Incident Command: Tales From the Hot Seat presents a unique examination of the skills of the on-scene or incident commander who is in charge of an emergency or major incident. Experienced commanders from the police and fire services, the armed forces, civil aviation and the prison service give personal accounts of their command experiences, discuss their dilemmas and the pressures they faced, and reveal the demands of leading under extreme conditions. They share intimate details of cases where their command skills were tested, ranging from industrial fires, riots, hostage taking, warfare, peacekeeping, to in-flight emergencies. Each case ends with lessons learnt and tips for the developing commander. Additional chapters present expert accounts of the art of incident command, incident command systems, competencies for command, as well as reviews of the latest psychological research into decision making and team work under pressure. The book is an essential compelling text that captures the essence of incident command by analyzing command experiences across a range of professions.

Why do enterprise systems have complicated search pages, when Google has a single search box that works better? Why struggle with an expense reimbursement system that is not as easy as home accounting software? Although this seems like comparing apples to oranges, as information and communication technologies increasingly reach into every industry the demand for easy-to-use work tools continues to grow. An exploration of cutting-edge approaches for evaluating the usability of complex user interaction, Usability of Complex Information Systems: Evaluation of User Interaction focuses on improving design and communicating content to the end user. The book continues the conversation about the evolution of usability, asking how we can design and evaluate these complex systems and the complex work they support. It describes and analyzes approaches to teaching, testing, analyzing, or managing usability studies-approaches that involve technical communicators making novel contributions to how we think about and evaluate increasingly complex systems. The book contains case studies on different types of complexity, including: A complex work environment, requiring collaboration among different people or a goal sustained over time, and often in the face of distractions, interruptions, and planned pauses A complex information context, one with no single answer, where the data changes dynamically or where the best answer may rely on other aspects of a fluid environment A complex technology, in which people use many different applications in their work and collaboration A complex topic, requiring advanced technical or domain knowledge Even systems that seem simple are, in fact, complex. The shopping interface for an e-commerce system may not be complex, but the databases, business processes, and logistics behind it certainly are. The examination of different aspects of designing and examining complexity presented in this book brings you a step further in developing a deeper understanding of what it takes to make complex systems work.

With unintended harm during hospital care costing billions of dollars to the world economy, not to mention millions of deaths each year, it's no wonder the issue is equally front and center in the minds of healthcare providers and the public. Although the issue has been tackled in journal articles and conference proceedings, there are very few books on the topic. And none consider how methods and techniques developed in the area of engineering can handle safety and human error-related problems. Until now. Written by an expert with vast know-how in engineering management, design, reliability, safety, and quality, Patient Safety: An Engineering Approach brings together the pertinent information scattered throughout books and journals, eliminating the need to consult many different and diverse sources to find what you need. B.S. Dhillon draws on his real-world experience to demonstrate how to handle patient safety-related problems using engineering techniques and backs this up with references for further reading at the end of each chapter. He sets the stage with introductory chapters on mathematical, patient safety, and human factors concepts essential to understanding materials presented in subsequent chapters. Dhillon's clear, concise discussion of the topics presents the information in such a way that no previous knowledge is required to understand the contents, yet he does not present it at a merely rudimentary level. He brings a fresh approach and engineering perspective to the issues, giving you a new tool kit for performing patient safety-related analysis, designing better medical systems/devices, and handling patient safety-related problems from an engineering perspective.

