Chapter 19: Social factors

1. Chapter 19: Social factors • The social and organizational context on the performance of the individual • Team and group characteristics and the requirements for success • Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) • Macroergonomics and effective interventions

2. Heart disease and job characteristics

3. Social and organizational context Cultural influences Organizational influences Social influences Cognitive influences Country Company Group/Team Individual

4. Team and group characteristics • Every team is a group, but not every group is a team • Group • Limited role differentiation • Task performance depends on individual contributions • Group performance better than average member, but not better than best member, less than the sum of individuals • Team • Interdependence that requires coordination • Roles highly differentiated, specific responsibilities • Complementary skills

5. Effective teamwork • Common vision and meaningful purpose • Perception of interdependence • Commitment to work together • Coordination to effectively use team member skills • Team shares accountability • Groups of 5 are best for discussions • Taskwork skills and Teamwork skills

6. Teamwork skills • Communication, cooperation, coordination, critique, compensation • Shared mental model supports implicit coordination • Use of downtime to tune shared mental model

7. Characteristics of highly reliable organizations • Maintain constant awareness of possibility of accidents • Constant search for improvement in safety and reliability • Decision making is dispersed and not dependent on a central authority • Reporting of errors and faults are rewarded not punished

8. Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) • General trend to computerization requires consideration of group work • Three dimensions define groups/teams and the requirements for computer support (groupware): • Degree of role differentiation • Degree of external control/synchronization • Local/remote location

9. Group types and groupware requirements • Low differentiation/Low synchronization • Advisory groups • Decision support • Low differentiation/ High synchronization • Production groups • Task support • High differentiation/Low synchronization • Development teams • Collaboration support • High differentiation/ High synchronization • Action teams • Coordination support

10. Macroergonomics and industrial interventions • Macroergonomics takes a broad perspective, addressing social and organizational factors • Unit of analysis goes beyond person-machine system • Top-down approach that considers organizational characteristics • Programs consider company-wide factors and includes: • Education • Incentive programs • Job redesign

11. Interventions and participatory ergonomics • Participatory ergonomics= workers actively define the ergonomics solution • Succeeds because: • Workers know a lot about their jobs • Workers “ownership” enhances enthusiasm with implementation • Workers involvement supports flexible problem solving that considers the operational constraints

12. Barriers to interventions • Cost and stockholder pressure (e.g., demonstrated return on investment) • Change can undermine power and authority of managers • Powerful traditions and culture • Tendency to resist change (not broken don’t fix)

13. Key aspects of social factors • Social and organizational context matters • Groups are not necessarily teams • Degree of role differentiation and synchronization defines types of teams • Task training is not the same as team training • Effective computer support depends on team type • Macroergonomics helps define the success of microergonomics