Systems scenarios: a tool for facilitating the socio-technical design of work systems

Abstract

The socio-technical systems approach to design is well documented. Recognising the benefits of this approach, organisations are increasingly trying to work with systems, rather than their component parts. However, few tools attempt to analyse the complexity inherent in such systems, in ways that generate useful, practical outputs. In this paper, we outline the ‘System Scenarios Tool’ (SST), which is a novel, applied methodology that can be used by designers, end-users, consultants or researchers to help design or re-design work systems. The paper introduces the SST using examples of its application, and describes the potential benefits of its use, before reflecting on its limitations. Finally, we discuss potential opportunities for the tool, and describe sets of circumstances in which it might be used.

Practitioner Summary: The paper presents a novel, applied methodological tool, named the ‘Systems Scenarios Tool’. We believe this tool can be used as a point of reference by designers, end-users, consultants or researchers, to help design or re-design work systems. Included in the paper are two worked examples, demonstrating the tool’s application.     

Ergonomics action research I: shifting from hypothesis testing to experiential learning

This paper presents the case for the need for ‘Action Research’ (AR) approaches to gain understanding of how ergonomics considerations can best be integrated into the design of new work systems. The AR researchers work collaboratively with other stakeholders to solve a real-world problem: gaining insight into the problem and factors influencing solution building from an embedded position in the development process. This experience is interpreted in terms of available theory and can support further theory development. This non-experimental approach can help provide practical new approaches for integrating ergonomics considerations into real work system design processes. The AR approach suffers from a lack of acceptance by conventionally trained scientists. This paper aims to help overcome this weakness by developing the underlying theory and rationale for using AR approaches in ergonomics research. We propose further development of hybrid approaches which incorporate other evaluation techniques to extend the knowledge gains from AR projects.

Practitioner Summary: Researchers should engage directly with organisations in ergonomics projects so that they can better understand the challenges and needs of practitioners who are trying to apply available scientific knowledge in their own unique context. Such ‘Action Research’ could help develop theory and approaches useful to improve mobilisation and application of ergonomics knowledge in organisations.     

Collaborating with mammographers to address their work-related musculoskeletal discomfort

Mammographers are an understudied group of health care workers, yet the prevalence of musculoskeletal (MSK) symptoms in mammographers appears to be elevated, similar to many occupations in health care. In this study, we used a participatory approach to identify needs and opportunities for developing interventions to reduce mammographers’ exposures to risk factors that lead to the development of MSK symptoms. In this paper, we present a number of those needs and several intervention concepts along with evaluations of those concepts from experienced mammographers. We include findings from a preliminary field test of a novel intervention concept to reduce the need to adopt awkward postures while positioning patients for a screening or diagnostic mammogram.

Practitioner Summary: This paper discusses needs, opportunities and methods for working with mammographers in order to develop interventions to reduce their exposure to risk factors for work-related musculoskeletal discomfort. Results from a field test of a novel intervention to reduce mammographers’ awkward work postures while positioning patients are presented.     

The Last Stage of Product Development: Interventions in Existing Operational Processes

We explored two questions in two empirical studies. In the first study we wanted to find out whether we could describe the interactions between New Product Development (NPD) and Operations by using a generic theory of change management and interventions. In the second study we explored such interventions during implementation and wanted to find out to what extent these interventions followed the theories of change. Some of the interactions are interventions from NPD to Operations in order to change the work of Operations. We found that these interventions and intended changes fit the theories of change management quite well. This means that the change literature gives good insights into the causes of success and failure of these interventions and could mean that, in some respect, we can apply the knowledge of these theories of change management and interventions to the field of NPD. This insight provides a new and additional perspective: NPD to be seen as a process that uses interventions to facilitate, or provoke, change within operational processes. We see too much attention paid to the project management methods and ‘hard’ theories, for example rationality, control, hierarchy, planning, predicting and prescribing. There is good reason to add the more ‘soft’ theories of change to NPD practice, with extra and explicit attention to learning, trial and error, monitoring, tell and sell, empathy, and co‐operation. NPD practitioners are also very much focused on the product and less (or not at all) on the actual changes that have to take place in production (Operations) related to the implementation of these processes. For successful implementation interventions need to be tuned towards the receiver. The interventionist (i.e. NPD practitioners) must be aware that there is a range of choice if different intervention strategies in order to tune their intervention efforts more effectively towards the receiver. In order to be able to do this, NPD practitioners, as well as the people from Operations, need to become skilled in using a generic theory of intervention and change, such as the one described in this paper, during their interactions.     

