Plinio P. Morita

Trust tokens in team development

Purpose – Computer-mediated communication systems (CMCSs) have become the standard for supporting virtual teamwork. However, interpersonal trust formation though CMCSs is impaired due to limited media richness of the communication channels. The aim of this paper is to identify trust forming cues that occur naturally in face-to-face environments and are suitable to include in CMCSs design, to facilitate greater trust in virtual teams. Design/methodology/approach – To select cues that had a strong effect on fostering trust behaviour, a non-participatory ethnographic study was conducted. Two student teams at the University of Waterloo were observed for 6-12 months. Researchers identified mechanisms used for building trust and bridging team developmental barriers. Findings – The paper identifies five trust tokens that were effective in developing trust and bridging team developmental barriers: expertise, recommendations, social capital, willingness to help/benevolence, and validation of information. These beh...

Understanding ‘interpersonal trust’ from a human factors perspective: insights from situation awareness and the lens model

Trust has become a hot topic in the academic world in the past few decades. Authors from a variety of fields, especially human factors, have developed field-specific approaches to understanding trust. However, in the field of human factors, researchers usually take the approach of modelling how trust is formed between humans and automation. There is still a gap in the human factors literature with regard to frameworks for supporting the development of socio-technical systems where interpersonal trust is a desired design output. Through the combination of mainstream trust literature with human factors frameworks such as situation awareness and the lens model, we have developed a model that not only supports the understanding of interpersonal trust formation and the design of systems that foster the development of interpersonal trust, but also fills an existing gap in the trust modelling literature concerning the detailed description of the interpersonal trust state formation process.

Mobile Patient Monitoring for the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit Work Domain Analysis and Rapid Prototyping Results

Detection of patient deterioration and triage (prioritization of care) are two critical tasks in the high risk environment and interdisciplinary care model of patients in an intensive care unit. To make decisions and plan treatments, clinicians need to observe, integrate, communicate, and understand a wide range of information from various devices located at the bedsides of multiple patients. However, several technological and physical limitations prevent them from optimally performing these tasks, which negatively impact the capabilities of healthcare teams. The Monitoring Messenger concept was developed to overcome some of these challenges by integrating information on a mobile device and supporting team decision-making and information exchange. Results from the initial phases of this project: requirements definition using Cognitive Work Analysis and rapid device prototyping are presented in this paper.

Designing for Interpersonal Trust – The Power of Trust Tokens

Computer mediated communication systems (CMCSs) are increasingly being used to support activities of virtual teams, improving information exchange and capacity of these teams. However, the technology that enables these teams to benefit from effective and timely information exchange suffers from constraints of media richness, limiting the amount of social information that can be transmitted. This missing information can affect the formation of trust between members of these teams. In this paper, we conducted an ethnographic study to identify behaviors that facilitate the development of trust within face-to-face teams as an opportunity to design interface design objects with similar effects. A key observation was trust tokening, where trust is conveyed through social referents. Trust tokening has the potential to be adapted for use in computer support systems where establishing interpersonal trust is just as important as face-to-face collaborations.

The Importance of a Safety Culture in Healthcare Facilities for the Development of an Incident Investigation System

Different industry sectors have developed numerous tools for risk management, from simple risk assessments to more complex tools like FMEA and incident investigation methodologies. Although the healthcare sector deals with a highly risky environment, little has been done if compared to other Industry sectors and service providers with the same level of inherent risk. To overcome these deficiencies, some methodologies have been created to fill the existing gaps in healthcare facilities, being one of these the incident investigation system. Although this methodology is very effective as one of the risk management tools, to obtain better results it requires the implementation of an adequate safety culture before its development. This article will discuss the importance of a safety culture inside a healthcare institution for the adequate development of an incident investigation system. The limitations and barriers due to the lack of a safety culture towards the incident investigation will be discussed over the different phases of an incident investigation system. The consequences and the difficulties faced by the implementers will be presented, as well as the solutions and benefits that will blossom from the implementation of a safety culture allied to an incident investigation system.

Incident Investigation in the Healthcare System: a Comparative Analysis Derived from the Chemical Industries

Incidents and near misses are found in any kind of industry or service provider. Owing to the high impact of certain incidents, some industries like chemical, automotive and airline have developed methodologies to manage risks and avoid occurrences by studying previous incident. These methodologies have been widely developed and a complete incident investigation system has been built, suited for incidents occurring within each particular industry. In the healthcare system, only nowadays it is possible to see some action to reduce existing risks. Unfortunately, the safety programs found in healthcare facilities usually focus in biohazards reduction, leaving behind several safety issues that, if considered, could avoid the majority of occurrences. Considering the large amount of existing methodologies and the characteristics of the incidents, they can be specifically adapted according to the needs of incident investigation in the healthcare system. An analysis of reported incidents and characteristics of the chemical industries and the healthcare facilities is developed to consider the differences between each environment. Then a detailed assessment of existing methodologies and its characteristics is developed considering three categories: evidence gathering, witness interviews and equipment analysis. Analyzing the reported incidents, each of the categories above is adapted from an already available set of methodologies. In the first category, despite the different characteristics of the evidences, it is possible to adapt the procedures used for chemical industries, due to minor scope of evidence gathering in healthcare system’s incidents. The interview process available for chemical industries is not adequate to use within the healthcare system’s incidents, which imposed the use of a different methodology. The combination of methodologies from different sources is more adequate for the equipment analysis category, due to already developed methodologies specific for equipment incidents. Changes in the culture of the healthcare system and behavior after an incident are discussed in this study to achieve a better and safer system. Much has to be done to attain a complete guide for incident investigation within the healthcare system, but the existing groundwork from other industries allows the adaptation and merging of the existing data into one methodology appropriate to the healthcare system.

The Influence of Strong Recommendations, Good Incident Reports and a Monitoring System over an Incident Investigation System for Healthcare Facilities

Different industry sectors have developed numerous tools for risk management, from simple risk assessments to more complex tools like Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) and incident investigation methodologies. Although the healthcare sector deals with a highly risky environment, little has been done in the risk management area if compared to other Industries and service providers with the same level of inherent risk. To overcome these deficiencies, some methodologies have been created to fill the existing gaps in healthcare facilities. One of these tools is the incident investigation and as with any risk management tool, it is highly dependent on the way its results are communicated to the institutions administration and employees. Another shaping factor of the success of the recommendations from an incident investigation process is the follow-up applied after the recommendations are put in place. Even strong systems can fail by not giving appropriate attention for human factors on the design and implementation of recommendations, reports and follow-up procedures. This paper will discuss the importance of the development of strong recommendations after an incident investigation; a specifically designed incident investigation report, appropriate to the characteristics and mission of the institution; as well as the necessary follow-up system for the verification and control of the presented recommendations. Factors like the institution support, employee involvement, strong recommendations and adequate follow-up on the recommendations must be taken into consideration in order to obtain good safety results after an incident investigation.