Analysing communication dynamics at the transaction level: the case of Air France Flight 447

In this study, we focused on communication patterns that played out during the Air France 447 incident. Butts (2008) relational event model was employed to examine the communication dynamics amongst the pilots in the cockpit of flight AF447, and illustrate how communication patterns may be studied by considering sequences of relational events, thus adopting a dynamic, de-contextualised approach to system analysis, at a ‘transaction level’. The analysis of the communication transcript revealed patterned changes in some communication dynamics in the cockpit after the flight entered an unexpected situation, which led to the biased strengthening or weakening of certain links in the network. These changes—even th ough preliminary due to the limited number of agents analysed—suggest that capturing the structural composition of a system at the transaction level assists in explaining how transactions fail, and can be used for the development of better system structures or training procedures for system intera ction.
Source: Cognition, Technology and Work - Category: Information Technology Source Type: research