Charles Perrow

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Charles B. Perrow (born Tacoma, Washington) is a noted organizational theorist and sociologist for some time on the faculty of the University of Pittsburgh and recently at Yale University.

Perhaps his most famous work is Complex Organizations: A Critical Essay (ISBN 0-07-554799-6) first published in 1972 by Scott. Forseman & Co, Glenville Illinois.

He is the author of the book Normal Accidents: Living With High Risk Technologies (ISBN 0-691-00412-9) which explains his theory of normal accidents; catastrophic accidents that are inevitable in tightly coupled and complex systems. His theory predicts that failures will occur in multiple and unforeseen ways that are virtually impossible to predict.