Exploring Connections Between Team Process and Automation Error Management

In complex social-technical systems, human teams are required to handle automation errors to maintain system performance. This study developed two path models that connected the team process variables with the automation error management process, based on data collected from a previous experiment. The models show that trust has negative effects on most of the management activities. Team situation awareness could facilitate the whole process by supporting information selecting activity during the analysis and planning stage. Better teamwork could assist the stages of error detection and analysis and planning. Teams with more balanced decision making and workload would find it easier to understand and handle an automation error. The results also reveal that forming an interpretation of the error is helpful but not a necessity for error management. Path models developed in this study provide a technical basis for better team processes in the face of automation error.