This book provides a socio-cultural analysis of the ways in which air traffic controllers formally and informally learn about their work and the active role that organisational cultures play in shaping interpretation and meaning. In particular, it describes the significant role that organizational cultures have played in shaping what is valued by controllers about their work and its role as a filter in enabling or constraining conscious inquiry. The premise of the book is that informal learning is just as important in shaping what people know and value about their work and that this area is frequently overlooked. By using an interpretative research approach, the book highlights the ways in which the social structure of work organisation, culture and history interweaves with learning work to guide and shape what is regarded by controllers as important and what is not. It demonstrates how this social construction is quite different from a top-down corporate culture approach. Technological and organizational reform is leading to changes in work practice and to changes in relationships between workers within the organization. These have implications for anyone wishing to understand the dynamics of organizational life. As such, this study provides insights into many of the changes that are occurring in the nature of work in many different industries. Previous research into learning in air traffic control has centred largely on cognitive individual performance, performance within teams or more recently on performance at a systems level. By tracing the role of context in shaping formal and informal learning, this book shows why interventions at these levels sometimes fail.

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.

This book provides an overview of state-of-the-art research that has been conducted within Australia, funded by the Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre. The chapters source and contextualize their own research practice within the context of the international research literature. Therefore, while the research has occurred within Australia it will be of particular interest to scholars, students and practitioners in a number of other countries, particularly within the United States of America and in Europe. The fire and emergency services is a particularly large industry - in Australia alone it employs 250,000 personnel - yet there is very little by way of published human factors books addressing this sector directly. Emergency events frequently involve problems for which there may be unanticipated consequences and highly interdependent consequential effects. In short, emergency events are not necessarily as containable as may be work in other domains. As Karl Weick once commented, emergency events do not 'play by the rules'. This means that these research chapters tell us something about a potential future world of work that is highly dynamic, interdependent and for which improvisation and critical thinking and problem-solving are necessary pre-requisites. The discussions about individual and team performance will also be pertinent to others working in similar high-reliability, high-consequence domains. The chapters connect into an integrated body of work about individual and group performance and their limitations.

This book provides an overview of state-of-the-art research that has been conducted within Australia, funded by the Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre. The chapters source and contextualize their own research practice within the context of the international research literature. Therefore, while the research has occurred within Australia it will be of particular interest to scholars, students and practitioners in a number of other countries, particularly within the United States of America and in Europe. The fire and emergency services is a particularly large industry - in Australia alone it employs 250,000 personnel - yet there is very little by way of published human factors books addressing this sector directly. Emergency events frequently involve problems for which there may be unanticipated consequences and highly interdependent consequential effects. In short, emergency events are not necessarily as containable as may be work in other domains. As Karl Weick once commented, emergency events do not 'play by the rules'. This means that these research chapters tell us something about a potential future world of work that is highly dynamic, interdependent and for which improvisation and critical thinking and problem-solving are necessary pre-requisites. The discussions about individual and team performance will also be pertinent to others working in similar high-reliability, high-consequence domains. The chapters connect into an integrated body of work about individual and group performance and their limitations.

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.

This book will advance the understanding of leadership beyond the inherited myths and modalities of command and control. Leadership is separated from ideas and institutional seniority and explained as the collaborative power of one with others. Enabling the intelligent co-participation of all people, the constructive effect of this approach to leadership is in the engagement of people. This is significant when task accomplishment depends not on managerial direction, but on the interaction of people with each other, with technical systems, and with complex regulations which are often across jurisdictional boundaries. Examples and case studies are included.

This book provides a socio-cultural analysis of the ways in which air traffic controllers formally and informally learn about their work and the active role that organisational cultures play in shaping interpretation and meaning. In particular, it describes the significant role that organizational cultures have played in shaping what is valued by controllers about their work and its role as a filter in enabling or constraining conscious inquiry. The premise of the book is that informal learning is just as important in shaping what people know and value about their work and that this area is frequently overlooked. By using an interpretative research approach, the book highlights the ways in which the social structure of work organisation, culture and history interweaves with learning work to guide and shape what is regarded by controllers as important and what is not. It demonstrates how this social construction is quite different from a top-down corporate culture approach. Technological and organizational reform is leading to changes in work practice and to changes in relationships between workers within the organization. These have implications for anyone wishing to understand the dynamics of organizational life. As such, this study provides insights into many of the changes that are occurring in the nature of work in many different industries. Previous research into learning in air traffic control has centred largely on cognitive individual performance, performance within teams or more recently on performance at a systems level. By tracing the role of context in shaping formal and informal learning, this book shows why interventions at these levels sometimes fail.

This book will advance the understanding of leadership beyond the inherited myths and modalities of command and control. Leadership is separated from ideas and institutional seniority and explained as the collaborative power of one with others. Enabling the intelligent co-participation of all people, the constructive effect of this approach to leadership is in the engagement of people. This is significant when task accomplishment depends not on managerial direction, but on the interaction of people with each other, with technical systems, and with complex regulations which are often across jurisdictional boundaries. Examples and case studies are included.