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Recent studies suggest challenges in developing safety science: broadening perspectives and methodologies for sociotechnical work comprehension and incentives so that the complexity effects can be analyzed with greater depth and safety research can become politically oriented in its models. This study explores the contributions of Actor-Network Theory as a methodological resource to reassemble human and non-human elements in safety science research, especially when considering the dynamic reality, variability, and uncertainty characteristic of complex sociotechnical systems. In light of the theoretical aspects of the Actor-Network Theory, such as controversies, political ontologies, and enactment, we discuss possibilities for the cartography of controversies in safety science studies. The discussion contributes, thus, with new methodological connections to research in safety science, exploring associations and new positions among different realities in the field.

It is generally accepted that consensus about the features of the “high reliability” identity allow organizations performing hazardous activities to act in an error-free manner. This work challenges this assumption, providing evidence of multiple identities in a High Reliability Organization. We conducted an inductive case study in a large oil and gas producer, whose top executives emphasized safety as a central and distinctive feature of the company. Our analysis was based on extensive data: presentations, interviews, observation, and conversations. The results permit us to describe two organizational identities of safety on offshore oil platforms: “controlling” and “caring.” We found that managers and workers interpreted safety both as imposing “strict sanctions” and possessing “meaningful value.” They expressed the organizational identity through varying forms of antinomies: authoritative versus respectful interactions and resisting versus adapting actions. These dynamics of identity help us better understand the organizational process of “becoming” highly reliable.

Mensurar a sustentabilidade organizacional por meio de indices promove uma reflexao direta sobre as suas acoes sustentaveis e os impactos gerados no ambiente e na sociedade. O presente estudo tem como objetivo explorar o constructo sustentabilidade por meio de estudos que desenvolveram indices. Para analise desse constructo foram utilizadas 4 categorias: contribuicoes e justificativas, conceitos regulares, distincoes e fragilidades. Para tanto, foi realizada uma Revisao Sistematica de Literatura (RSL) sobre metricas de sustentabilidade para gestao organizacional. A analise cobrou estudos publicados entre 1997 e 2019, que desenvolveram indices para 9 setores economicos em mais de 10 paises, publicados nos principais periodicos que cercam o tema, identificados atraves de pesquisas na base de dados Scopus. Dos 13 estudos analisados, 11 mencionaram as tres dimensoes de sustentabilidade: ambiental, economica e social. A principal contribuicao para a ciencia e o campo de estudo foi metodologica, enquanto que a teoria mais recorrente foi a teoria dos stakeholders. Os conceitos ou termos regulares foram a sustentabilidade, aspectos e dimensoes da sustentabilidade (Triple Bottom Line ou TBL), Responsabilidade Social Corporativa (CSR), Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) e Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI). A logica fuzzy foi empregada em 4 dos 13 estudos, enquanto que a falta de preocupacao com a validade e a confiabilidade dos dados primarios ou secundarios foi observada em todos os estudos analisados. Ademais, este estudo abre caminho para analises epistemologicas nos trabalhos da area, que analisem o conhecimento representado e sua forma de apresentacao. Palavras-chave : Sustentabilidade. Metricas De Sustentabilidade. Revisao Sistematica De Literatur. Abordagem Epistemologica. ABSTRACT Measuring organizational sustainability through indices promotes a direct reflection on its sustainable actions and the impacts generated on the environment and society. This study aims to explore the sustainability construct through studies that developed indices. We used four categories to analyze this construct: contributions and justifications, regular concepts, distinctions, and weaknesses. To this end, we conducted a Systematic Literature Review (RSL) on sustainability metrics for organizational management. The analysis covered studies published between 1997 and 2019, which developed indexes for 9 economic sectors in more than 10 countries, published in the main journals surrounding the theme, identified through searches in the Scopus database. Among the 13 studies analyzed, 11 mentioned the three dimensions of sustainability: environmental, economic, and social. The main contribution to science and the field of study was methodological, while the most recurring theory was the stakeholder theory. Regular concepts or terms were sustainability, aspects and dimensions of sustainability (Triple Bottom Line or TBL), Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI). Fuzzy logic was employed in 4 of 13 studies, while lack of concern about the validity and reliability of primary or secondary data was observed in all studies. Moreover, this study opens the way for epistemological analyzes in works of this area, which analyze the knowledge represented and its form of presentation. Keywords : Sustainability. Sustainability Metrics. Systematic Literature Review. Epistemological Approach.

