside risk analysis, or even in the analysis itself. The basic assumption for including risk perception or awareness in the risk analysis is that they affect workers’ behavior, their actions, and thus accident risk. However, it has been found in this thesis that even though indications have been found, such a relationship has so far not been proven. Only few sources have been found where they were considered as human factors, and even fewer where they were considered for an inclusion into risk assessment. This thesis takes a novel approach merging traditional research in risk perception and awareness with traditional risk assessment methods. As a part of this, potential methods for integrating risk awareness and risk perception in risk assessment were reviewed and compared, resulting in a three-level approach recommended for including these factors into risk analysis. In addition, it was discussed whether these factors should be included in risk analysis, given that they are deemed as relevant risk influencing factors by future research, and it could be concluded that of the two, risk perception should be included in risk analysis. Several arguments have been found why factors such as workers’ risk perception should be included, however, in comparison with other risk influencing factors, it could not be concluded based on previous research which factors would be the most relevant to include, with the result that this decision will remain a decision relying primarily on expert judgement and varying between different cases; a decision that will have to be reevaluated for every risk assessment to be carried out. This thesis emphasizes the importance of research in this field and the development of practical methodology, providing clear guidance, for making the aim of including human and organizational factors in the risk assessment feasible.