Cognition Technology & Work

Promises of industry 4.0 under the magnifying glass of interdisciplinarity: revealing operators and managers work and challenging collaborative robot design
Barcellini F, Béarée R, Benchekroun TH, Bounouar M, Buchmann W, Dubey G, Lafeuillade AC, Moricot C, Rosselin-Bareille C, Saraceno M and Siadat A
The goal of this article is to propose a cross-perspective around Collaborative Robotics-seen as a remarkable example of technologies 4.0 in an industrial context-by calling on sociology, activity-centred ergonomics, engineering, and robotics expertises. The development of this cross-perspective is thought to be a key issue to improve the design of work organisation for the Industry 4.0. After a socio-historical review of promises of Collaborative Robotics, the interdisciplinary approach developed and applied in a French Small & Medium Enterprise (SME) is presented. In this case study, two work situations are focused on in an interdisciplinary perspective: on the one hand, the one of operators whose professional gestures are intended to be supported by collaborative robots, and on the other the one of managers and executives as responsible for socio-technical changes. Our results reveal the technical and socio-organisational challenges faced by SMEs beyond the introduction of given technologies: analysing the relevance and feasibility of cobotisation projects with regard to the complexity of professional gestures and preserving the quality of work and performance under a continuous pressure to change (organisations, technologies). These findings support discussions of promises of collaborative robotics, and more generally Industry 4.0, regarding effective worker/technology collaboration and the possibility of "healthy" and performant work; they reiterate requirements for work-centred and participatory design, for reconnection in a sensory experience in a more and more digitalized work and open ways for more interdisciplinary approaches.
Older Drivers' Attitudes and Preferences about Instrument Cluster Designs in Vehicles Revealed by the Dashboard Questionnaire
Swain TA, Snyder SW, McGwin G, Huisingh CE, Seder T and Owsley C
Older drivers are a rapidly growing demographic group worldwide; many have visual processing impairments. Little is known about their preferences about vehicle instrument cluster design.
Complexity of the pediatric trauma care process: Implications for multi-level awareness
Wooldridge A, Carayon P, Hoonakker P, Hose BZ, Ross J, Kohler JE, Brazelton T, Eithun B, Kelly MM, Dean SM, Rusy D, Durojaiye A and Gurses AP
Trauma is the leading cause of disability and death in children and young adults in the US. While much is known about the medical aspects of inpatient pediatric trauma care, not much is known about the processes and roles involved in in-hospital care. Using human factors engineering (HFE) methods, we combine interview, archival document and trauma registry data to describe how intra-hospital care transitions affect process and team complexity. Specifically, we identify the 53 roles directly involved in patient care in each hospital unit and describe the 3324 total transitions between hospital units and the 69 unique pathways, from arrival to discharge, experienced by pediatric trauma patients. We continue the argument to shift from eliminating complexity to coping with it and propose supporting three levels of awareness to enhance the resilience and adaptation necessary for patient safety in health care, i.e. safety in complex systems. We discuss three levels of awareness (individual, team and organizational) and describe challenges and potential sociotechnical solutions for each. For example, one challenge to individual awareness is high time pressure. A potential solution is clinical decision support of information perception, integration and decision making. A challenge to team awareness is inadequate "non-technical" skills, e.g., leadership, communication, role clarity; simulation or another form of training could improve these. The complex, distributed nature of this process is a challenge to organizational awareness; a potential solution is to develop awareness of the process and the roles and interdependencies within it, by using process modeling or simulation.
UNDERSTANDING HOW PRIMARY CARE CLINICIANS MAKE SENSE OF CHRONIC PAIN
Militello LG, Anders S, Downs SM, Diiulio J, Danielson EC, Hurley RW and Harle CA
Chronic pain leads to reduced quality of life for patients, and strains health systems worldwide. In the U.S. and some other countries, the complexities of caring for chronic pain are exacerbated by individual and public health risks associated with commonly used opioid analgesics. To help understand and improve pain care, this article uses the data-frame theory of sensemaking to explore how primary care clinicians in the U.S. manage their patients with chronic noncancer pain. We conducted Critical Decision Method interviews with 10 primary care clinicians about 30 individual patients with chronic pain. In these interviews, we identified several patient, social/environmental, and clinician factors that influence the frames clinicians use to assess their patients and determine a pain management plan. Findings suggest significant ambiguity and uncertainty in clinical pain management decision making. Therefore, interventions to improve pain care might focus on supporting sensemaking in the context of clinical evidence rather than attempting to provide clinicians with decontextualized and/or algorithm-based decision rules. Interventions might focus on delivering convenient and easily interpreted patient and social/environmental information in the context of clinical practice guidelines.
