what-when-how
In Depth Tutorials and Information
In [7] a theoretical background is proposed in order to model the robustness of
complex sociotechnical systems. Classic, structural, and emergent and self-organized
regulations are three categories of regulation proposed in this paper. he emergent
and self-organized regulation plays an important role in a robust sociotechnical
system. For the technical devices, they may face some emergent situations and mal-
functions which have been considered before. If the device systems can respond
effectively and correctly, they can be called robust systems [7, 8].
However, robustness has different definitions in different contexts. Obviously, a
robust system should respond effectively and correctly no matter how the external
environment changes, how an unpredictable situation occurs, or how an internal
malfunction happens. Actually, a resilient system has similar characteristics as pre-
vious mentioned. he diference between robust and resilient systems is that the
internal structure of a robust system may be modified under certain conditions.
he modifications are controlled by a structure that determines the organiza-
tional changes. hree main categories of regulation are considered: (1) classical, (2)
self-adaptation, and (3) emergence and self-organization. he irst two cases help to
build a resilient system, which has an explicit border between a system and external
environment, and the last case helps to build a robust system that does not have an
explicit border between a system and external environment.
he case of Hurricane Katrina is an example of self-organization and emer-
gence. When Hurricane Katrina attacked the city, the fact is that there were no
immediate official actions by the government to rebuild the destroyed communi-
cation infrastructure system. At the same time, some actors started to rebuild the
communication system using some new technologies such as WIFI and WIMAX.
hese actions were done immediately after the arrival of the hurricane, whereas
no oicial actions were taken at the same time. hese actions happened in spite of
attempts by oicial organizations to limit the involvements of volunteers. his case
is a typical self-organization mechanism that cannot be predicted.
“Classical” and “self-adaptation” are no longer suitable to analyze these cases
since these two regulations assume the function of the system is constant. As seen
in the hurricane example, with self-organization, the crisis situations can lead to
the modifications of values, of the actors' interests, and of their interaction with the
environment. herefore, the border between the system and the external environ-
ment is no longer clear. he system and the environment may interfere with each
other.
Figure 13.4 shows the stages and efficiency performance of the system in the exam-
ple of Hurricane Katrina. he red curve indicates the actions of the volunteers who
started to reestablish the communication system immediately after the arrival of the
disaster. he black curve depicts the evolution process of the formal organization.
As a result, the ergonomics of the complex system requires different types of engi-
neering: (1) classical engineering, (2) resilience engineering, and (3) robustness engi-
neering. he irst type is based on a functional approach and controls the simple and
structural regulation mechanisms. he second type deals with borderline and incidental
Search WWH ::




Custom Search