root cause

In our mine safety research one of the key issues is determining the actual root causes of unsafe behavior.  These are usually deeply rooted in entrenched belief systems and metaphors. 

This story, that I found on Bob Sutton's blog, illustrates how determining what is actually driving behaviour (in this case workplace theft), can lead to astoundingly simple (and cheap) solutions.  In fact, as you'll see in the story, the more expensive solutions (installing cameras) made the situation worse ...