Standardisation and Its Discontents
Wears RL
In discussions of the quality and safety problems of modern, Western healthcare, one of the most frequently heard criticisms has been that: "It is not standardised." This paper explores issues around standardisation that illustrate its surprising complexity, its potential advantages and disadvantages, and its political and sociological implications, in the hope that discourses around standardisation might become more fruitful.
Automation and adaptation: Nurses' problem-solving behavior following the implementation of bar coded medication administration technology
Holden RJ, Rivera-Rodriguez AJ, Faye H, Scanlon MC and Karsh BT
The most common change facing nurses today is new technology, particularly bar coded medication administration technology (BCMA). However, there is a dearth of knowledge on how BCMA alters nursing work. This study investigated how BCMA technology affected nursing work, particularly nurses' operational problem-solving behavior. Cognitive systems engineering observations and interviews were conducted after the implementation of BCMA in three nursing units of a freestanding pediatric hospital. Problem-solving behavior, associated problems, and goals, were specifically defined and extracted from observed episodes of care. Three broad themes regarding BCMA's impact on problem solving were identified. First, BCMA allowed nurses to invent new problem-solving behavior to deal with pre-existing problems. Second, BCMA made it difficult or impossible to apply some problem-solving behaviors that were commonly used pre-BCMA, often requiring nurses to use potentially risky workarounds to achieve their goals. Third, BCMA created new problems that nurses were either able to solve using familiar or novel problem-solving behaviors, or unable to solve effectively. Results from this study shed light on hidden hazards and suggest three critical design needs: (1) ecologically valid design; (2) anticipatory control; and (3) basic usability. Principled studies of the actual nature of clinicians' work, including problem solving, are necessary to uncover hidden hazards and to inform health information technology design and redesign.
Cognitive performance-altering effects of electronic medical records: An application of the human factors paradigm for patient safety
Holden RJ
According to the human factors paradigm for patient safety, health care work systems and innovations such as electronic medical records do not have direct effects on patient safety. Instead, their effects are contingent on how the clinical work system, whether computerized or not, shapes health care providers' performance of cognitive work processes. An application of the human factors paradigm to interview data from two hospitals in the Midwest United States yielded numerous examples of the performance-altering effects of electronic medical records, electronic clinical documentation, and computerized provider order entry. Findings describe both improvements and decrements in the ease and quality of cognitive performance, both for interviewed clinicians and for their colleagues and patients. Changes in cognitive performance appear to have desirable and undesirable implications for patient safety as well as for quality of care and other important outcomes. Cognitive performance can also be traced to interactions between work system elements, including new technology, allowing for the discovery of problems with "fit" to be addressed through design interventions.
Temporal aspects in crisis management and its implications on interface design for situation awareness
Gryszkiewicz A and Chen F
Temporality should be considered in the design of information technology support for crisis management (CM), both because crises are dynamic events and because time is a part of situation awareness (SA). This study has used group interviews to explore how different temporal aspects of CM can be considered in CM design and how they can influence crisis managers SA. A prototype and a scenario were used as mediating materials. The result consists of two parts. The first part is comprised of the participants' reflections on how timelines can be used to display information in CM information systems. According to the participants, timelines should present: deadlines, information sent to the public, incoming and outgoing information, an overview of where the current activities belong in the CM process and what has been going on since the last shift during shift changes. Timelines should not only display the listed information, but also provide functionality for adjusting the timescale so that information can be presented in alternative temporal perspectives. The second part of the result contains several obstacles that might influence the crisis managers' ability to obtain SA. Obstacles elicited from the group discussions are: information overflow, fast changes of SA due to incoming information, difficulties to share SA with actors outside the CM centre, forgetting things that need attention and that SA depends on the quality of incoming information. The two parts of the result have been compiled into six design principles for how temporality can be considered in CM systems in order to support SA.
