|
Citation
|
Patriarca R, Falegnami A, Costantino F, Di Gravio G, De Nicola A, Villani ML. Safety Sci. 2021; 136: e105142. |
|
Abstract
|
Modern work domains call for a large reconsideration of the notions referring to risk and safety management. Such reconsiderations arise from the evolving nature of technology and the competitive fast-moving modern working conditions. In such hardly predictable work environments, the interactions between social and technical aspects of work become symbiotic, as early acknowledged in a 1950s seminal human-related research (Trist and Bamforth, 1951). The notion of socio-technical systems was there used to represent the purposeful structure of interrelated and interdependent social and technical elements, influencing one another, directly or indirectly, to maintain their activity, and the existence of the system itself to purse its goal (Walker, 2015).
Especially considering the recent developments in computer science and information technologies, nowadays it becomes relevant to extend the concept of socio-technical systems in a way that explicitly includes computational entities. As current - and future - systems are even more complex systems, we adopt the notion of cyber-socio-technical systems (CSTSs).
Modern work domains are constituted by an intertwined set of social and technical actors with different, often conflicting, functional purposes. These agents act jointly to ensure system's functioning under both expected and unexpected working conditions. Considering the increasing digitalization and automation of work processes, socio-technical systems are progressively including interconnected cyber technical artefacts, thus becoming cyber-socio-technical systems (CSTSs). Adopting a natural science perspective, this paper aims to explore knowledge creation and knowledge conversion within CSTSs, as rooted in an in-depth analysis of work practices and work contexts. The paper proposes a conceptual framework which unveils the relationships between different work representations, i.e. relying on Work-As-Imagined, Work-As-Done, Work-As-Disclosed, Work-As-Observed, intended as knowledge entities generated by different agents, i.e. sharp-end operators, blunt-end operators, and analysts. The recursive and fractal nature of the proposed WAx (Work-As-x) framework ensures its adaptability for different granularity levels of analysis, fostering the understanding, modeling, and analysis of work practices, while abandoning reductionist and over-simplistic approaches.
Language: en |