What is the preferred number of consecutive night shifts? results from a crossover intervention study among police officers in Denmark

Among police officers in Denmark, we studied (i) how many consecutive night shifts participants preferred at baseline; (ii) preferences regarding three intervention conditions (two, four, and seven consecutive night shifts followed by the same number of days off/day shifts: ‘2 + 2’, ‘4 + 4’, ‘7 + 7’) at follow-up; (iii) characteristics of participants preferring each of these intervention conditions. Questionnaire data from a crossover intervention study were used (baseline: n = 73; follow-up: n = 68). At baseline, 49% preferred four consecutive night shifts. At follow-up, 57% preferred ‘4 + 4’, 26% preferred ‘2 + 2’ and 26% preferred ‘7 + 7’. Participants, who preferred longer spells of night work experienced that night work was less demanding, found it easier to sleep at different times of the day, and were more frequently evening types compared with participants who preferred shorter spells of night work. The participants’ preferences are likely to be influenced by their previous shift work experience.

Practitioner Summary: We investigated police officers’ preferences regarding the number of consecutive night shifts. The majority preferred four consecutive night shifts. Those who preferred the longer spells of night work found night work less demanding, found it easier to sleep at different times of the day, and were more frequently evening types.     

Translating concepts of complexity to the field of ergonomics

Since 1958 more than 80 journal papers from the mainstream ergonomics literature have used either the words ‘complex’ or ‘complexity’ in their titles. Of those, more than 90% have been published in only the past 20 years. This observation communicates something interesting about the way in which contemporary ergonomics problems are being understood. The study of complexity itself derives from non-linear mathematics but many of its core concepts have found analogies in numerous non-mathematical domains. Set against this cross-disciplinary background, the current paper aims to provide a similar initial mapping to the field of ergonomics. In it, the ergonomics problem space, complexity metrics and powerful concepts such as emergence raise complexity to the status of an important contingency factor in achieving a match between ergonomics problems and ergonomics methods. The concept of relative predictive efficiency is used to illustrate how this match could be achieved in practice. What is clear overall is that a major source of, and solution to, complexity are the humans in systems. Understanding complexity on its own terms offers the potential to leverage disproportionate effects from ergonomics interventions and to tighten up the often loose usage of the term in the titles of ergonomics papers.

Statement of Relevance: This paper reviews and discusses concepts from the study of complexity and maps them to ergonomics problems and methods. It concludes that humans are a major source of and solution to complexity in systems and that complexity is a powerful contingency factor, which should be considered to ensure that ergonomics approaches match the true nature of ergonomics problems.     

Walking Works Wonders: a tailored workplace intervention evaluated over 24 months

This article presents longitudinal data from 1120 participants across 10 worksites enrolled in Walking Works Wonders, a tailored intervention designed to increase physical activity and reduce sedentary behaviour. The intervention was evaluated over 2 years, using a quasi-experimental design comprising 3 conditions: tailored information; standard information and control. This study explored the impact of the intervention on objective measures (BMI, %Fat, waist circumference, blood pressure and heart rate) and self-reported measures of physical activity, sedentary behaviour, physical and psychological health. Interventions tailored to employees’ stage of change significantly reduced BMI and waist circumference compared to standard and control conditions. Employees who received either a standard or tailored intervention demonstrated significantly higher work ability, organizational commitment, job motivation, job satisfaction and a reduction in intention to quit the organization. The results suggest that adopting a tailored approach to interventions is particularly effective in terms of improving health in the workplace.