This volume is concerned with digital human modeling. The utility of this area of research is to aid the design of systems that are benefitted from reducing the need for physical prototyping and incorporating ergonomics and human factors earlier in design processes. Digital human models are representations of some aspects of a human that can be inserted into simulations or virtual environments to facilitate prediction of safety, satisfaction, usability and performance. These representations may consider the physical, physiological, cognitive, behavioral or emotional aspects. They are typically represented by some visualization with the math and science computed in the background. Explicitly, the book covers the following subject areas: I. Applications II. Mobility and Universal Access III. Physical and Physiological Aspects IV. Product and Process Design V. Motion Analysis VI. Cognitive Aspects VII. Human Response and Behavioral Aspects VIII. Novel Systems Approaches This book is of special value to those researchers and practitioners involved in various aspects of product, process and system design worldwide. Engineers, ergonomists and human factors specialists will see a broad spectrum of applications for this research, especially in the automotive and manufacturing industries, military, aerospace and service industries such as healthcare. Seven other titles in the Advances in Human Factors and Ergonomics Series are: Advances in Human Factors and Ergonomics in Healthcare Advances in Cross-Cultural Decision Making Advances in Cognitive Ergonomics Advances in Occupational, Social and Organizational Ergonomics Advances in Human Factors, Ergonomics and Safety in Manufacturing and Service Industries Advances in Ergonomics Modeling & Usability Evaluation Advances in Neuroergonomics and Human Factors of Special Populations

The oil and gas industry is going through a major technological shift. This is particularly true of the Norwegian continental shelf where new work processes are being implemented based on digital infrastructure and information technology. The term Integrated Operations (IO) has been applied to this set of new processes. It is defined by the Centre for Integrated Operations in the Petroleum Industry as 'work processes and technology to make smarter decisions and better execution, enabled by ubiquitous real time data, collaborative techniques and access to multiple expertise'. It's claimed that IO is efficient, optimises exploration, reduces costs and improves safety performance. However, the picture is not as clear-cut as it may appear. On the one hand, the new work processes do not prevent major accidents: IO-related factors have been identified in recent events such as the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe. On the other hand, IO technology provides improved decision-making support (such as access to real-time data and expertise), which can reduce human and material losses and damage to the environment. Given these very different properties, it's vital that the industry has a detailed understanding of the benefits and drawbacks of IO, which this book sets out to do from a multidisciplinary point of view. It analyses Integrated Operations from the angles of statistics, management science, human factors and resilience engineering. These varied disciplines provide a multifaceted understanding of IO that better informs risk assessment practices, as well as explaining new techniques and methods and provides state-of-the-art guidance to risk assessment practitioners working in the oil and gas industry.

This edited book presents an array of approaches on how human factors theory and research addresses the challenges associated with combat identification. Special emphasis is placed on reducing human error that leads to fratricide, which is the unintentional death or injury of friendly personnel by friendly weapons during an enemy engagement. Although fratricide has been a concern since humans first engaged in combat operations, it gained prominence during the Persian Gulf War. To reduce fratricide, advances in technological approaches to enhance combat identification (e.g., Blue Force Tracker) should be coupled with the application of human factors principles to reduce human error. The book brings together a diverse group of authors from academic and military researchers to government contractors and commercial developers to provide a single volume with broad appeal. Human Factors Issues in Combat Identification is intended for the larger human factors community within academia, the military and other organizations that work with the military such as government contractors and commercial developers as well as others interested in combat identification issues including military personnel and policy makers.

How should we organize our selection or training procedures? In what way can a flight crew mediate problems? How are we to understand reported errors? Mechanisms in the Chain of Safety presents recent findings in aviation psychology, bringing fresh insights to such questions. Aviation psychologists study personnel selection and training; they evaluate the management of flight operations, and ultimately they analyse the things that went wrong. The strong interrelation between these components allows us to talk about a chain of safety. This volume appraises this chain of safety by considering the mechanisms that determine its effectiveness - input mechanisms, coping mechanisms and control mechanisms. Each contribution discusses a component of the chain while the book as a whole emphasizes and illustrates that understanding the connections between these parts is essential for the future. By addressing these issues the book leads to further considerations such as how mistakes are linked to training and how coping mechanisms should help us to understand errors and accidents. Mechanisms in the Chain of Safety will appeal to aviation professionals (human factors experts, safety managers, pilots, ATCOs, air navigation service providers, etc.) and academics, researchers, graduates and postgraduates in human factors and psychology. Although primarily written for the aviation industry, this book will also be of interest to other high-risk dynamic activities that face similar challenges: the need to present effective and safe outcomes to the public in general and the stakeholders in particular.