Baseado nos depoimentos de representantes de organizações não governamentais, o objetivo desta pesquisa consistiu em estudar e comparar a participação eletrônica no Uruguai, Colômbia e Chile com fundamento na teoria da ação comunicativa (TAC). As evidências mostraram que Chile e Colômbia contam com lei específica que regula o tema e que a Colômbia é a única das três nações com um programa institucional de e-participação. As entrevistas indicaram que a presença da e-participação em todos os países é tímida e que, apesar da percepção de discurso governamental e vontade política favoráveis, os recursos disponíveis, nesse âmbito, estão aquém do necessário. Por final, as contribuições fizeram emergir uma discussão sobre a conveniência do modelo preconizado pela Open Government Partnership (OGP).

Purpose: This study aims to analyze the influence of entrepreneurial passion and creativity on entrepreneurial intent. It also examines the mediating role of entrepreneurial self-efficacy between the personal/cognitive variable and entrepreneurial intention. Originality/value: By stressing the importance of cognitive and emotional variables that may influence entrepreneurial intentions among university students (such as creativity and entrepreneurial passion), this study shows the important role that universities have in the development of entrepreneurial intent. According to the Social Cognitive Theory (SCT), the environment influences individual behavior and, therefore, universities should encourage an entrepreneurial environment, enabling the creation of new jobs and companies. Design/methodology/approach: Data were collected through a survey with business and technology students from a Brazilian university. In total, 338 valid responses were obtained, which were analyzed through structural equation modeling. The data were collected in a cross-sectional manner and by a stratified and non-probability sampling method. To address the research hypothesis and to attain the objectives of the study, all constructs were adapted from relevant literature in the field of entrepreneurship. The structural model was examined in relation to the model fit, which enabled the hypothesis to be tested. Findings: Results showed both a direct and indirect positive relationship between entrepreneurial passion on entrepreneurial intention. Regarding the creativity factor, results indicated only an indirect effect of creativity on entrepreneurial intention, this relationship being mediated through entrepreneurial self-efficacy. No significant differences were found in the model regarding age, gender, graduation program, entrepreneurial family background, role models or family income. RESUMO Objetivo: Este estudo visa analisar a influência da paixão empreendedora e da criatividade na intenção empreendedora e o papel mediador da autoeficácia empreendedora entre as variáveis pessoais/cognitivas e a intenção empreendedora. Originalidade/valor: Ressaltando a importância das variáveis cognitivas e emocionais que podem influenciar as intenções empreendedoras dos estudantes universitários, tais como a criatividade e a paixão empreendedora, este estudo mostra o importante papel das universidades no desenvolvimento das intenções empreendedoras. De acordo com a Teoria Social Cognitiva (TSC), o ambiente influencia o comportamento do indivíduo, e as universidades deveriam promover um ambiente empreendedor, possibilitando a criação de novos empregos e empresas. Design/metodologia/abordagem: Os dados foram coletados por uma pesquisa feita com estudantes de Administração e de Informática de uma universidade brasileira. Ao todo, foram obtidas 338 respostas válidas, analisadas por meio de modelagem de equações estruturais. Essa coleta foi realizada de maneira transversal e com um método de amostragem não-probabilística. Para investigar as hipóteses e atingir os objetivos deste estudo, todos os conceitos foram adaptados a partir da literatura da área de empreendedorismo. O modelo estrutural foi avaliado em relação ao seu ajuste, permitindo a testagem de hipóteses. Resultados: Os resultados mostraram uma relação positiva direta e indireta entre a paixão empreendedora e a intenção de empreender. A respeito da criatividade, foi possível perceber apenas uma influência indireta desse fator na intenção empreendedora, sendo essa relação mediada por meio da autoeficácia empreendedora. Não foram encontradas diferenças significantes no modelo com relação a idade, gênero, curso de graduação, histórico empreendedor familiar, modelo de comportamento e a renda familiar.

