Abstract
Coordinating activities in many settings can require people to manage conflict, potential and actual. Conflict arises from resource limitations, high-stakes consequences, uncertainty, goal conflict among stakeholders and hierarchical organizational structures. To understand coordination in such systems, we conducted a field study of management of surgical operating rooms. While coordinating interdependencies, such as progress monitoring, scheduling and rescheduling, and prodding, coordinators managed a set of complicated conflicts. They did so opportunistically, to resolve and to prevent conflict. Additionally, coordinators were concerned with perceived fairness. These findings indicate that, in the design of ICT to support coordination, we should examine not only the mechanical articulation of activities and efficient prioritization of resources, but also means to support companion social processes.
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Acknowledgments
The study was funded in part by a grant from National Science Foundation (IIS-0325087). The opinions expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official position of the funding agency. We thank the nurses, physicians, and technicians for their time and insights.
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Xiao, Y., Kiesler, S., Mackenzie, C.F. et al. Negotiation and conflict in large scale collaboration: a preliminary field study. Cogn Tech Work 9, 171–176 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10111-006-0052-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10111-006-0052-x