High reliability virtual organizations

Highly reliable organizations (HROs) are those organizations, which by nature or design, cannot or must not fail; the consequences of failure in such systems are usually catastrophic. Systems that combine the characteristics of highly reliable operations and distributed, virtual organizations are known as highly reliable virtual organizations (HRVOs)—distributed and electronically linked groups of organizations that excel in high-consequence settings. Tsunami warning systems (TWS) are one example of virtual organizations that operate under enormous expectations for reliability. Adaptive structuration theory suggests that, in complex systems, technology and organizational structures co-evolve, and users adapt technology to their needs, creating shared meaning about the role and utility of technology in various settings. In this article, we consider how the shared meaning that develops in the social shaping of technology in one HRVO, tsunami warning systems, contributes to reliability enhancement. Following Poole and DeSanctis [2000], this study is a structuration study in a particular context, exploring how structuration occurs, the conditions that influence it, and its consequences or outcomes. We begin by describing HRVOs and the co-adaptive roles that technology and organizational structures play in such organizations. We then describe a global tsunami warning system as an illustrative case of a globally distributed sociotechnical system for which use of technology and distributed organizational structures should enhance reliability. We describe how social media plays a role in adaptive structuration in tsunami warning systems, and then return to consider the nature of HRVOs and their characteristics, en route to identifying challenges in the co-adaptation of technology and organizational structures in highly reliable tsunami warning systems.

[1]  Jacques Wainer,et al.  Groupware and computer supported cooperative work , 1999 .

[2]  A. Kellerman,et al.  The Constitution of Society : Outline of the Theory of Structuration , 2015 .

[3]  A. Giddens.  Central Problems in Social Theory: Action, Structure and Contradiction in Social Analysis , 1979 .

[4]  David Woods,et al.  Situation Awareness: A Critical But Ill-Defined Phenomenon , 1991 .

[5]  M. Cutchin.  Virtual medical geographies: conceptualizing telemedicine and regionalization , 2002 .

[6]  C. Tucker.  Social media, texting play new role in response to disasters: Preparedness, communication targeted , 2011 .

[7]  Ronald E. Rice,et al.  Technology Adaptation: The Case of a Computer-Supported Inter-Organizational Virtual Team , 2000, MIS Q..

[8]  Gavriel Salvendy,et al.  Handbook of Human Factors and Ergonomics , 2005 .

[9]  David L. Paul,et al.  A Field of Study of the Effect of Interpersonal Trust on Virtual Collaborative Relationship Performance , 2004, MIS Q..

[10]  Mary L. Cummings,et al.  The Need for Command and Control Instant Message Adaptive Interfaces: Lessons Learned from Tactical Tomahawk Human-in-the-Loop Simulations , 2004, Cyberpsychology Behav. Soc. Netw..

[11]  R. Cross,et al.  A practical guide to social networks. , 2005, Harvard business review.

[12]  Steven Eppinger,et al.  The new practice of global product development , 2007, IEEE Engineering Management Review.

[13]  Jeannette N. Sutton,et al.  Twittering Tennessee: Distributed networks and collaboration following a technological disaster , 2010, ISCRAM.

[14]  K. Roberts,et al.  Must accidents happen? Lessons from high-reliability organizations , 2001 .

[15]  K. Roberts,et al.  Risk Mitigation in Large-Scale Systems: Lessons from High Reliability Organizations , 1997 .

[16]  Mica R. Endsley,et al.  Toward a Theory of Situation Awareness in Dynamic Systems , 1995, Hum. Factors.

[17]  Ronald E. Rice,et al.  Technology adaption: the case of a computer-supported inter-organizational virtual team 1 , 2000 .

[18]  T. Laporte,et al.  Working in Practice But Not in Theory: Theoretical Challenges of “High-Reliability Organizations” , 1991 .

[19]  Wanda J. Orlikowski,et al.  Using Technology and Constituting Structures: A Practice Lens for Studying Technology in Organizations , 2000, Theory in CSCW.

[20]  K. Weick.  The Vulnerable System: An Analysis of the Tenerife Air Disaster , 1990 .

[21]  E. Tenner.  Why things bite back : technology and the revenge of unintended consequences , 1996 .

[22]  Diane Vaughan,et al.  Organizational Encounters with Risk: Organizational rituals of risk and error , 2005 .

[23]  David L. Paul,et al.  Collaborative Activities in Virtual Settings: A Knowledge Management Perspective of Telemedicine , 2006, J. Manag. Inf. Syst..

[24]  Gregory S Gardner.  Evidence toward an expanded International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) concept of a single unified global communication navigation surveillance air traffic management (CNS/ATM) system : a quantitative analysis of ADS-B technology within a CNS/ATM system , 2005 .

[25]  Amanda Lee Hughes,et al.  Crisis Informatics: Studying Crisis in a Networked World , 2007 .

