Role of Fatigue in Active Failures Research Assignment

Fatigue
Name
Institution
Fatigue
The term fatigue has been defined by numerous researchers and while they might use different approaches, the idea communicated is always the same. Rogers (1 ,2008) defines fatigue as “an overwhelming sense of tiredness, lack of energy, and a feeling of exhaustion associated with impaired physical and/or cognitive functioning.” Elshennawy et al. (352, 2015), also defines it as “a decrease in physical performance associated with an increase in the real/perceived difficulty of a task or exercise.” The common feature between the two definitions is the reduction in a person’s physical functioning or performance. Over the years, the world woke up to sad news of disasters which after careful analysis revealed lapses in judgment as well as employees negligence. However, upon closer examination of these situations and the organizations involved, new evidence exonerated the employees of any blame while casting the finger to the management or leadership of these organizations. The above led to the introduction of two ideologies, ‘blame the victim’ and ‘blame the system’, which have been used to drive the narrative on some issues including fatigue in the workplace. While on one hand it seems logical to blame the lapses in judgment and the small mistakes on the employees, it also seems reasonable to blame an organization’s culture and decision-making structure. By delving deeper into these two ideologies or approaches, this article seeks to showcase the active role of fatigue in failures as well as provide evidence indicating why the ‘blame the victim approach should be rejected in favor of the ‘blame the system’ approach.
Role of Fatigue in Active Failures
Fatigue can arise as a result of several factors. According to Rogers (1, 2008), it can be as a result of “illness, a vigorous workout, or a period of prolonged concentration.” Additionally, one could suffer from fatigue because of monotony, working long hours, lack of morale, and changing or switching from day to night shift. While on paper these the factor listed above might seem small of less impact, their consequences could be dire and lead to catastrophic results. While citing data from the US Office of Marine Safety, Security and Environmental Protection and the Office of Navigation Safety and Waterway Services, Gordon (1996), shows that “operator status” was listed as one of the main factors which contribute to accidents. Among the factors listed under operator status is fatigue, inattention, and carelessness. Fatigue plays a major role in how people function and their commitment to their work. It also affects their concentration while in the workplace. Some of the roles of fatigue in active failures include:
* Fatigue impairs judgement which leads to bad decisions. When employees work for longer hours or are forced to work for longer hours, eventually, their judgment becomes impaired and the decisions they make will often not be the best. Human factors have been identified as one of the causes of accidents and other organizations failures in the workplace. In her article, Gordon (1996) stated that fatigue and problems between employee...