This book discusses several methodological problems in traffic psychology which are not currently recognized as such. Summarizing and analyzing the available research, it is found that there are a number of commonly made assumptions about the validity of methods that have little backing, and that many basic problems have not been researched at all. Suggestions are made as to further studies that should be made to address some of these problems. The book is primarily intended for traffic/transport researchers, but should also be useful for specialized education at a higher level (doctoral students and transportation specialists) as well as officials who require a good grasp of methodology to be able to evaluate research.

Risky Work Environments provides new insights into the multiple and dynamic trajectories of both near misses and mistakes in complex work environments, based on actual case examples. It also studies the interactions between various activity systems or work practices (design, maintenance, incident investigation, regulation, operation) and their consequences for operational performance. The role of rules and regulations is explored, considering the consequences of deviations and the limitations of enforced compliance. Further, the book explains how to search for, think about and act on information about vulnerability, near misses and mistakes in a way that emphasizes accountability in ways that are not punitive but instead responsible, innovative and provide opportunities for learning. Writing from different disciplines and theoretical perspectives, the contributors analyse working in risky environments which include air traffic control, offshore mining, chemical plants, neo-natal intensive care units, ship piloting and emergency call dispatch centres. In each chapter the authors present rich empirical data and their analyses illustrate a variety of ways in which, despite imperfect systems, safety and resilience is created in human action. In the chapters where the focus is on error or mistakes, the analysis undertaken reveals the logic of actions undertaken at the time as well as their constraints. The contributors are all active researchers within their disciplines and come from Australia, Finland, France, Norway and the Netherlands. The book will be of direct interest to safety scientists, researchers and scientists, as well as human factors practitioners working in complex technological systems.

Defense forces have always invested a great deal of their resources in training. In recent times, changes in the complexity and intensity of operations have reaffirmed the importance of ensuring that warfighters are adequately prepared for the environments in which they are required to work. The emergence of new operational drivers such as asymmetric threats, urban operations, joint and coalition operations and the widespread use of military communications and information technology networks has highlighted the importance of providing warfighters with the competencies required to act in a coordinated, adaptable fashion, and to make effective decisions in environments characterized by large amounts of sometimes ambiguous information. While investment in new technologies can make available new opportunities for action, it is only through effective training that personnel can be made ready to apply their tools in the most decisive and discriminating fashion. There are many factors which can have an impact on the efficacy of training and many issues to consider when designing and implementing training strategies. These issues are often complex and nuanced, and in order to grasp them fully a significant investment of time and energy is required. However, the requirement to respond quickly to ever-changing technology, a high operational tempo and minimal staffing may preclude many in today's defense forces from seeking out all such resources on their own. This edited collection provides brief, easy-to-understand summaries of the key issues in defense training and simulation, as well as guidance for further reading. It consists of a collection of short essays, each of which addresses a fundamental issue in defense training and simulation, and features an up-to-date reference list to enable the reader to undertake further investigation of the issues addressed. In essence, this book provides the optimum starting point, or first resource, for readers to come to terms with the important issues associated with defense training and simulation. The contributions are written by leading scholars from military research institutions in the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, as well as selected researchers from academic and private sector research institutions.

The aim of this book is to show how a cultural approach can contribute to the assessment, description and improvement of safety conditions in organizations. The relationship between organizational culture and safety, epitomized through the concept of 'safety culture', has undoubtedly become one of the hottest topics of both safety research and practical efforts to improve safety. By combining a general framework and five research projects, the author explores and further develops the theoretical, methodological and practical basis of the study of safety culture. What are the theoretical foundations of a cultural approach to safety? How can the relationship between organizational culture and safety be empirically investigated? What are the links between organizational culture and safety in actual organizations? How can a cultural approach contribute to the improvement of safety? These are the key questions the book seeks to answer with a unified and in-depth account of the concept of safety culture.

