Resilience in Everyday Operations : A Framework for Analysing Adaptations in High Risk Work

摘要

Managing complexity and uncertainty in high risk, socio-technical, systems requires people to continuously adapt. Designing resilient systems that support adaptive behaviour requires a deepened understanding of the context in which the adaptations take place, enablers for successful adaptations and their affect the overall system. Also, it requires a focus on how people actually perform, not how they are presumed to perform according to textbook situations. We propose a framework to analyse adaptive behaviour in everyday situations where systems are working near the margins of safety. The examples that underlie the framework are derived from nine focus groups with representatives working with safety related issues in different work domains, including health care, nuclear, transportation and emergency services. Further, the variety space diagram is developed as a means to illustrate how system variability, disturbances and constraints affect work performance.