Guy H. Walker - Command and Control: The Sociotechnical Perspective

COMMAND AND CONTROL: THE SOCIOTECHNICAL PERSPECTIVE

Human Factors in Defence

Series Editors:

Dr Don Harris, Cranfield University, UK
Professor Neville Stanton, Brunel University, UK
Professor Eduardo Salas, University of Central Florida, USA

Human factors is key to enabling todays armed forces to implement their vision to produce battle-winning people and equipment that are fit for the challenge of today, ready for the tasks of tomorrow and capable of building for the future (source: UK MoD). Modern armed forces fulfil a wider variety of roles than ever before. In addition to defending sovereign territory and prosecuting armed conflicts, military personnel are engaged in homeland defence and in undertaking peacekeeping operations and delivering humanitarian aid right across the world. This requires top class personnel, trained to the highest standards in the use of first class equipment. The military has long recognised that good human factors is essential if these aims are to be achieved.

The defence sector is far and away the largest employer of human factors personnel across the globe and is the largest funder of basic and applied research. Much of this research is applicable to a wide audience, not just the military; this series aims to give readers access to some of this high quality work.

Ashgates Human Factors in Defence series comprises of specially commissioned books from internationally recognised experts in the field. They provide in-depth, authoritative accounts of key human factors issues being addressed by the defence industry across the world.

GUY H. WALKER,
Heriot-Watt University

NEVILLE A. STANTON,
University of Southampton

PAUL M. SALMON,
Monash University, Australia

&

DANIEL P. JENKINS,
Sociotechnic Solutions, UK

ASHGATE

Guy H. Walker, Neville A. Stanton, Paul M. Salmon and Daniel P. Jenkins 2009

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.

Guy H. Walker, Neville A. Stanton, Paul M. Salmon and Daniel P. Jenkins have asserted their right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the authors of this work.

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

Command and control : the sociotechnical perspective. -

(Human factors in defence)

1. Command and control systems. 2. Military art and

science--Technological innovations. 3. Human-computer

interaction.

I. Series II. Walker, Guy.

355.33041-dc22

ISBN: 978-0-7546-7265-4 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-7546-9191-4 (ebk.V)
ISBN: 978-1-4094-8617-6 (ebk-ePUB)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Command and control : the sociotechnical perspective / by Guy Walker [et al.].

p. cm. -- (Human factors in defence)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-7546-7265-4 (hardback) -- ISBN 978-0-7546-9191-4 (ebook)

1. Command and control systems--Effect of technology on. 2. Command and control systems--Technological innovations. 3. Command and control systems--Evaluation. 4. Communications, Military. 5. Technology--Social aspects. I. Walker, Guy.

UB212.C637 2009

355.33041--dc22

2009026212

Printed and bound in Great Britain by MPG Books Group, UK

The Human Factors Integration Defence Technology Centre (HFI DTC) is a consortium of industry and academia working in cooperation on a series of defence-related projects. The consortium is led by Aerosystems International and comprises the University of Southampton, the University of Birmingham, Cranfield University, Lockheed Martin, MBDA and SEA Ltd. The consortium was recently awarded The Ergonomics Society Presidents Medal for work that has made a significant contribution to original research, the development of methodology and application of knowledge within the field of ergonomics.

We are grateful to DSTL who have managed the work of the consortium, in particular to Geoff Barrett, Bruce Callander, Jen Clemitson, Colin Corbridge, Roland Edwards, Alan Ellis, Jim Squire, Alison Rogers and Debbie Webb. We are also grateful to Dr John Ardis for review and comment on the work that comprises .

This work from the Human Factors Integration Defence Technology Centre was part-funded by the Human Sciences Domain of the UK Ministry of Defence Scientific Research Programme. Further information on the work and people that comprise the HFI DTC can be found on www.hfidtc.com.

School of the Built Environment, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, [UK] EH14 4AS
G.H.Walker@hw.ac.uk
Guy Walker has a BSc Honours degree in Psychology from the University of Southampton and a PhD in Human Factors from Brunel University. His research interests are wide ranging, spanning driver behaviour and the role of feedback in vehicles, railway safety and the issue of signals passed at danger, and the application of sociotechnical systems theory to the design and evaluation of military command and control systems. Guy is the author/co-author of over forty peer reviewed journal articles and several books. This volume was produced during his time as Senior Research Fellow within the HFI DTC. Along with his colleagues in the research consortium, Guy was awarded the Ergonomics Societys Presidents Medal for the practical application of Ergonomics theory. Guy currently resides in the School of the Built Environment at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland, working at the cross-disciplinary interface between engineering and people.

HFI DTC, School of Civil Engineering and the Environment, University of Southampton, Southampton, [UK] SO17 1BJ.
n.stanton@soton.ac.uk
Professor Stanton holds a Chair in Human Factors and has published over 140 international peer-reviewed journal papers and 14 books on Human Factors and Ergonomics. In 1998, he was awarded the Institution of Electrical Engineers Divisional Premium Award for a co-authored paper on Engineering Psychology and System Safety. The Ergonomics Society awarded him the Presidents medal in 2008 and the Otto Edholm Medal in 2001 for his contribution to basic and applied ergonomics research. The Royal Aeronautical Society awarded him the Hodgson Medal and Bronze Award with colleagues for their work on flight-deck safety. Professor Stanton is an editor of Ergonomics and on the editorial board of