Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
in enriching it. It is instrumental to the effectiveness of collective work
and exerts a protective function on the health of individuals (Cru, 1988).
Reconstructions of rules by the collective aim not just to alleviate the con-
straints of work that derive from prescriptions of the hierarchy, but also
to manage conflicts within the goals of the activity by finding ways of cir-
cumventing them to complete 'a job well done' (Caroly and Weill-Fassina,
2007). Organizational conditions that allow a confrontation with the ges-
tures and practices of other members in the collective, and debates about
the values and meaning expressed in work, are all essential to ensuring
both the learning and the reconstruction of rules (Bourgeois and Hubault,
this volume; Arnoud and Falzon, this volume).
Several organizational conditions must be met in order for the process
of reconstruction of rules to take place:
• The rules implemented by the organization must be able to support
the adjustments that are collectively put in place by the operators in
order to compensate for the misgivings and the contradictions ema-
nating from the organization. For example, when the failure to apply
a prescribed rule occurs in order to manage risks, the collective must
reconstruct these rules so that they can be adjusted to the real-world
work activity. The operational leeway created by operators within
their activity, or provided by the organization, for operators to adapt
to the difficulties of their task must be completed with the opera-
tional leeway provided by the work collective (Caroly et al., 2012).
• The operational leeway provided by the organization of work must
help the implementation of operative adjustments, and the construc-
tion of metarules that define the collective rules for using the prescribed
rules. These are constructed through a confrontation with a varied set
of experiences, and require time and the sharing of experiences.
• Individual adjustments, the attribution of tasks based on age and
experience, must all be made possible within collective work. Thus,
the collectively redefined rules must allow for the specificity of every
person within his or her activity without hindering the production
of collective work.
Constructing intermediary objects to support collective activity
The presence of intermediary objects is another condition for the develop-
ment of collective activity, notably because these objects support debates
about the criteria of quality of work. Boujut and Laureillard (2002) define
these objects as 'a general category embracing all types of artifacts, whether
physical or virtual, produced by the participants [of collaborative work]
during their work'. These intermediary objects foster exchanges aiming to