Practitioner Summary: This study describes Walking Works Wonders, a tailored intervention, which aims to encourage physical activity in the workplace. The study evaluated Walking Works Wonders over a 2 year period and demonstrated that interventions are more effective in improving health outcomes where the information is tailored to employees’ stage of change.     

Exploring design trade-offs for achieving social inclusion in multi-tiered design problems

ABSTRACT

The digital age of the future is ‘not out there to be discovered’, but it needs to be ‘designed’. The design challenge has to address questions about how we want to live, work, and learn (as individuals and as communities) and what we value and appreciate, e.g.: reflecting on quality of life and creating inclusive societies. An overriding design trade-off for the digital age is whether new developments will increase the digital divide or will create more inclusive societies. Sustaining inclusive societies means allowing people of all ages and all abilities to exploit information technologies for personally meaningful activities. Meta-design fosters the design of socio-technical environments that end-user developers can modify and evolve at use time to improve their quality of life and favour their inclusion in the society. This paper describes three case studies in the domain of assistive technologies in which end users themselves cannot act as end-user developers, but someone else (e.g.: a caregiver or a clinician) must accept this role requiring multi-tiered architectures. The design trade-offs and requirements for meta-design identified in the context of the case studies and other researchers’ projects are described to inform the development of future socio-technical environments focused on social inclusion.     

The design of civic technology: factors that influence public participation and impact

Civic technology needs to be better understood in terms of the factors that promote representative public participation and impact. This paper reports on a mixed-methods study of a civic tech platform that enabled the public to provide feedback on public transport to the service providers. The overall aim of this research was to investigate the public’s use of a leading civic tech platform, FixMyTransport. The key findings were that: an effective and easy-to-use civic technology platform enables broad participation; data and process complexity need to be removed; factual information can be captured in situ with impacts, consequences and opinions added later; emotions (if important) need to be explicitly elicited; feedback to, and a ‘conversation’ with, the users is important for engagement, as is a feeling of being part of a community. These findings can contribute to the future design of civic technology platforms.

Practitioner Summary: There is a lack of understanding of how ‘civic tech’ platforms are used and how they may be designed for maximum effectiveness. Multiple data collection methods were used to investigate a well-developed example of civic tech. Effective civic tech can enable broad democratic participation to improve public services.     

A comprehensive four-stage framework for evaluation of Information Communication Technologies for Development interventions

ABSTRACT

In spite of almost three decades of efforts in the domain of Information Communication Technologies for Development (ICTD), the validity and effectiveness of the relationship between ICT and D (Development) are not clear, perhaps due to a lack of a comprehensive framework for evaluating ICTD interventions. Comprehensive evaluation of ICTD interventions is, however, difficult as its outcomes are often intangible in nature. The aim of this paper is to develop a comprehensive evaluation framework for ICTD interventions with a specific focus on “D” aspects of these interventions. This work does not focus only on “impact” evaluation of ICTD interventions but also considers other key aspects of project life cycle in the evaluation process. To develop this framework, we draw inspirations from the domains of “program evaluation” and “IS evaluation” and further refine it with learnings from previous ICTD studies. The result of this exercise is a four-stage framework with each stage containing details of assessment points and key considerations that need to be covered in the context of an ICTD intervention. The framework is then validated using an existing case study drawn from the ICTD literature. The applicability and benefits of the framework are then discussed in the light of this case study.     

Social stress and performance in human-machine interaction: a neglected research field

Abstract

Given the increasing capabilities of highly automated systems, the article argues for a need to address the issue of social stress in human-machine interaction. It suggests a classification system of subordinate concepts found in the research literature under the heading of social stress. A review of the literature revealed a paucity of studies examining the effects of social stressors on performance. In particular, the review showed a shortage of experimental lab-based work, needed to establish clear cause-effect relationships. The article examined the suitability of different social stressors for lab-based research, not only when humans are the source of stress but also in so-called hybrid teams where social stress is caused by machine agents. The review shows that a closer link is needed between the separate literature on social stress and automation. Finally, three mechanisms are proposed that may predict how social stress may affect performance: ‘blank-out’-mechanism, ‘rumination’-mechanism, and ‘increased-motivation’-mechanism.