Leveraging human factors in cybersecurity: an integrated methodological approach
Pollini A, Callari TC, Tedeschi A, Ruscio D, Save L, Chiarugi F and Guerri D
Computer and Information Security (CIS) is usually approached adopting a technology-centric viewpoint, where the human components of sociotechnical systems are generally considered as their weakest part, with little consideration for the end users' cognitive characteristics, needs and motivations. This paper presents a holistic/Human Factors (HF) approach, where the individual, organisational and technological factors are investigated in pilot healthcare organisations to show how HF vulnerabilities may impact on cybersecurity risks. An overview of current challenges in relation to cybersecurity is first provided, followed by the presentation of an integrated top-down and bottom-up methodology using qualitative and quantitative research methods to assess the level of maturity of the pilot organisations with respect to their capability to face and tackle cyber threats and attacks. This approach adopts a user-centred perspective, involving both the organisations' management and employees, The results show that a better cyber-security culture does not always correspond with more rule compliant behaviour. In addition, conflicts among cybersecurity rules and procedures may trigger human vulnerabilities. In conclusion, the integration of traditional technical solutions with guidelines to enhance CIS systems by leveraging HF in cybersecurity may lead to the adoption of non-technical countermeasures (such as user awareness) for a comprehensive and holistic way to manage cyber security in organisations.
The contribution of organizational culture, structure, and leadership factors in the digital transformation of SMEs: a mixed-methods approach
Leso BH, Cortimiglia MN and Ghezzi A
Contributing to the scarce literature on how companies can deal with their business model of digital transition, this work explores the digital transformation (DT) process in small and medium enterprises (SME), investigating how organizational culture, structure, and leadership influence it. While such three factors are deemed essential components to facilitate DT, how they operate and how they relate to each other are still not very well-defined issues in need of in-depth investigation. This study employed a mixed-methods approach, following an exploratory sequential design. First, a conceptual model was developed based on qualitative data collected from expert interviews and analyzed through grounded theory. This stage uncovered 25 first-order concepts about culture, structure, and leadership, further organized into 6 constructs and hypothesis paths. Then, with a sample of 192 SMEs, the structural model was measured and validated using exploratory factor analysis and PLS-SEM. As a result, our study offers robust and timely research, whose conceptual model condenses a knowledge corpus that future research can benefit from, and it provides statistical extrapolations about how and how much those factors relate to each other in SME context; moreover, given the traditional scarce resources and lack of flexibility in SMEs, it provides orientation and guidelines to managers facing DT and needing to understand the organizational factors they should be aware of, where to focus energy, and what to expect as results. From a large-scale perspective, this study carries an impactful contribution to the many countries where SMEs play a major economic and social role.
Collaboration among recruiters and artificial intelligence: removing human prejudices in employment
Chen Z
In the global war for talent, traditional recruiting methods are failing to cope with the talent competition, so employers need the right recruiting tools to fill open positions. First, we explore how talent acquisition has transitioned from digital 1.0 to 3.0 (AI-enabled) as the digital tool redesigns business. The technology of artificial intelligence has facilitated the daily work of recruiters and improved recruitment efficiency. Further, the study analyzes that AI plays an important role in each stage of recruitment, such as recruitment promotion, job search, application, screening, assessment, and coordination. Next, after interviewing with AI recruitment stakeholders (recruiters, managers, and applicants), the study discusses their acceptance criteria for each recruitment stage; stakeholders also raised concerns about AI recruitment. Finally, we suggest that managers need to be concerned about the cost of AI recruitment, legal privacy, recruitment bias, and the possibility of replacing recruiters. Overall, the study answers the following questions: (1) How artificial intelligence is used in various stages of the recruitment process. (2) Stakeholder (applicants, recruiters, managers) perceptions of AI application in recruitment. (3) Suggestions for managers to adopt AI in recruitment. In general, the discussion will contribute to the study of the use of AI in recruitment, as well as providing recommendations for implementing AI recruitment in practice.
