The Nuclear Organization and Management Analysis Concept was first presented at the IEEE Human Factors meeting in Monterey in 1988. In the four years since that paper, the concept and its associated methodology has been demonstrated at two commercial nuclear power plants (NPP) and one fossil power plant. In addition, applications of some of the methods have been utilized in other types of organizations, and products are being developed from the insights obtained using the concept for various organization and management activities. This paper will focus on the insights and results obtained from the two demonstration studies at the commercial NPPs. The results emphasize the utility of the methodology and the comparability of the results from the two organizations.
BackmoundThere are many organizations in our society that depend on human performance to avoid incidents involving significant adverse consequences. As our culture and technology have become more sophisticated, the management of risk on a broad basis has become more and more critical. The safe operation of military facilities, chemical plants, airlines, and mass transit, to name a few, are substantially dependent on the performance of the organizations that operate those facilities. The United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has long been interested in the performance of individuals at the nuclear facilities over which it has jurisdiction. While NPPs have been designed through engineering disciplines to intercept and mitigate events that could cause adverse consequences, it has been clear from various safety-related incidents that human performance also plays a dominant role in preventing accidents. During the last few years, there has been a particular interest in how organizational factors affect NPP personnel performance, and thus, plant safety.The Nuclear Organization and Management Analysis Concept [l] was developed as part of an effort to identify scientifically valid and acceptable techniques to examine and asses the broad influence of organizational factors on NPP safety. The concept is a description of the human organization of a NPP. Its utility lies in the fact that it is a dynamic, interactive, and behavior-oriented characterization of the plant, emphasizing functional relationships between units. The identification of such a concept allows ideas generated by a particular characterization of the organization to be tested by a methodology. The concept of the NPP adopted for normal operations is characterized by large-sized units in the operating core, which performs the basic work of the organization including operations, maintenance and instrumentation and control, centralized decision-making, a functional basis for grouping personnel, and a sharp distinction between staff and line. Coordination occurs mainly through the standardization of work and skill (implementation of procedures, policies, programs, and training) primarily located in engineering, licensing, training and quality assurance units [2].To validate the concept, a met...