Planning for Organization Development in Operations Control Centers

Details

• Creators:
  Pierce, Linda G. ; Williams, Clara A. ; Byrne, Cristina L. ; McCauley, Darendia
• Corporate Creators:
  Civil Aerospace Medical Institute
• Corporate Contributors:
  United States. Office of Aerospace Medicine ; United States. Department of Transportation. Federal Aviation Administration
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  • Management and organization
  • Management
  • Administration
  • Operations
  • Procedures
  • Logistics
  • Organizational effectiveness
  • Development
  • Plan implementation
  • Personnel development
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• Publication/ Report Number:
  DOT/FAA/AM-12/6
• Resource Type:
  Tech Report
• Geographical Coverage:
  United States
• Corporate Publisher:
  United States. Office of Aerospace Medicine
• Abstract:
  The first step in a proposed program of organization development (OD) was to assess organizational processes within the ; Technical Operations Services (TechOps) Operations Control Centers (OCCs). The aim of the OD program was to ; improve effectiveness of OCC operations and increase satisfaction of OCC personnel. The assessment was based on an ; understanding of current and future OCC concepts of operations, a review of organizational practices within the OCCs, ; and the research literature on developing organizations. TechOps is the agency within the Federal Aviation Administration ; (FAA) Air Traffic Organization that manages and maintains the National Airspace System facilities, systems, and ; equipment. The OCCs are part of the maintenance management infrastructure at the regional level with an OCC located ; within the Eastern, Central, and Western Service Areas. The OCCs were established in 2001 as part of an effort to ; centralize remote monitoring and coordination of maintenance operations for the FAA. To understand current ; organizational processes, we interviewed 54 specialists and 12 team leads working at an OCC in one of the Service Areas. ; We asked the participants questions about their technical background; their jobs within the OCCs to include the ; interdependencies required for task performance; structure, complexity, and workload inherent in the job; cohesion and ; trust among specialists and team leads; and outcomes, including perceived operational effectiveness and job satisfaction. ; Results of these discussions are summarized in the report by topical area. Issues raised by the participants as having a ; negative effect on their perceptions of effectiveness of the OCCs and their individual satisfaction with the job were classified ; into three groups. The first grouping was workload. Shift work, staffing, and breaks influenced workload. Participants saw ; workload at all three OCCs as high, especially during the day shift. The second group, resources, included issues related to ; training and technology. Some participants indicated that neither the training nor the technologies used in the OCCs were ; sufficient to meet job requirements. The final group was knowledge of results and included issues related to performance ; feedback and management involvement. Participants saw a lack of performance standards and little specific feedback on ; individual or team performance as having a negative impact on organizational performance and individual satisfaction. We ; proposed interventions to address each of these groups of issues. The interventions were 1) the use of small teams to ; organize specialists and team leads at each of the OCCs, 2) revision or inclusion of initial, new equipment, and team leader ; training, 3) implementation of a comprehensive performance feedback system based on individual and team performance, ; and 4) development of a fatigue risk management approach that included education on fatigue and elimination of midnight ; shifts through the use of workload sharing among OCCs. Finally, we also recommended assessing the implementation of ; interventions in an on-going process of organization development and improvement to meet current and future ; requirements.
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• Format:
  PDF
• Funding:
  AM-B-11-HRR-523
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/24647/dot_24647_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.12 MB]
• Collection(s):
  US Transportation Collection ; FAA Civil Aerospace Medical Institute
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:4617a3b0041fc83ce04d636e0852f8f534e9fbae6c028266b5730a561e250504