Practitioner summary: Theories of ergonomics and human factors may benefit from better integration of research and theoretical work in the domain of social stress. This is due to the increasing capabilities of machines to induce social stress.

Abbreviations: HMI: human-machine interaction; TSST: trier social stress test     

Distributed improvisation: a systems perspective of improvisation ‘epics’ by led outdoor activity leaders

Improvisation represents the spontaneous and real-time conception and execution of a novel response to an unanticipated situation. In order to benefit from the positive safety potential of this phenomenon, it is necessary to understand what influences its appropriateness and effectiveness. This study has applied the system-based methodology Impromaps to analysing accounts of improvisation aimed at mitigating adverse safety outcomes. These accounts were obtained from led outdoor activity (LOA) leaders through critical decision method interviews. Influencing factors and interactions have been identified across all system levels. The factors most influential to leaders’ ability to improvise are ‘Policy, procedures and rules’, ‘Organisation culture’, ‘Training’, ‘Role responsibilities’, ‘Communication/instruction/demonstration’, ‘Situation awareness’, ‘Leader experience’, ‘Mental simulation’, ‘Equipment, clothing & PPE’ and ‘Terrain/physical environment’. To enhance the likelihood of effective, appropriate improvisation, LOA providers are recommended to focus on higher level factors over which they are able to exert greater control.

Practitioner Summary: To enhance resilience in safety-critical situations, organisations need to understand what influences appropriate, effective improvisation. To elucidate this, the Impromaps methodology is applied to in-depth interview data. The Impromap affords a graphical depiction of the influencing factors and interactions across the system, providing a basis for the development of interventions.     

How have we evaluated software pattern application? A systematic mapping study of research design practices

ContextSoftware patterns encapsulate expert knowledge for constructing successful solutions to recurring problems. Although a large collection of software patterns is available in literature, empirical evidence on how well various patterns help in problem solving is limited and inconclusive. The context of these empirical findings is also not well understood, limiting applicability and generalizability of the findings.ObjectiveTo characterize the research design of empirical studies exploring software pattern application involving human participants.MethodWe conducted a systematic mapping study to identify and analyze 30 primary empirical studies on software pattern application, including 24 original studies and 6 replications. We characterize the research design in terms of the questions researchers have explored and the context of empirical research efforts. We also classify the studies in terms of measures used for evaluation, and threats to validity considered during study design and execution.ResultsUse of software patterns in maintenance is the most commonly investigated theme, explored in 16 studies. Object-oriented design patterns are evaluated in 14 studies while 4 studies evaluate architectural patterns. We identified 10 different constructs with 31 associated measures used to evaluate software patterns. Measures for ‘efficiency’ and ‘usability’ are commonly used to evaluate the problem solving process. While measures for ‘completeness’, ‘correctness’ and ‘quality’ are commonly used to evaluate the final artifact. Overall, ‘time to complete a task’ is the most frequently used measure, employed in 15 studies to measure ‘efficiency’. For qualitative measures, studies do not report approaches for minimizing biases 27% of the time. Nine studies do not discuss any threats to validity.ConclusionSubtle differences in study design and execution can limit comparison of findings. Establishing baselines for participants’ experience level, providing appropriate training, standardizing problem sets, and employing commonly used measures to evaluate performance can support replication and comparison of results across studies.     