Fratricide has been defined as firing on your own forces, when mistaking them for enemy forces, which results in injury or death. Rates of fratricide incidence have been steadily increasing and the complexity of the contemporary operating environment may lead to a continuation of this trend. Although the majority of research into fratricide has focused on the development of technological decision aids, recent explorations highlight the need to emphasise the social aspects within a socio-technical framework. This book presents and validates, via the use of case studies, a model of teamwork and decision-making factors that are associated with incidents of fratricide. In summary, it offers a review and evaluation of contemporary theoretical perspectives on teamwork and fratricide, as well as a range of accident analysis approaches. A novel theory of fratricide is then presented followed by a new methodology for assessing fratricide. Naturalistic case studies of teams are undertaken in the military domain. These studies illustrate the approach and offer early validation evidence. In closing, the book presents a series of principles designed to reduce the likelihood of fratricide in the future.

Operating theatres are very private workplaces. There have been few research investigations into how highly trained doctors and nurses work together to achieve safe and efficient anaesthesia and surgery. While there have been major advances in surgical and anaesthetic procedures, there are still significant risks for patients during operations and adverse events are not unknown. Due to rising concern about patient safety, surgeons and anaesthetists have looked for ways of minimising adverse events. Behavioural scientists have been encouraged by clinicians to bring research techniques used in other industries into the operating theatre in order to study the behaviour of surgeons, nurses and anaesthetists. Safer Surgery presents one of the first collections of studies designed to understand the factors influencing safe and efficient surgical, anaesthetic and nursing practice. The book is written by psychologists, surgeons and anaesthetists, whose contributions combine to offer readers the latest research techniques and findings from some of the leading investigators in this field. It is designed for practitioners and researchers interested in understanding the behaviour of operating theatre team members, with a view to enhancing both training and practice. The material is also suitable for those studying behaviour in other areas of healthcare or in high-risk work settings. The aims of the book are to: a) present the latest research on the behaviour of operating theatre teams b) describe the techniques being used by psychologists and clinicians to study surgeons, anaesthetists and theatre nurses' task performance c) outline the safety implications of the research to date.

While there have been tremendous advances in our scientific understanding of the brain, this work has been largely academic, and often oriented toward clinical publication. Cognitive Neuroscience of Human Systems: Work and Everyday Life addresses the relationship between neurophysiological processes and the performance and experience of humans in everyday life. It samples the vast neuroscience literature to identify those areas of research that speak directly to the performance and experience of humans in everyday settings, highlighting the practical, everyday application of brain science. The book explains the underlying basis for well-established principles from human factors, ergonomics, and industrial engineering and design. It also sheds new light on factors affecting human performance and behavior. This is not an academic treatment of neuroscience, but rather a translation that makes modern brain science accessible and easily applicable to systems design, education and training, and the development of policies and practices. The authors supply clear and direct guidance on the applications of principles from brain science to everyday problems. With discussions of topics from brain science and their relevance to everyday activities, the book focuses on the science, describing the findings and the studies producing these findings. It then decodes how these findings relate to everyday life and how you can integrate them into your work to achieve more effective outcomes based on a fundamental understanding of how the operations of the human brain produce behavior and modulate performance.

Human-Robot Interaction in Social Robotics explores important issues in designing a robot system that works with people in everyday environments. Edited by leading figures in the field of social robotics, it draws on contributions by researchers working on the Robovie project at the ATR Intelligent Robotics and Communication Laboratories, a world leader in humanoid interactive robotics. The book brings together, in one volume, technical and empirical research that was previously scattered throughout the literature. Taking a networked robot approach, the book examines how robots work in cooperation with ubiquitous sensors and people over telecommunication networks. It considers the use of social robots in daily life, grounding the work in field studies conducted at a school, train station, shopping mall, and science museum. Critical in the development of network robots, these usability studies allow researchers to discover real issues that need to be solved and to understand what kinds of services are possible. The book tackles key areas where development is needed, namely, in sensor networks for tracking humans and robots, humanoids that can work in everyday environments, and functions for interacting with people. It introduces a sensor network developed by the authors and discusses innovations in the Robovie humanoid, including several interactive behaviors and design policies. Exploring how humans interact with robots in daily life settings, this book offers valuable insight into how robots may be used in the future. The combination of engineering, empirical, and field studies provides readers with rich information to guide in developing practical interactive robots.

