Comparing HROs and RE in the light of safety management systems

Abstract The High Reliability Organizations (HROs) and Resilience Engineering (RE) movements represent similar schools of thought, and may seem difficult to differentiate on clear grounds. This paper uses a generic taxonomy of safety management modes, developed during a field study conducted within the French Air Navigation Service Provider (ANSP), to facilitate their comparison. The field study was an opportunity to contrast the classical Safety Management System (SMS) regulatory approach with the HRO and RE frameworks. It also led to the development of a generic taxonomy of safety management modes, which is used for comparing the HRO and RE frameworks from a safety management perspective. While HRO and RE share a common theoretical inspiration (complex adaptive systems), a common philosophy of safety management, and reach similar conclusions in terms of “positive” safety management features, they can still be differentiated by their position in the grid. HROs are close to one of the four safety management modes described in the taxonomy, while resilience is a component of safety management that is present, at different levels, across all the four safety management modes.