Understanding a business model is at the core of organizational strategy, competitiveness, and business sustainability. Descriptive approaches to understand business models are often based on the analysis of their components by looking at organizational assets, resources, plans, and competencies. Although there are numerous contributions in the literature, few guidelines are offered regarding an Activity System perspective, in a prescriptive rather than a descriptive way. In this study, we propose a pragmatic solution to help cover this literature gap and to extend on previous studies. A Design Science Research approach was adopted including a multicase study of four business companies we examined in order to create a method for business model analysis from an Activity System perspective. The resulting artefact of the study is illustrated with data from the empirical cases. Three analytical movements are described as well as prescribed: dimensions analysis (i.e., business definition, customer segment, value proposition, profit logic, critical factors of value proposition, and Activity System); visual representation including illustrations of its Activity System; and competitive analysis including prospection for changes and innovations. Finally, the artefact is discussed in relation to its quality, utility, and usability.

Safety culture enhancement is currently the most studied approach for HSE performance improvements in the oil and gas industry. However, the conception and implementation of a correspondent program or action plan is still a challenge. This study presents the structure, analysis and results of a human factors and resilience engineering study conducted by Libra Joint Venture and PUCRS. The objective is to build a human factors program focusing on safety culture enhancement in offshore drilling and FPSO operations. Oil and gas offshore operations can be considered complex social-technical systems with multiple tight-coupling interactions. For this reason, the study’s approach was multidisciplinary, involving professionals from areas of Resilience Engineering, Knowledge Engineering, Knowledge Management, Sociology, Social Service and Environment. The research project consisted of data collection, data analysis and recommendations proposition, validation and prioritization. Tools and methodologies used include interviews, biographic narratives, focus group, workshops, observation, questionnaires and Functional Resonance Analysis Method (FRAM), a systemic analysis methodology widely used in Aviation Industry, to model work as done. A great part of these tools were applied onboard a drillship and a FPSO, both currently operating in the Pre-Salt Area, in Santos Basin. As the main results, this work provides important field observations and oil and gas industry prioritized recommendations for conceiving a Human Factors Program for offshore operations, with the aim of increasing safety and resilience of the system, which ultimately will reduce risk exposure and avoid accidents.

The resources for action idea suggests that procedures, although they appear to be constraints that control, direct and restrict actions, are in fact resources that support a wide range of actions. Whereas the notion has gained considerable traction in the academic discourse, few empirical studies investigated how procedures are used as resources or if they are the only resources deployed. This paper applies resources for action approach to describe how a cockpit manages emergencies and other non-normal situations and the role played by the Quick Reference Handbook (QRH). Data was collected through participant observation, interviews, and analysis of technical documents. The results indicate that some situations encountered by pilots are far more complicated than the procedure anticipates. In order to cope with these situations, pilots employed strategies that interleaved a range of resources, often consulting fragments of the QRH checklists rather than following them from start to finish. These findings suggest that emergency checklists should be divided into smaller units that can be followed independently, and that procedures should sometimes provide pilots with choices rather than mandatory instructions. The other resources deployed can also enhance the performance of pilots.

This study compares two Latin American open government programs by focusing on electronic participation, transparency and open data practices in light of the theory of communicative action (TCA). The results show potential faults in the electronic participation and open data programs when substantial resources are not aligned with the governments' speeches and political wills. In addition, the investigation illustrates the value of adopting the TCA to investigate open programs from a critical perspective as a viable way to expand such research to other countries, portray the status quo of open government and improve policy making.