Soldier-robot teams will be an important component of future battle spaces, creating a complex but potentially more survivable and effective combat force. The complexity of the battlefield of the future presents its own problems. The variety of robotic systems and the almost infinite number of possible military missions create a dilemma for researchers who wish to predict human-robot interactions (HRI) performance in future environments. Human-Robot Interactions in Future Military Operations provides an opportunity for scientists investigating military issues related to HRI to present their results cohesively within a single volume. The issues range from operators interacting with small ground robots and aerial vehicles to supervising large, near-autonomous vehicles capable of intelligent battlefield behaviors. The ability of the human to 'team' with intelligent unmanned systems in such environments is the focus of the volume. As such, chapters are written by recognized leaders within their disciplines and they discuss their research in the context of a broad-based approach. Therefore the book allows researchers from differing disciplines to be brought up to date on both theoretical and methodological issues surrounding human-robot interaction in military environments. The overall objective of this volume is to illuminate the challenges and potential solutions for military HRI through discussion of the many approaches that have been utilized in order to converge on a better understanding of this relatively complex concept. It should be noted that many of these issues will generalize to civilian applications as robotic technology matures. An important outcome is the focus on developing general human-robot teaming principles and guidelines to help both the human factors design and training community develop a better understanding of this nascent but revolutionary technology. Much of the research within the book is based on the Human Research and Engineering Directorate (HRED), U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL) 5-year Army Technology Objective (ATO) research program. The program addressed HRI and teaming for both aerial and ground robotic assets in conjunction with the U.S. Army Tank and Automotive Research and Development Center (TARDEC) and the Aviation and Missile Development Center (AMRDEC) The purpose of the program was to understand HRI issues in order to develop and evaluate technologies to improve HRI battlefield performance for Future Combat Systems (FCS). The work within this volume goes beyond the research results to encapsulate the ATO's findings and discuss them in a broader context in order to understand both their military and civilian implications. For this reason, scientists conducting related research have contributed additional chapters to widen the scope of the original research boundaries.

Many books focus on individual differences and how those relate to traffic safety such as accident proneness, gender differences, age, alcohol, and the effects of drugs. Others focus on the safety effects regarding the vehicle such as airbags, anti-lock brakes, navigation systems, intelligent cruise control and other new gadgets coming to the vehicle. Even though these topics are undoubtedly important for traffic safety, this book takes a unique approach as it focuses solely on the road environment. Designing Safe Road Systems provides the background for those who want to know more about the effects of road design on driving behaviour. It uses a systems approach to allow a better understanding of why and in what circumstances drivers may commit errors. This understanding will ultimately lead to road systems that prevent (fatal) errors from occurring. The book contains an overview of the current models and theories about human performance and human behaviour in traffic that are relevant for all those involved in designing safe road systems. The central theme of this book is how design principles can reduce the probability of an error while driving. The authors demonstrate how knowledge of human factors helps a road authority to better understand how road users behave. They argue that in many cases the design of the environment can be further adjusted to human capabilities, and that safety should be considered a system property to be built into the road system.

Having an accurate understanding of what is going on is a key commodity for teams working within military systems. 'Situation awareness' (SA) is the term that is used within human factors circles to describe the level of awareness that operators have of the situation that they are engaged in; it focuses on how operators develop and maintain a sufficient understanding of 'what is going on' in order to achieve success in task performance. Over the past two decades, the construct has become a fundamental theme within the areas of system design and evaluation and has received considerable attention from the human factors research community. Despite this, there is still considerable debate over how SA operates in complex collaborative systems and how SA achievement and maintenance is best supported through system, procedure and interface design. This book focuses on the recently developed concept of distributed situation awareness, which takes a systems perspective on the concept and moves the focus on situation awareness out of the heads of individual operators and on to the overall joint cognitive system consisting of human and technological agents. Situation awareness is viewed as an emergent property of collaborative systems, something that resides in the interaction between elements of the system and not in the heads of individual operators working in that system. The first part of the book presents a comprehensive review and critique of existing SA theory and measurement approaches, following which a novel model for complex collaborative systems, the distributed SA model, and a new modelling procedure, the propositional network approach, are outlined and demonstrated. The next part focuses on real-world applications of the model and modelling procedure, and presents four case studies undertaken in the land warfare, multinational warfare and energy distribution domains. Each case study is described in terms of the domain in question, the methodology employed, and the findings derived in relation to situation awareness theory. The third and final part of the book then concentrates on theoretical development, and uses the academic literature and the findings from the case study applications to validate and extend the distributed SA model described at the beginning of the book. In closing, the utility of the distributed SA model and modeling procedure are outlined and a series of initial guidelines for supporting distributed SA through system design are articulated.

