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