Study protocol and baseline results for a quasi-randomized control trial: An investigation on the effects of ergonomic interventions on work-related musculoskeletal disorders,quality of work-life and productivity in knowledge-based companies

IntroductionWork-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) are the major causes of lost workdays, increased costs, and occupational diseases in all countries. The prevalence of WMSDs among the workers in small and medium-sized enterprises in Iran was reported as 73%. This paper aimed to describe the design of an interventional study to investigate the effects of ergonomic interventions on work-related musculoskeletal disorders, quality of work-life, and productivity among office workers of knowledge-based companies and introduce the results obtained from the baseline survey.Methods/designIt was a quasi-randomized control trial study on 313 participants with four parallel groups including ergonomic training intervention; management training and work changes intervention; ergonomic training, management training and work changes intervention; and non-interventional control group. The primary outcome was WMSDs, and the secondary outcomes were occupational stress factors, quality of work-life, and productivity. All primary and secondary outcomes were measured before the interventions, one, three, and six months after the interventions.ResultsAt this phase of study only baseline results were reported. 328 participants, with a mean age of 31.97 years (SD = 5.39), completed the baseline survey and entered the study. The highest prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders was found in neck (52.13%), right shoulder (41.16%) and right forearm (37.2%), respectively.ConclusionErgonomic interventions were conducted based on baseline data of the participants at individual and management levels. The focus of training program interventions was to reduce musculoskeletal disorders in upper limbs; in management training and work changes program, the focus was to increase social support.Trial registrationIRCT registration number: IRCT20181204041840N1 (date of registration: 2019-02-05).     

Continuous evaluation of participants’ perceptions of impact: Applying a boundary object in organizational‐level interventions

Workplaces across Europe experience increasing problems with work‐related strain and stress. Consequently, they are confronted with the need for stress‐preventive interventions that target the sources of stress. A matter of current debate is how to continuously evaluate an organizational‐level intervention and gain insight into progress and participants’ perceptions of its impact; however, empirical data are lacking. Therefore, we conducted a qualitative study in three workplaces—two in information technology (IT) and one in manufacturing—to explore the design, evaluation process, perceived impact, and employees’ experiences with the continuous use of a physical evaluation tool (visualization object) during an organizational‐level intervention process. We conducted observations, surveys, semi‐structured interviews and chronicle workshops across all three workplaces. Overall, the results showed that the visualization object proved successful as a tool to explicate and combine participants’ perceptions of impact. The evaluation process also clarified that participants initially had different understandings of the intervention's purpose. However, the study also showed that the visualization object facilitated a dialog among participants, converging the different understandings to create a shared understanding and compliance of purpose. Finally, the respondents reported that the evaluation tool acted as a collective reminder of the intervention and the related changes. We conclude the study by providing recommendations for future evaluations of participatory organizational‐level interventions.     

The Dating and Domestic Violence App Rubric: Synthesizing Clinical Best Practices and Digital Health App Standards for Relationship Violence Prevention Smartphone Apps

ABSTRACT

Smartphones are used to both perpetrate and intervene in dating and domestic violence (DV). However, existing DV literature primarily evaluates technology as a tool for perpetration and emerging frameworks that measure eHealth app interventions have not yet considered DV.

To address this gap, the Dating and Domestic Violence App Rubric assesses smartphone-based DV intervention apps along common eHealth app measures such as user responsiveness and security as well as DV-appropriateness – categories derived from eHealth intervention theory and evidence-based DV interventions. As proof of concept, 38 DV intervention apps for iPhone were measured using this rubric.

K-means cluster analysis identified three clusters (high, medium, low). Apps targeting specific users or a specific intervention strategy tended to score higher overall. Findings suggest high-quality DV intervention apps may depend on active collaboration between stakeholders including app developers, DV advocates, and other professionals. Future research should expand this research to include additional DV apps and explore how individuals use smartphone apps to prevent or intervene in DV.     

A MATHEMATICAL THEORY OF DESIGN Representation of Design Artifacts (Part I)

Abstract

This study presents a Formal General Design Theory (FGDT), a mathematical theory of design. The main goal of FGDT is to lay out a domain independent modeling of design artifacts ( ‘Part I’) and the design process ( ‘Part II’ ). We discuss issues such as: the scope of the theory with respect to real design and the guidelines it provides for building CAD systems, representation of design artifacts, idealized design process cycle, and computational complexity analysis. Treating FGDT as a model aims at developing a generally accepted core of design theory. We also point out the possibilities that such a model opens in terms of studying conceptual design (for example, modeling the relation between design and quality).