Despite preemptive preparations, disasters can and do occur. Whether natural disasters, catastrophic accidents, or terrorist attacks, the risk cannot be completely eliminated. A carefully prepared response is your best defense. Handbook of Emergency Response: A Human Factors and Systems Engineering Approach presents practical advice and guidelines on how to plan the coordinated execution of emergency response. A useful tool to mitigate logistical problems that often follow disasters or extreme events, the core of this guide is the role of human factors in emergency response project management. The handbook provides a systematic structure for communication, cooperation, and coordination. It highlights what must be done and when, and how to identify the resources required for each effort. The book tackles cutting-edge research in topics such as evacuation planning, chemical agent sensor placement, and riverflow prediction. It offers strategies for establishing an effective training program for first responders and insightful advice in managing waste associated with disasters. Managing a project in the wake of a tragedy is complicated and involves various emotional, sentimental, reactive, and chaotic responses. This is the time that a structured communication model is most needed. Having a guiding model for emergency response can help put things in proper focus. This book provides that model. It guides you through planning for and responding to various emergencies and in overcoming the challenges in these tasks.

Although we now have sophisticated algorithms and techniques for determining the shapes and sizes and for matching the fit between shoes and feet, few, if any, of the books currently available cover these new technologies until now. Bringing together high-quality and state-of-the-art contributions from designers, biomechanists, ergonomists, engineers, podiatrists, and scientists from industry and academia, The Science of Footwear provides an in-depth understanding of the technology and techniques involved in the design and development of a popular and demanding consumer product. This book introduces the design, development, manufacturing, and marketing of footwear. The chapters contain data from past research and the state-of-the art methodologies. They not only cover every aspect of the product design, but also how the footwear industry caters to the wide-ranging needs of sophisticated and demanding customers. The footwear industry has rapidly changed over the last 10 years. Mass production has changed to personalization and mass customization, areas that are not well-understood. This book explores these different concepts in a coherent way, drawing on differing views that give a holistic view of the science behind footwear. Collating information from different disciplines, the book provides the tools to develop the next generation of footwear.

Bridging an identified gap between research and practice in the domain of risk and organizational learning with respect to human/organizational factors and organizational behaviour, this book highlights the common and recurring threads in contributory factors to accident causation. Based on an extensive research project, it investigates how shipping companies as organizations learn from, filter and give credence/acceptability to differing risk perceptions and how this influences the work culture with special regard to group/team dynamics and individual motivation. The work is presented in the context of the literature regarding conceptual links between risk and the theoretical and operational themes of organizational learning, and in light of interviewees' comments. The themes include processes and structures of knowledge acquisition, information interpretation and distribution, organizational memory and change/adaptation and also levels of learning. The book concludes by discussing some practical implications of the research carried out in various maritime contexts and gives recommendations for the industry and other stakeholders.

