Safety Management Systems (SMS) are now required in a lot of establishments handling hazardous substances in Europe in application of the council directive 96/82/EC of 9th December 1996 on the control of major-accident hazards involving dangerous substances, known as SEVESO 2 Directive. The Human Factors play obviously an important part in the effectiveness of those safety management systems. Indeed the system depends on the involvement of the people in charge of applying it. Considering the Human Factors from this angle leads the risk analyst to look at the organisation also through its social aspect. The question raised becomes therefore how the relationships, the power plays between workers, the cultural influences can interact with the intended prevention goals of the SMS. The idea would be to allow the risk analyst to foresee the creation mechanisms of the organisational shortcomings at the origin of the major accident. In this paper the author describes the development of a risk analysis approach that creates a focus on the link between the major accident hazards and the activities of the SMS, taking into account the real activities operated for the prevention process. This is a new approach where the individual is not the focus point, like traditionally in the formal Human Error or Human Factor approaches. The individual is considered in the context of the organisation, in its relation with others, in its relation with the processes of the organisation
