Testing Hollnagel's contextual control mod

Abstract

This article sets out to test the hypothetical COtext and COntrol Model (COCOM) developed by Hollnagel (1993). Essentially, Hollnagel develops the argument that team behavior should be analyzed at a macro, rather than micro, level. He proposes 4 principal models of team activity: strategic, tactical, opportunistic, and scrambled. These modes of team behavior vary in terms of the degree of forward planning (highest in the strategic mode) and reactivity to the environment (highest in the scrambled mode). He further hypothesizes a linear progression through the modes from strategic to tactical to opportunistic to scrambled, depending on context, and vice versa. To test the COCOM model, we placed teams of people in a simulated energy distribution system. Our results confirm Hollnagel's hypothesized model in 2 main ways. First, we show that the team behavior could be categorized reliably into the 4 control modes and this provided a useful way of distinguishing between experimental conditions. Second, the progression between control modes conformed to the linear progression as predicted. This research provided the first independent test of the COCOM model and lends empirical support to the hypotheses.