The task demands‐resources method: A new approach to human reliability analysis from a psychological perspective

Abstract

This study proposes a new approach to human reliability analysis (HRA) by introducing the occupational stress model in human resources management. Most existing HRA methods are restricted to a given set of risk factors in the task context, which are often called performance shaping factors (PSFs), and they are built on the causal relationship between PSFs and human performance, with little concern for the psychological factors that drive human behavior. We argue that a well‐developed occupational stress model that incorporates comprehensive working conditions and focuses on psychological factors offers us a new perspective to evaluate human reliability. The proposed approach, namely, the task demands‐resources (TD‐R) method, considers that the PSFs, in the task context, can be categorized into two different groups: task demands and task resources. These two PSF groups can both motivate and stress the operators during the task, thereby influencing their performances. Based on the theoretical framework of the TD‐R method, we also designed a probabilistic model linking motivational intensity to human error probability (HEP) under different stress levels. A human reliability experiment has been conducted to validate the effectiveness and flexibility of the TD‐R method. The experiment results showed that the TD‐R method could produce a meaningful explanation for the operators' performances and provide a quantification result for HEP.

Estimating and ranking the impact of human error roots on power grid maintenance group based on a combination of mathematical expectation, Shannon entropy, and TOPSIS

“…A study on job stress in human resource management was conducted in Refs. 26, because psychological factors have a great influence on the performance of operators and have been neglected in traditional HRA studies. Refs.…”

Human reliability analysis in maintenance team of power transmission system protection

“…It also shows that the complexity of human-machine interaction is more important than the other two factors, and suggests that employees fully follow operating rules and spend more time in training. In [22], a study on job stress in human resource management is conducted and the results show that psychological factors are also very important and effective…”