Patterns of Interaction:
a Pattern Language for CSCW
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Pattern: Overlapping Responsibilities
Essence of the Pattern: This pattern is concerned with the explicit interdependence of roles amongst tightly coupled groups of workers in safety critical, control room settings. That responsibilities overlap is prescribed within the procedural manuals and job descriptions, however, what is interesting is the work that constitutes the on-going negotiation of roles and responsibilities within the course of getting the job done. Workers clearly have a continual egological (what is my work in relation to other's work) and alteriological (what can I do to make other's work easier) orientation in their work. Such a finding may be true of many settings, however, in these settings, particularly in times of difficulty (such as when 'failures' occurr or ambiguity arises in tasks) this allows for workers to take over the tasks and responsibilities of others with a certain degree of fluidity. This also builds capabilities for supervision, checking and assessment into the system through overlapping knowledge between workers. This pattern is highly related by setting and activity to career trajectory through different roles.
Design For Dependability
Why Useful? This work organisation serves as part of explicit design for dependability in such safety critical socio-technical systems. For example, it ensures that the 'system' can function with varying size in the group of workers present, as individuals may carry out more than one role or allocate themselves to required areas of the activity. Furthermore, the knowledge and experience workers have of one another's roles aids in binding the separate 'stages' or 'tasks' together. This also builds redundancy into the system and provides for cooperation, supervision, advice, sharing of knowledge and so forth as part of the normal group activity. The group can fluidly respond to the various changes in circumstance that characterise control work as it passes from standardised routine (i.e. activity that can be carried out quite programmatically, where decisions are straightforward and time pressure is normal) to exception or crisis handling (dealing with failures, complexity, ambiguity, multiple contingencies and under more extreme time pressure).
Where Used? This pattern has been described in two settings so far. The focus is on describing work organisation where individuals operate with overlapping responsibilities and how this relates to work achievement for small, collocated or proximally located groups of workers in two control room settings (or centres of coordination). The examples presented come from a naval navigation bridge and an ambulance control room.
This pattern is illustrated with vignettes from the following field work:
- Naval Navigation. How work organisation with overlapping responsibilities facilitates dependability through fluidity of roles, group cooperation, sharing of knowledge and supervision.
- Ambulance Control. How work organisation with overlapping responsibilities facilitates dependability through fluidity of roles, group cooperation, supervision and sharing of knowledge.
Design Implications? Designing a work organisation in settings such as this, where workers in tightly inter-linked roles have overlapping responsibilities, attempts to build in dependability to the socio-technical system. For work design this seeks to promote supervision, redundancy and the ability of the group to respond to various dynamic contingencies within their environment. As with the related pattern, career trajectory through different roles, we may firstly consider how such a work organisation design might promote dependability in similar situations. Clearly there may be a concern with designating in which ways responsibilities may overlap, however, the point to note, is that in the situations described here, the demarcation or delineation of these is always an on-going accomplishment. For technical design, the consideration could be one or a number of the following:
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