This is in contrast to a "blame culture"[3] where individual persons are fired, fined, or otherwise punished for making mistakes, but where the root causes leading to the error are not investigated and corrected.
In a blame culture mistakes may be not reported but rather hidden, leading ultimately to diminished organizational outcomes.
In this system, honest human mistakes are seen as a learning opportunity for the organization and its employees.
[5] However, willful misconduct may result in disciplinary action such as termination of employment—even if no harm was caused.
The first fully developed theory of a just culture was in James Reason's 1997 book, Managing the Risks of Organizational Accidents.