Learning and sustainable development in High Reliability Organizations ? a role model for traditional work organizations ?

International audienceHigh reliability organization (HRO)such as fire brigades, emergency rescue services or special police forces are forced with dynamic, unknown or completely new situations and they have to cope with insufficient information, time pressure, urgent need for ac-tion, stress and inherent hazards(Weick/Sutcliffe 2001). Despite these environmental situations HRO‟s are able to maintain high performance and achieve very good results e.g. safe lives, minimize hazards or prevent environmental damages. From the capabili-ty aspect experienced based learning and competence development on individual and team level are essential for such high performance. In the paper we will discuss whe-therHRO‟s could become a role model for organizational development in industrial en-terprises.From a theoretical background we refer to the high reliability theory from Weick and Sutcliffe (2001) as well as activity and experience based learning approaches (e.g. Bateson 1972; Kolb 9 1976; Engeström 2001). Our research is based on several qua-litative field studies within emergency rescue services, fire brigades and police special forces and with three producing companies (SMEtype industries)