The case for change: aviation worker wellbeing during the COVID 19 pandemic, and the need for an integrated health and safety culture
Cahill J, Cullen P and Gaynor K
The workplace is an important setting for health protection, health promotion and disease prevention. Currently, health and wellbeing approaches at an aviation organisational level are not addressing both human and safety needs. This issue has been intensified since the COVID 19 pandemic. This paper reports on the findings of a survey pertaining to aviation worker wellbeing and organisational approaches to managing wellbeing and mental health. The survey was administered at two different time periods during the COVID 19 pandemic (2020 and 2021). Collectively, feedback was obtained from over 3000 aviation workers. Survey feedback indicates that aviation workers are experiencing considerable challenges in relation to their health and wellbeing. These challenges are not being adequately addressed at an organisational level, which creates risk both from an individual and flight safety perspective. The descriptive findings of both surveys along with a regression analysis is used to make a principled case for augmenting the existing approach to managing aviation worker wellbeing (including mental health), at both an organisational and regulatory level. It is argued that aviation organisations, with the support of the regulator should implement a preventative, ethical and evidence-based strategy to managing wellbeing and mental health risk. Critically, aviation organisations need to advance and integrated health, wellbeing, and safety culture. This necessitates an alignment of human, business, and safety objectives, as articulated in concepts of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and responsible work. Critically, this approach depends on trust and the specification of appropriate protections, so that aviation workers feel safe to routinely report wellbeing levels and challenges, and their impact on operational safety.
How external and internal resources influence user action: the case of infusion devices
Iacovides I, Blandford A, Cox A and Back J
Human error can have potentially devastating consequences in contexts such as healthcare, but there is a rarely a simple dichotomy between errors and correct behaviour. Furthermore, there has been little consideration of how the activities of users (erroneous and otherwise) relate to the conceptual fit between user and device, despite the fact that healthcare technologies are becoming increasingly prevalent and complex. In this article, we present a study in which nurses' conceptions of infusion device practice were elicited to identify misfits. By focusing on key concepts that users work with when setting up infusions and the extent to which the system supports them, our analysis highlights how actions are influenced by the different resources available to users including: the device itself; supporting artefacts; the conceptual understanding of the user; and the community of practice the user is part of. The findings reveal the ways in which users are resourceful in their day-to-day activities and also suggest potential vulnerabilities within the wider system that could threaten patient safety. Our approach is able to make previously under-explored aspects of practice visible, thus enabling insight into how users act and why.
The effect of working memory training on situation awareness in a flight simulator
Zhou Y, Wu D, Wang C, Sun K, Xu P, Wang Z and Xiao W
The close relationship between working memory and situation awareness (SA) has been confirmed and further empirical investigations are lacking. The main aim of this study was to demonstrate the feasibility of working memory training for improving SA. Thirty-eight participants completed a challenging flight scenario in a high-fidelity flight simulator and were randomized into a training group ( = 20) or a control group ( = 18). The training group engaged in an adaptive dual N-back task for 2 weeks, while the control group was given a negative control task. Three-dimensional situation awareness rating technique (3D-SART) scores and situation awareness global assessment technique (SAGAT) scores were recorded to evaluate pretest and posttest SA. The results showed that both situational understanding dimension scores in the 3D-SART and SAGAT scores were significantly increased from the pretest to the posttest in the training group, while the control group showed no significant differences. It was concluded that working memory training can effectively improve individuals' SA, which has important implication for future research.
Operationalising resilience for disaster medicine practitioners: capability development through training, simulation and reflection
Hermelin J, Bengtsson K, Woltjer R, Trnka J, Thorstensson M, Pettersson J, Prytz E and Jonson CO
Resilience has in recent decades been introduced as a term describing a new perspective within the domains of disaster management and safety management. Several theoretical interpretations and definitions of the essence of resilience have been proposed, but less work has described how to operationalise resilience and implement the concept within organisations. This case study describes the implementation of a set of general resilience management guidelines for critical infrastructure within a Swedish Regional Medical Command and Control Team. The case study demonstrates how domain-independent guidelines can be contextualised and introduced at an operational level, through a comprehensive capability development programme. It also demonstrates how a set of conceptual and reflective tools consisting of educational, training and exercise sessions of increasing complexity and realism can be used to move from high-level guidelines to practice. The experience from the case study demonstrates the value of combining (1) developmental learning of practitioners' cognitive skills through resilience-oriented reflection and interaction with dynamic complex open-ended problems; (2) contextualisation of generic guidelines as a basis for operational methodological support in the operational environment; and (3) the use of simulation-based training as part of a capability development programme with increasing complexity and realism across mixed educational, training and exercise sessions. As an actual example of a resilience implementation effort in a disaster medicine management organisation, the study contributes to the body of knowledge regarding how to implement the concept of resilience in operational practice.