Resilience is becoming a prevalent agenda in safety research and organisational practice. In this study we examine how the peer-reviewed safety science literature (a) formulates the rationale behind the study of resilience; (b) constructs resilience as a scientific object; and (c) constructs and locates the resilient subject. The results suggest that resilience engineering scholars typically motivate the need for their studies by referring to the inherent complexities of modern socio-technical systems; complexities that make these systems inherently risky. The object of resilience then becomes the capacity to adapt to such emerging risks in order to guarantee the success of the inherently risky system. In the material reviewed, the subject of resilience is typically the individual, either at the sharp end or at higher managerial levels. The individual is called-upon to adapt in the face of risk to secure the continuous performance of the system. Based on the results from how resilience has been introduced in safety sciences we raise three ethical questions for the field to address: (1) should resilience be seen as people thriving despite of, or because of, risk?; (2) should resilience theory form a basis for moral judgement?; and finally (3) how much should resilience be approached as a trait of the individual?

Safety culture is part of a larger discursive practice shared by scholars and practitioners in the field of accident prevention. It appears in various institutional documents, such as scientific and accident reports, industry-related statistics, manuals, and legislation. We examine the constitution of safety culture and its effects as a form of knowledge based on a Foucauldian archae-genealogical approach. Our analysis lays out the historical conditions for the emergence of the object, the scientific approaches for its delimitation, and its regular characteristics. We also describe four effects of the object in the discourse: a focused aspect of organisational culture that implies a normative homogeneity of values, beliefs, and behaviours; a disciplinary enforcement of workers' safety behaviours; a biopolitical control of organisations; and a form of governmentality that connects the conduct of individuals with organisational norms.

It is a current trend in aviation to use categories of technical (e.g., knowledge) and nontechnical skills (e.g., situation awareness) to assess airline pilots’ performance. Several studies have revealed large disagreement between assessors when airline professionals use these categories to assess the performance of their peers. The aim of the present study is to investigate whether the categories themselves are at the source of disagreement. We explore the reasoning of flight examiners who assess an engine fire scenario in pairs. The results provide insight into the overlap of topics that constitute certain categories. Implications are drawn in regards to the use of assessment categories and their influence on pilot performance assessment.

Situation awareness (SA) has become a ubiquitous object of knowledge in our discourses of human performance and accident explanation. Based on Michel Foucault's archaeological approach, in this paper, we examine SA by mapping the ‘conditions of possibility’ for this object to emerge. By highlighting the logic that SA builds upon, the political need that it intends to address, and the knowledges that delimitate it in its constitution, we aim to display the contingent nature of this object. Ultimately, we argue that as a discursive object, SA has effects.

Este artigo tem por objetivo descrever a evolução do campo conceitual da Engenharia de Sistemas Cognitivos (ESC), discutir seus fundamentos epistemológicos e verificar a sua coerência com a natureza dos problemas investigados. Para tanto, o trabalho apresenta uma revisão bibliográfica do desenvolvimento histórico desse campo e a caracterização de cinco abordagens comuns nas pesquisas em ESC. Os resultados apontam que os estudos em ESC, via de regra, tomam o indivíduo ou o sistema técnico como unidade de análise, deixando lacunas importantes na investigação de interações entre humano, trabalho e artefatos. Uma nova agenda de pesquisa é proposta tendo como base três premissas: um sistema cognitivo não deve ser interpretado como uma máquina cartesiano-newtoniana, que possui relações evidentes de causa e efeito; um sistema cognitivo não pode ser modelado com precisão e perfeição; a investigação de sistemas cognitivos deve focar em fenômenos emergentes das interações entre humano, trabalho e artefatos tecnológicos. This article aims to describe the evolution of the conceptual field of cognitive systems engineering (CSE), to discuss its epistemological foundations and to verify the coherence of CSE with the nature of the problems that are investigated. Toward this aim, this work presents a literature review of the historical development of CSE and characterizes five common approaches in CSE research. The results indicate that studies in CSE have, as a rule, assumed the individual or the technical system to be the unit of analysis, ignoring important opportunities in the investigation of the interactions among human, work, and artifacts. A new research agenda is proposed based on an analysis of three assumptions: a cognitive system should not be assumed to be a Cartesian-Newtonian machine, which has clear cause-and-effect relationships; a cognitive system cannot be modeled with precision and perfection; and the investigation of cognitive systems should focus on emergent phenomena related to the interactions among human, work, and technological artifacts.

