James Reason

James Tootle Reason CBE (né Tootle; 1 May 1938 – 4 February 2025) was a British professor of psychology at the University of Manchester, from where he graduated in 1962 and was a tenured professor from 1977 until 2001.

James Reason CBE
Born	James Tootle (1938-05-01)1 May 1938 Garston, Hertfordshire, England
Died	4 February 2025(2025-02-04) (aged 86) Slough, England
Alma mater	University of Manchester University of Leicester
Known for	Swiss cheese model
Spouse	Rea Jaari ​ (m. 1964)​
Children	2
Scientific career
Fields	Psychology
Institutions	University of Leicester[1] University of Manchester

Background

James Tootle was born in Garston, Hertfordshire, on 1 May 1938.^[1][2] His father was killed during The Blitz, and his mother died several years later, leaving him to be raised by his maternal grandfather, Thomas Reason, whose surname he adopted.^[1] He was educated at the University of Manchester and the University of Leicester.^[1]

Career

Reason wrote books on human error,^[3] including absent-mindedness, aviation human factors, maintenance errors, and risk management for organizational accidents.^[4] In 2003, he was awarded an honorary DSc by the University of Aberdeen. He was a Fellow of the British Academy, the British Psychological Society, the Royal Aeronautical Society, and the Royal College of General Practitioners. He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2003 New Year Honours "for services to Reducing the Risk in Healthcare."^[5] In 2011, he was elected an honorary Safety and Reliability Society fellow.^[6]

Swiss cheese model of accident causation with example barrier layers

Among his many contributions is the introduction of the Swiss cheese model, a conceptual framework for the description of accidents based on the notion that accidents will happen only if multiple barriers fail, thus creating a path from an initiating cause to the ultimate, unwanted consequences, such as harm to people, assets, the environment, etc.^[3] Reason also described the first fully developed theory of a just culture in his 1997 book, Managing the Risks of Organizational Accidents.^[4]

Personal life and death

In 1964, Reason married educational psychologist Rea Jaari and had two children.^[1] He died from pneumonia at a Slough hospital, on 4 February 2025, at the age of 86.^[1][7]

Bibliography

Books

• Human Error, Cambridge University Press. 1990. ISBN 978-0-521-31419-0
• Managing the Risks of Organizational Accidents, Ashgate,1997. ISBN 978-1-84014-105-4
• Managing Maintenance Error: A Practical Guide, CRC Press. 2003. ISBN 978-0-7546-1591-0
• The Human Contribution, Routledge. 2008. ISBN 978-0-7546-7402-3
• A Life in Error, Routledge. 2013. ISBN 978-1-4724-1841-8
• Beyond Aviation Human Factors, Routledge. 2016. ISBN 978-1-84014-948-7
• Organizational Accidents Revisited, CRC Press. 2016. ISBN 978-1-4724-4768-5