Learning to Listen: An Ethnographic Pilot Study of Informal Communication as an Indicator of Organizational Stress and Crisis Response

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Accidents and disasters in many industries, including healthcare, transportation, manufacturing, and financial industries, are seen as organizational breakdowns - failures of hospitals, airlines, railroads, corporations, and financial institutions to adapt to opportunities and threats posed by competition, technology, surges in workload, or changes in their regulatory environment. Other organizations, however, adapt remarkably well, maintaining a high level of reliability in hazardous operations in fast-paced and complex environments. This adaptive capability is achieved through organizational flexibility, teamwork, and a sense of common purpose. However, when an organization's adaptive capability deteriorates or breaks down, the results can be catastrophic. This proposal describes a research technique and measurement strategy for observing the adaptive capability of organizations by examining elements of discourse in informal communication. These elements of discourse include phrase-length, tempo, turn-taking, latching, pragmatic particles, and intonation. These are the elements of speech through which interpersonal relationships are built and maintained. Typically the elements of discourse exist below the level of consciousness: most speakers are not immediately aware when their speech becomes more staccato. By observing and measuring discourse elements, the proposal suggests, we can achieve a subtle and sensitive monitoring of the changes in flexibility, teamwork, and focus within a work group. These measurements will be taken among a trauma team in a hospital emergency room, a work setting that is similar to many other high-hazard contexts: inherently hazardous, remarkably successful, yet on rare occasions subject to catastrophic failure. By measuring adaptive capability, it is hoped that catastrophic failures can be anticipated and avoided.