Training in non-technical skills (NTSs) does not usually question the design of the work system but focuses narrowly on workers as the unit of analysis. This study discusses how the identification of NTS, a major step for developing an NTS training program, might be re-interpreted from the perspective of resilience engineering (RE). This discussion is based on a case study of identifying NTS for electricians who perform emergency maintenance activities in an electricity distribution network. The case study showed that four data collection and analysis procedures might operationalize the RE perspective: (a) by identifying work constraints which create the need for NTS as a means to adjust performance; (b) by identifying recommendations for re-designing the system, which could either eliminate, or reduce the need for, or make it easier to use NTS; (c) by regarding the identification of NTS as an opportunity to give visibility to adaptations carried out by workers; and (d) by classifying the NTS into pragmatic categories, which are meaningful for workers. These procedures aim at emphasizing that the NTS are intertwined with the socio-technical system, and thus have little meaning unless there is a context.

This article presents a protocol for assessing team performance in terms of control based on cognitive systems engineering theory. The protocol changes the focus of team performance assessment from good and bad behaviours towards team activity. By using Hollnagel’s contextual control model (COCOM), a protocol is developed so that team activity can be described as four control modes. Data is collected through observation and questionnaires and is analysed in time intervals. Each time interval is then given a control mode. Based on how the control mode changes over time, the performance of the team can be assessed. The protocol was tested in a pilot study where commanding staff exercises were analysed. The results show that the protocol can be used to identify differences in team performance. The study also gives empirical validity to COCOM in that the loss of control in emergencies corresponds to an opportunistic or a scrambled control mode.

The performance of teams, with different levels of domain and crisis management experience, managing unexpected and escalating situations was observed using a mid-fidelity ship-bridge simulation and analysed by applying the central concepts of joint activity coordination as well as Woods's theory building on data overload. The coordination strategies used by the teams were evaluated by applying coordination process indicators and the concept of control. The paper discusses how different aspects of team coordination in unexpected and escalating situations, e.g. that teams that maintain a high level of control in escalating situations, avoid or minimize the effects of data overload by using explicit and agreed-upon goals rather than sharing as much incoming information as possible. The results presented in this paper show the benefits of applying a broad set of theoretical concepts to shed light on the actual demands that escalating situations pose on people's data processing capacities and processes. It also provides guidance on the successful performance of teams in such situations and thus support for the development of successful strategies for their management.

Recent incidents have shown that the production of take-off speeds is an activity vulnerable to miscalculations with a potential for disastrous outcomes. The aim of this paper is to analyze the calculation of the take-off speeds in a modern airline cockpit as a distributed cognitive activity in order to identify possible vulnerabilities in this process. We took the cockpit as the joint cognitive system under analysis and conducted an ethnographic study based on documental analysis, flight observations, interviews, and the analysis of 22 events involving failures related to the calculation of take-off speeds. The main argument is that the cognitive systems engineering perspective, with less focus on the human contribution than it is common in investigations, levels people and artifacts in the system as equal contributors to its eventual performance. Our analysis identified four assertions regarding vulnerabilities in the process of take-off speeds calculation: (1) representations at the level of the cockpit are always partial and incomplete; (2) some interactions require interpretation rather than institution; (3) interactions of agents do not follow a canonical process of coordination; (4) the control of the prevention of failures is accurate but inadequate. These vulnerabilities are a matter of interactions among cognitive systems in the cockpit, rather than vulnerabilities of individual agents, such as humans or artifacts.

A recent conversation in the literature asks whether human factors constructs amount to folk modeling or to strong science. In this paper we explore this further in the context of well-known positions on the production of science and scientific rationality. We inquire about the sources of epistemological self-confidence—the extent to which human factors is satisfied with its beliefs and assumptions about how it knows what it knows. We question whether a large body of evidence for a construct is evidence of strong science, or whether critical reflection and skepticism about this is actually what distinguishes scientific knowledge from folk models. We also review presumptions of a-perspectival objectivity, in which researchers believe they are able to take a “view from nowhere” and enjoy an objective window onto an existing reality. We ask whether human factors constructs don't so much reflect but rather create a particular empirical world, which would not even exist without those constructs. This article serves as an invitation to rethink what we mean by epistemological confidence and how we arrive at it.

