Organizational Learning and Safety: Breaking the Performance Plateau

Traditionally, companies have improved their safety performance by investing in new technologies, procedures, training, and management systems. But in the past decade, many companies that have continued to invest in building leading-edge safety programs have reached a performance plateau. Since 1982, there have been no sustained reductions in major-accident rates in U.S. industry. European regulators report a similar story: the incidence of major accidents has not diminished.