Creating Interdependencies: Managing Incidents in Large Organizational Environments

Abstract

In recent years, we have witnessed the emergence of large-scale centers of command and control that bring together a range of personnel from various services responsible for the management of day-to-day incidents and events. These multicenter control rooms stand in marked contrast to what Suchman termed ‘centers of coordination’ (Suchman 1997), which have typically formed the focus of much research within HCI and Computer supported co-operative work (CSCW). In this paper, we explore the practices and technical resources within one of these very large multicenter control rooms. Staff in this control room do collaborate with colleagues who are copresent, but there is little reliance on the subtle interactional practices found in earlier studies. However, one information system is critical for collaboration and managing incidents that arise: the information system that is used to record incidents. Unlike in previous settings where records were made after an incident had taken place, these records are used for the concurrent management of activities. We consider the practices through which staff assemble these records to serve the demands of different individuals, with differing responsibilities in various organizations within the control room. We consider instances of copresent collaboration and suggest that these are often to ameliorate problems with the records rather than supporting real-time colocated activities. Although staff may be copresent in these multicenter control rooms, they have different kinds of technological resources available to them, and a different ‘division of labor.’ This can undermine the integration of these resources within forms of work. We conclude by discussing the implications for our understanding of copresent work and also for the methods and approaches we can draw upon for understanding these contemporary workplaces.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We would like to thank the staff and management of the STTOC for their help and generosity supporting this study. We also greatly appreciate the valuable and insightful comments of the reviewers and editors of earlier drafts of this paper.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Paul Luff

Paul Luff ([email protected]) is Professor of Organizations and Technology at the King’s Business School. With colleagues in WIT, he has undertaken video studies in a diverse variety of settings including control rooms, news and broadcasting, healthcare, museums, and science centers, and within design, architecture, and construction.

Christian Heath

Christian Heath ([email protected]) is Professor of Work and Organisation at the King’s Business School and a member of the Work, Interaction and Technology (WIT) research group. His current research includes projects on medical interaction, markets, command and control, and museums and galleries.

Menisha Patel

Menisha Patel ([email protected]) is a Research Assistant at University of Oxford. She has undertaken research in domains such as the London Underground, auction houses, and medical settings both in the UK and in India. Her recent research is concerned with responsible research and innovation related to a broad range of technologies and domains.

Dirk Vom Lehn

Dirk vom Lehn ([email protected]) is Reader in Organisational Sociology and member of Work, Interaction & Technology at King’s Business School. Together with colleagues in WIT, he conducts video-based research on the interplay of interaction and technology in museums and in workplace settings.

Andrew Highfield

Andrew Highfield ([email protected]) is Senior Operations Manager at Transport for London. As part of his responsibilities, he currently leads a 24/7 operation and the development and implementation of processes that support the delivery of real-time information and operational delivery to bus services to over 6 million bus customers daily.