High-reliability organization seen through interstitial activities

Jérémy Eydieux (), Benoît Journé () and Stéphanie Tillement ()
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Jérémy Eydieux: LEMNA - Laboratoire d'économie et de management de Nantes Atlantique - IEMN-IAE Nantes - Institut d'Économie et de Management de Nantes - Institut d'Administration des Entreprises - Nantes - UN - Université de Nantes
Benoît Journé: LEMNA - Laboratoire d'économie et de management de Nantes Atlantique - IEMN-IAE Nantes - Institut d'Économie et de Management de Nantes - Institut d'Administration des Entreprises - Nantes - UN - Université de Nantes
Stéphanie Tillement: LEMNA - Laboratoire d'économie et de management de Nantes Atlantique - IEMN-IAE Nantes - Institut d'Économie et de Management de Nantes - Institut d'Administration des Entreprises - Nantes - UN - Université de Nantes

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Abstract: Empirical studies of high-reliability organizations have usually focused on the most visible activities directly related to reliability: flight decks on aircraft carriers, the operation and maintenance of nuclear power stations, hospital emergency services and operating rooms, etc. The findings of fieldwork on heavy handling operations in two firms in the nuclear industry have been used to analyze "interstitial" activities along the boundary with visible "noble tasks". Based on pragmatic theories and communication studies on organizations, this approach proposes an original definition of interstitial activities on four dimensions: organizational, temporal, spatial and symbolic. Owing to their effects on the vigilance of operatives and supervisors and on the decompartmentalization of activities at the plants, these boundary activities in bulk handling reinforce high-reliability organization overall. The concept of "interstitial activity" could prove useful for research on "distributed organizations", where questions of coordination and cooperation are of utmost importance.

Keywords: Organizational reliability; Theory of valuation; Communication as constitutive of the organization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017-09
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published in Gérer et Comprendre. Annales des Mines, 2017, 2, pp.1-11

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-01589477

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