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