O presente trabalho tem como objetivo analisar a consciência situacional, os processos de tomada de decisão naturalística e os modos de controle cognitivo utilizados por pilotos de aeronaves em um experimento em simulador de voo. Dessa forma, diferentes situações foram propostas durante a simulação objetivando o estudo da consciência situacional e tomada de decisão dos tripulantes. As ações dos participantes foram investigadas e classificadas de acordo com o modelo de controle cognitivo proposto. Os resultados sugerem que os fatores de complexidade contextual afetam a gestão da dificuldade, influenciando a consciência situacional, a tomada de decisão e os modos de controle cognitivo dos pilotos.This work aims to analyze situation awareness, natural decision-making processes and cognitive control modes used by airplane pilots in a flight simulator experiment. In this way, different situations during flight simulation were considered in order to study the crew's situation awareness and natural decision-making. The participants' actions were investigated and classified according to the cognitive control model proposed. Results suggest that context complexity factors affect difficulty management, influencing situation awareness, decision-making and pilots' cognitive control modes.

O presente trabalho tem como objetivo analisar a consciência situacional, os processos de tomada de decisão naturalística e os modos de controle cognitivo utilizados por pilotos de aeronaves em um experimento em simulador de voo. Dessa forma, diferentes situações foram propostas durante a simulação objetivando o estudo da consciência situacional e tomada de decisão dos tripulantes. As ações dos participantes foram investigadas e classificadas de acordo com o modelo de controle cognitivo proposto. Os resultados sugerem que os fatores de complexidade contextual afetam a gestão da dificuldade, influenciando a consciência situacional, a tomada de decisão e os modos de controle cognitivo dos pilotos. This work aims to analyze situation awareness, natural decision-making processes and cognitive control modes used by airplane pilots in a flight simulator experiment. In this way, different situations during flight simulation were considered in order to study the crew's situation awareness and natural decision-making. The participants' actions were investigated and classified according to the cognitive control model proposed. Results suggest that context complexity factors affect difficulty management, influencing situation awareness, decision-making and pilots' cognitive control modes.

Although scenario-based training (SBT) can be an effective means to help workers develop resilience skills, it has not yet been analyzed from the resilience engineering (RE) perspective. This study introduces a five-stage method for designing SBT from the RE view: (a) identification of resilience skills, work constraints and actions for re-designing the socio-technical system; (b) design of template scenarios, allowing the simulation of the work constraints and the use of resilience skills; (c) design of the simulation protocol, which includes briefing, simulation and debriefing; (d) implementation of both scenarios and simulation protocol; and (e) evaluation of the scenarios and simulation protocol. It is reported how the method was applied in an electricity distribution company, in order to train grid electricians. The study was framed as an application of design science research, and five research outputs are discussed: method, constructs, model of the relationships among constructs, instantiations of the method, and theory building. Concerning the last output, the operationalization of the RE perspective on three elements of SBT is presented: identification of training objectives; scenario design; and debriefing.

This paper questions the correspondance between resilience engineering theory and the theoretical fundaments of traditional CRM training, with its related behavior assessments. Reviewing the theoretical roots of CRM it is concluded that such concepts are rather founded in the information processing paradigm hiding the complexities of adaption to rapidly changing situations. An alternative approach to team training and team performance assessment, called Operational Resilience, is introduced. Operational Resilience is rooted in complexity theory and in theorizing cognition as a distributed phenomenon. The most important principles of Operational Resilinece are the focus on processes of coordination and control rather than behaviors, analysis of emergent interactions in multi-professional settings, focus on local production of meaning instead of normative accounts of situation awareness (or similar constructions), and finally analysing how to bridge the gaps caused by the inherent system complexity instead of counting and categorizing errors. (Less)