TY - JOUR
T1 - The realities of procedure deviance
T2 - A qualitative examination of divergent work-as-done and work-as-imagined perspectives
AU - Mendoza, Anjelica
AU - Liu, Sin Ning Cindy
AU - Smith, Alec
AU - Hendricks, Joseph W.
AU - Peres, S. Camille
AU - Sasangohar, Farzan
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2024/3
Y1 - 2024/3
N2 - The differences between ‘work as imagined’ (WAI) and ‘work as done’ (WAD) reflect theoretically pervasive and well-known barriers to the examination of human performance at work. Due to the dynamic and situational nature of the workplace, the idealized performance reflected in procedures is not always done as prescribed, and thus provides an excellent opportunity for examining divergence between WAI and WAD. The identification and examination of this gap and the nature of these deviations are imperative for high-risk industries to understand how workers' tools—in this case procedures—can be effectively designed and maintained. The present study used thematic analysis to compare procedure administrator and management performance expectations (representing WAI) to the realities of user performance (representing WAD) through interviews collected at several large, international chemical corporation sites. Direct comparisons of these perspectives revealed divergent expectations of how procedures are used and when they are most useful: Users reported deviating more often than administrators perceived the users deviate; users reported that tasks were the cause of the deviations more than administrators; and administrators thought that users may deviate from the procedures unintentionally while users did not report this. For a procedural system to perform optimally, these differences and the underlying processes that perpetuate them must be identified and further examined. To this end, relevant findings and theories from the human factors, ergonomics, and psychology literatures are identified and future directions are proposed.
AB - The differences between ‘work as imagined’ (WAI) and ‘work as done’ (WAD) reflect theoretically pervasive and well-known barriers to the examination of human performance at work. Due to the dynamic and situational nature of the workplace, the idealized performance reflected in procedures is not always done as prescribed, and thus provides an excellent opportunity for examining divergence between WAI and WAD. The identification and examination of this gap and the nature of these deviations are imperative for high-risk industries to understand how workers' tools—in this case procedures—can be effectively designed and maintained. The present study used thematic analysis to compare procedure administrator and management performance expectations (representing WAI) to the realities of user performance (representing WAD) through interviews collected at several large, international chemical corporation sites. Direct comparisons of these perspectives revealed divergent expectations of how procedures are used and when they are most useful: Users reported deviating more often than administrators perceived the users deviate; users reported that tasks were the cause of the deviations more than administrators; and administrators thought that users may deviate from the procedures unintentionally while users did not report this. For a procedural system to perform optimally, these differences and the underlying processes that perpetuate them must be identified and further examined. To this end, relevant findings and theories from the human factors, ergonomics, and psychology literatures are identified and future directions are proposed.
KW - Petrochemical industry
KW - Process control
KW - Protocol deviations
KW - Safety procedures
KW - Semi-structured interview
KW - Standard operating procedures
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U2 - 10.1016/j.ergon.2024.103564
DO - 10.1016/j.ergon.2024.103564
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85186707090
SN - 0169-8141
VL - 100
JO - International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics
JF - International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics
M1 - 103564
ER -