4. Organizational failure

The third and final level whose reliability must be studied is that of the collective. The vast majority of professional activities take place within organizations, permanent or ephemeral, integrating from two to several thousand workers. Even individual self-employed workers are imbued at some level with a "trade" with its own codes and practices.

Within an organization, each actor possesses only a fraction of the skills, knowledge and information needed to ensure that the organization's activities are carried out without error, or if necessary to catch up or deal with them.

Every individual in every function and at every level must be effectively interfaced with the rest of the organization. Rules and instructions must be properly relayed and communicated to operators. But prescribers and decision-makers also need to be supplied with the...