Flach John M, Carroll John S, Dainoff Marvin J, Hamilton W Ian
a Department of Psychology , Wright State University , 335 Fawcett Hall, Dayton , OH , USA.
Ergonomics. 2015;58(4):615-34. doi: 10.1080/00140139.2015.1015621. Epub 2015 Mar 11.
How do communications and decisions impact the safety of sociotechnical systems? This paper frames this question in the context of a dynamic system of nested sub-systems. Communications are related to the construct of observability (i.e. how components integrate information to assess the state with respect to local and global constraints). Decisions are related to the construct of controllability (i.e. how component sub-systems act to meet local and global safety goals). The safety dynamics of sociotechnical systems are evaluated as a function of the coupling between observability and controllability across multiple closed-loop components. Two very different domains (nuclear power and the limited service food industry) provide examples to illustrate how this framework might be applied. While the dynamical systems framework does not offer simple prescriptions for achieving safety, it does provide guides for exploring specific systems to consider the potential fit between organisational structures and work demands, and for generalising across different systems regarding how safety can be managed.
While offering no simple prescriptions about how to achieve safety in sociotechnical systems, this paper develops a theoretical framework based on dynamical systems theory as a practical guide for generalising from basic research to work domains and for generalising across alternative work domains to better understand how patterns of communication and decision-making impact system safety.
通信和决策如何影响社会技术系统的安全性?本文在嵌套子系统的动态系统背景下阐述了这个问题。通信与可观测性的概念相关(即组件如何整合信息以根据局部和全局约束评估状态)。决策与可控性的概念相关(即组件子系统如何行动以实现局部和全局安全目标)。社会技术系统的安全动态作为多个闭环组件中可观测性和可控性之间耦合的函数进行评估。两个截然不同的领域(核电和有限服务食品行业)提供了示例,以说明该框架可能如何应用。虽然动态系统框架没有提供实现安全的简单方法,但它确实为探索特定系统以考虑组织结构与工作需求之间的潜在匹配提供了指导,并为跨不同系统概括如何管理安全提供了指导。
虽然本文没有提供关于如何在社会技术系统中实现安全的简单方法,但它基于动态系统理论开发了一个理论框架,作为从基础研究推广到工作领域以及跨不同工作领域进行推广以更好地理解通信和决策模式如何影响系统安全的实用指南。