Designing for Adaptation in Workers' Individual Behaviors and Collective Structures With Cognitive Work Analysis: Case Study of the Diagram of Work Organization Possibilities

OBJECTIVE

We demonstrate that the diagram of work organization possibilities, a recent addition to cognitive work analysis, can be used to develop designs that promote adaptation in the workplace.

BACKGROUND

Workers in sociotechnical systems adapt not just their individual behaviors but also their collective structures in dealing with instability, uncertainty, and unpredictability in their tasks. However, conventional design approaches are limited in supporting adaptations in both workers' behaviors and structures, especially during unforeseen situations. The work organization possibilities diagram has the potential to meet these requirements, but its value for design has not been established.

METHOD

We present a case study of a future system for maritime surveillance that provides an analytical demonstration of the utility of the diagram for design and empirical validation of the impact, uniqueness, and feasibility of this approach in an industrial setting.

RESULTS

This application results in a team design that is integrated with the career and training progression pathway of the crew in a way that maximizes the system's behavioral and structural possibilities for adaptation. Further, the approach has impact on practice, makes a distinct contribution to design relative to other techniques, and is implemented feasibly in an industrial setting.

CONCLUSION

The work organization possibilities diagram can contribute to the development of an integrated system design that supports actors' possibilities for behavioral and structural adaptation in a unified fashion.

APPLICATION

This research provides a basis for designing interfaces, teams, training, and automation that preserve a system's inherent capacity for adaptation.

Killer Apps: Developing Novel Applications That Enhance Team Coordination, Communication, and Effectiveness

As part of the Lorentz workshop, “Interdisciplinary Insights into Group and Team Dynamics,” held in Leiden, Netherlands, this article describes how Geeks and Groupies (computer and social scientists) may benefit from interdisciplinary collaboration toward the development of killer apps in team contexts that are meaningful and challenging for both. First, we discuss interaction processes during team meetings as a research topic for both Groupies and Geeks. Second, we highlight teamwork in health care settings as an interdisciplinary research challenge. Third, we discuss how an automated solution for optimal team design could benefit team effectiveness and feed into team-based interventions. Fourth, we discuss team collaboration in massive open online courses as a challenge for both Geeks and Groupies. We argue for the necessary integration of social and computational research insights and approaches. In the hope of inspiring future interdisciplinary collaborations, we develop criteria for evaluating killer apps—including the four proposed here—and discuss future research challenges and opportunities that potentially derive from these developments.