Workplace accidents as a consequence of human error: an empirical study in a gold mine

Abstract

In a context where high rates of accidents in the mining industry still occur, this study aims to evaluate if life events of employees of a large mining company in Brazil can cause human errors. Through the technique of modeling structural equations, is measured the causal relationship between life events, capacity for overcoming, stress, psychological function, physiological function, and human error. This based on the assumption that life events can influence these variables, which in turn can generate human error and cause damages to the workers. All the hypotheses of this relation were validated in a gold mining company with more than 600 employees. The results show that the life event is interconnected with human error and that the stress is an agent that influences this process. Furthermore, the descriptive statistics allowed to identify in which groups, selected from sociodemographic variables, there are higher possibilities of human error. The results have theoretical and practical implications and suggest measures that may contribute to reducing psychological and physiological dysfunctions to avoid workplace failures.