[26]  Carol A. Manning,et al.  Air Traffic Control , 2008 .

[27]  Frédéric Vanderhaegen,et al.  Multilevel organization design: The case of the air traffic control , 1997 .

[28]  Amund Skavhaug,et al.  Virtual collaboration in oil and gas organizations , 2002, SIGG.

[29]  Simone Polillo,et al.  Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication , 2012 .

[30]  Sathish Sankaran,et al.  Implementing "I Field" Initiatives in a Deepwater Green Field, Offshore Nigeria , 2008 .

[31]  Jane Li,et al.  Design of an advanced telemedicine system for emergency care , 2006, Australasian Computer-Human Interaction Conference.

[32]  Irina Shklovski,et al.  Respectfully yours in safety and service: Emergency management & social media evangelism , 2010, ISCRAM.

[33]  Erran Carmel,et al.  Global software teams: collaborating across borders and time zones , 1999 .

[34]  Christian Uhr,et al.  Trust among decision makers and its consequences in emergency response operations , 2008 .

[35]  K. Gegenfurtner,et al.  Design Issues in Gaze Guidance Under review with ACM Transactions on Computer Human Interaction , 2009 .

[36]  Leysia Palen,et al.  Pass it on?: Retweeting in mass emergency , 2010, ISCRAM.

[37]  Dennis S. Mileti,et al.  Communication of Emergency Public Warnings: A Social Science Perspective and State-of-the-Art Assessment , 1990 .

[38]  Emery Roe,et al.  High Reliability Management: Operating on the Edge , 2008 .

[39]  Ann Majchrzak,et al.  Coordinating Expertise Among Emergent Groups Responding to Disasters , 2007, Organ. Sci..

[40]  Sirkka L. Jarvenpaa,et al.  Communication and Trust in Global Virtual Teams , 1999 .

[41]  K. WeiK..  The Collapse of Sensemaking in Organizations: The Mann Gulch Disaster , 2009, STUDI ORGANIZZATIVI.

[42]  Shan Ling Pan,et al.  The role of IT in crisis response: Lessons from the SARS and Asian Tsunami disasters , 2009, J. Strateg. Inf. Syst..

[43]  Joseph G. Morone,et al.  Averting Catastrophe: Strategies for Regulating Risky Technologies , 1986 .

[44]  Sophia B. Liu,et al.  Citizen communications in crisis: anticipating a future of ICT-supported public participation , 2007, CHI.

[45]  Janet Fulk.  Social construction of communication technology , 1993 .

[46]  Karlene H. Roberts,et al.  The Self-Designing High-Reliability Organization: Aircraft Carrier Flight Operations at Sea , 1987 .

[47]  Michael E. McCauley,et al.  HUMAN FACTORS DESIGN GUIDELINES FOR MULTIFUNCTION DISPLAYS , 2001 .

[48]  Barbara Poblete,et al.  Twitter under crisis: can we trust what we RT? , 2010, SOMA '10.

[49]  Peter M. Madsen,et al.  A case of the birth and death of a high reliability healthcare organisation , 2005, Quality and Safety in Health Care.

[50]  Feng Li,et al.  Effective Virtual Teams through Communities of Practice , 2000 .

[51]  R. Wigand,et al.  Electronic Markets and Virtual Value Chains on the Information Superhighway , 1995 .

[52]  Martha Grabowski,et al.  Risk Mitigation in Virtual Organizations , 1999, J. Comput. Mediat. Commun..

[53]  Cheri Speier,et al.  A Typology of Virtual Organizations:An Empirical Study , 1997 .

[54]  K. Weick.  Organizational Culture as a Source of High Reliability , 1987 .

[55]  Kathleen M. Carley,et al.  Network Structure in Virtual Organizations , 1999 .

[56]  Kathleen M. Sutcliffe,et al.  The impact of safety organizing, trusted leadership, and care pathways on reported medication errors in hospital nursing units. , 2007, Medical care.

[57]  Dave Yates,et al.  Emergency knowledge management and social media technologies: A case study of the 2010 Haitian earthquake , 2011, Int. J. Inf. Manag..

[58]  Kristina Lauche,et al.  Coordinating high-interdependency tasks in asymmetric distributed teams , 2008, CSCW.

[59]  K. Weick,et al.  Organizing for high reliability: Processes of collective mindfulness. , 1999 .

[60]  Ben Shneiderman,et al.  Designing the user interface (2nd ed.): strategies for effective human-computer interaction , 1992 .

[61]  Maurice Joseph Mcginley,et al.  Design criteria for public emergency warning systems , 2006 .

[62]  Judith S. Olson,et al.  Groupware and computer-supported cooperative work , 2002 .

[63]  Kip Smith,et al.  Situational Awareness in Complex Systems , 1994 .

