Assessing the compatibility of the management of standardized procedures with the complexity of a sociotechnical system: Case study of a control room in an oil refinery

Although the need for the management of complex socio-technical systems (STS) to be compatible with the nature of those systems is widely recognized, there are few guidelines on how to determine the actual extent of this compatibility. The purpose of this study is to assess how compatible the management of standardized procedures (SPs) is with the nature of a complex STS. To this end, a case study was made of a control room in an oil refinery, involving the following stages: (a) delimitation of the investigated STS; (b) description of the STS according to a set of characteristics of complex STS; (c) application of two types of questionnaires to thirty workers – one of them to assess their perceptions about the applicability of seven principles of SPs management in complex STS and the other to determine their perceptions about the actual use of these principles; and (d) a feedback meeting with workers to discuss the results of the assessment. The assessment is discussed in terms of its limitations, usefulness and ease of use of the data collection and analysis tools.

► The compatibility between procedures and complexity of a control room is evaluated.
► A framework to describe a system as complex is presented.
► Principles for managing procedures in complex systems are defined.
► Two types of questionnaires are the main sources of primary data for the assessment.
► Workers were reluctant to recognize they adapted procedures.