This edited volume of original chapters brings together researchers from around the world who are exploring the facets of health care organization and delivery that are sometimes marginal to mainstream patient safety theories and methodologies but offer important insights into the socio-cultural and organizational context of patient safety. By examining these critical insights or perspectives and drawing upon theories and methodologies often neglected by mainstream safety researchers, this collection shows we can learn more about not only the barriers and drivers to implementing patient safety programmes, but also about the more fundamental issues that shape notions of safety, alternate strategies for enhancing safety, and the wider implications of the safety agenda on the future of health care delivery. In so doing, A Socio-cultural Perspective on Patient Safety challenges the taken-for-granted assumptions around fundamental philosophical and political issues upon which mainstream orthodoxy relies. The book draws upon a range of theoretical and empirical approaches from across the social sciences to investigate and question the patient safety movement. Each chapter takes as its focus and question a particular aspect of the patient safety reforms, from its policy context and theoretical foundations to its practical application and manifestation in clinical practice, whilst also considering the wider implications for the organization and delivery of health care services. Accordingly, the chapters each draw upon a distinct theoretical or methodological approach to critically explore specific dimensions of the patient safety agenda. Taken as a whole, the collection advances a strong, coherent argument that is much needed to counter some of the uncritical assumptions that need to be described and analyzed if patient safety is indeed to be achieved.

Assessing Command and Control Effectiveness: Dealing with a Changing World offers a description of the current state of Command and Control (C2) research in imperfect settings, showing how a research process should assess, analyse and communicate results to the development cycle of methods, work, manning and C2-technology. Special attention is given to the development of C2 research methods to meet the current and coming needs. The authors also look forward towards a future where effective assessment of C2 abilities are even more crucial, for instance in agile organisations. The purpose of the C2 research is to improve the process and make it more effective while still saving time and money. Research methods have to be chosen carefully to be effective and simple, yet provide results of high quality. The methodological concerns are a major consideration when working under such circumstances. Furthermore, there is often a need for a swift iterative development cycle, and thus a demand to quickly deliver results from the research process. This book explains how field research experimentation can be quick, simple and effective, being able to draw valid conclusions even when sample sizes are small and resources are limited, collecting empirical data using measures and procedures that are minimally intrusive.

'Complex sociotechnical systems' are systems made up of numerous interacting parts, both human and non-human, operating in dynamic, ambiguous and safety critical domains. Cognitive Work Analysis (CWA) is a structured framework specifically developed for considering the development and analysis of these complex socio-technical systems. Unlike many human factors approaches, CWA does not focus on how human-system interaction should proceed (normative modelling) or how human-system interaction currently works (descriptive modelling). Instead, through a focus on constraints, it develops a model of how work can be conducted within a given work domain, without explicitly identifying specific sequences of actions (formative modelling). The framework leads the analyst to consider the environment the task takes place within, and the effect of the imposed constraints on the way work can be conducted. It provides guidance through the process of answering the questions of why the system exists, what activities can be conducted within the domain as well as how these activities can be achieved, and who can perform them. The first part of the book contains a comprehensive description of CWA, introducing it to the uninitiated. It then presents a number of applications in complex military domains to explore and develop the benefits of CWA. Unlike much of the previous literature, particular attention is placed on exploring the CWA framework in its entirety. This holistic approach focuses on the system environment, the activity that takes place within it, the strategies used to conduct this activity, the way in which the constituent parts of the system (both human and non-human) interact and the behaviour required. Each stage of this analysis identifies the constraints governing the system; it is contended that through this holistic understanding of constraints, recommendations can be made for the design of system interaction; increasing the ability of users to cope with unanticipated, unexpected situations. This book discusses the applicability of the approach in system analysis, development and evaluation. It provides process to what was previously a loosely defined framework.

Safety management and human factors disciplines are often regarded as subjective and nebulous. This perhaps stems from a variety of, sometimes disparate, activities in the realms of education, industry and research. Aviation is one of the safety-critical industries that has led the development of safety systems and human factors. However, in recent years, safety management and human factors are seen to be progressing well in the road, rail and the medical arena. Multimodal Safety Management and Human Factors is a wide-ranging compendium of contemporary approaches in the aviation, road, rail and medical domains. It brings together 28 chapters from both the academic and professional worlds that focus on applications, tools and strategies in safety management and human factors. It is a wellspring of the practical rather than the theoretical. Safety scientists, human factors industry practitioners, change management advocates, educators and students will find this book extremely relevant and challenging.