[64]  Debra M. Amidon Rogers,et al.  The Challenge of Fifth Generation R&D , 1996 .

[65]  Ben Shneiderman,et al.  Designing the User Interface: Strategies for Effective Human-Computer Interaction , 1998 .

[66]  K. Weick.  The Collapse of Sensemaking in Organizations: The Mann Gulch Disaster , 1993 .

[67]  Amanda Lee Hughes,et al.  In search of the bigger picture: The emergent role of on-line photo sharing in times of disaster , 2008 .

[68]  Gerardine DeSanctis,et al.  Capturing the Complexity in Advanced Technology Use: Adaptive Structuration Theory , 1994 .

[69]  Leysia Palen,et al.  Microblogging during two natural hazards events: what twitter may contribute to situational awareness , 2010, CHI.

[70]  Karlene H. Roberts,et al.  The Incident Command System : High Reliability Organizing for Complex and Volatile Task , 2007 .

[71]  K. Weick,et al.  Loosely Coupled Systems: A Reconceptualization , 1990 .

[72]  K. Weick.  FROM SENSEMAKING IN ORGANIZATIONS , 2021, The New Economic Sociology.

[73]  Peter J. Denning.  Hastily formed networks , 2006, CACM.

[74]  W. Orlikowski.  Using Technology and Constituting Structures: A Practice Lens for Studying Technology in Organizations , 2000 .

[75]  Bob Fields,et al.  Comparing design options for allocating communication media in cooperative safety-critical contexts: a method and a case study , 1999, TCHI.

[76]  K. Weick.  Technology as equivoque: sensemaking in new technologies , 1990 .

[77]  Martha Grabowski,et al.  Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management Wet and Dry Tsunami Warning Systems : Lessons from High Reliability Organizations , 2011 .

[78]  Duane T. McRuer,et al.  AVIATION SAFETY AND PILOT CONTROL: UNDERSTANDING AND PREVENTING UNFAVORABLE PILOT-VEHICLE INTERACTIONS , 1997 .

[79]  Melissa M. Mallis,et al.  Aircrew Fatigue, Sleep Need and Circadian Rhythmicity , 2010 .

[80]  Susannah B. F. Paletz,et al.  The Breakdown of Coordinated Decision Making in Distributed Systems , 2010, Hum. Factors.

[81]  K. Weick.  Drop Your Tools: An Allegory for Organizational Studies. , 1996 .

[82]  Peter R. Monge,et al.  Communication Processes for Virtual Organizations , 2006 .

[83]  S. Ghoshal,et al.  Social Capital, Intellectual Capital, and the Organizational Advantage , 1998 .

[84]  David Mendonça,et al.  Collaborative adhocracies and mix-and-match technologies in emergency management , 2007, Commun. ACM.

[85]  M. O'hare,et al.  Searching for Safety , 1990 .

[86]  A. Giddens,et al.  New Rules of Sociological Method: A Positive Critique of Interpretative Sociologies. , 1977 .

[87]  Arwen Mohun,et al.  The Limits of Safety: Organizations, Accidents, and Nuclear Weapons , 1993 .

[88]  Carolyn S. Dollar,et al.  RELATIONSHIP OF EMPLOYEE ATTITUDES AND SUPERVISOR-CONTROLLER RATIO TO EN ROUTE OPERATIONAL ERROR RATES , 2002 .

[89]  K. Roberts.  Some Characteristics of One Type of High Reliability Organization , 1990 .

[90]  S. Johnsen.  Leading Indicators of Safety In Virtual Organizations , 2006 .

[91]  David Johnston,et al.  Tsunami Warnings: Understanding in Hawai‘i , 2007 .

[92]  Judith S. Olson,et al.  What Still Matters about Distance , 2009 .

[93]  Markku T. Häkkinen,et al.  Optimizing mobile social media interfaces for rapid internal communication by emergency services , 2010, ISCRAM.

[94]  Leysia Palen,et al.  Twitter adoption and use in mass convergence and emergency events , 2009 .

[95]  Henry Chesbrough,et al.  When is Virtual Virtuous? Organizing for Innovation , 1999 .

[96]  Yong Lu,et al.  Information exchange in virtual communities under extreme disaster conditions , 2011, Decis. Support Syst..

[97]  James H. Martin,et al.  A vision for technology-mediated support for public participation & assistance in mass emergencies & disasters , 2010 .

[98]  Gerardine DeSanctis,et al.  Understanding the use of Group Decision Support Systems: The Theory of Adaptive Structuration , 1990 .

[99]  Christopher D. Wickens,et al.  The Future of Air Traffic Control: Human Operators and Automation , 1998 .

[100]  Diane Vaughan,et al.  The Challenger Launch Decision: Risky Technology, Culture, and Deviance at NASA , 1996 .