Teleworking and technostress: early consequences of a COVID-19 lockdown
Camacho S and Barrios A
This paper analyzes teleworkers' technostress evolution over time, as well as its effects on these individuals' work-related well-being over time. The proposed research model was tested using a survey-based longitudinal study with individuals that forcibly moved to teleworking in the context of a COVID-19 lockdown at two points in time (T0 and T1). Results indicate that two techno-stressors (work-home conflict and work overload) generated strain in teleworkers, which in turn decreased their satisfaction with telework and perceived job performance. In addition, teleworkers experienced two types of enduring technostress: (i.e., stressors generating strain at T1), and a cumulative (i.e., strain at T0 has an effect on stressors at T1). These findings contribute to cognition, work, and technology literature by providing a more complete understanding of teleworkers' technostress and its possible cumulative effects over time. Practical insights for managing technostress when moving to and remaining in teleworking are provided.
Investigating voice in action teams: a critical review
Krenz HL and Burtscher MJ
Team communication is considered a key factor for team performance. Importantly, voicing concerns and suggestions regarding work-related topics-also termed speaking up-represents an essential part of team communication. Particularly in action teams in high-reliability organizations such as healthcare, military, or aviation, voice is crucial for error prevention. Although research on voice has become more important recently, there are inconsistencies in the literature. This includes methodological issues, such as how voice should be measured in different team contexts, and conceptual issues, such as uncertainty regarding the role of the voice recipient. We tried to address these issues of voice research in action teams in the current literature review. We identified 26 quantitative empirical studies that measured voice as a distinct construct. Results showed that only two-thirds of the articles provided a definition for voice. Voice was assessed via behavioral observation or via self-report. Behavioral observation includes two main approaches (i.e., event-focused and language-focused) that are methodologically consistent. In contrast, studies using self-reports showed significant methodological inconsistencies regarding measurement instruments (i.e., self-constructed single items versus validated scales). The contents of instruments that assessed voice via self-report varied considerably. The recipient of voice was poorly operationalized (i.e., discrepancy between definitions and measurements). In sum, our findings provide a comprehensive overview of how voice is treated in action teams. There seems to be no common understanding of what constitutes voice in action teams, which is associated with several conceptual as well as methodological issues. This suggests that a stronger consensus is needed to improve validity and comparability of research findings.
Understanding factors that influence unintentional insider threat: a framework to counteract unintentional risks
Khan N, J Houghton R and Sharples S
The exploitation of so-called insiders is increasingly recognised as a common vector for cyberattacks. Emerging work in this area has considered the phenomenon from various perspectives including the technological, the psychological and the sociotechnical. We extend this work by specifically examining unintentional forms of insider threat and report the outcomes of a series of detailed Critical Decision Method (CDM) led interviews with those who have experienced various forms of unwitting cybersecurity breaches. We also articulate factors likely to contribute firmly in the context of everyday work-as-done. CDM's probing questions were used to elicit expert knowledge around how decision making occurred prior, during and post an unintentional cyber breach whilst participants were engaged in the delivery of cognitive tasks. Through the application of grounded theory to data, emerging results included themes of decision making, task factors, accidents and organisational factors. These results are utilised to inform an Epidemiological Triangle to represent the dynamic relationship between three vectors of exploit, user and the work environment that can in turn affect the resilience of cyber defences. We conclude by presenting a simple framework, which for the purposes of this work is a set of recommendations applicable in specific scenarios to reduce negative impact for understanding unintentional insider threats. We also suggest practical means to counteract such threats rooted in the lived experience of those who have fallen prey to them.