Mindfulness in cooperation and the psychodynamics in high-reliability-organizations

High reliability can be seen as a quality of collective and collaborative work activities which ensure that damages and disasters are avoided. Especially dealing with advanced technologies – like infrastructures of energy or medical supply or information processing – require high reliability since damage can be extensive. According to research conducted by Karl Weick and Kathleen Sutcliffe, this particular quality of ‘high reliability’ at work emerges from collaborative activities and dynamics in teams. It is called ‘mindfulness’ which indicates that workers are prepared to notice relevant changes in complex processes and to anticipate risk that will need intervention. However, explanations of mindfulness often refer to the individual mind only. The teams’ capacity to collaborate intellectually remains the question. The theoretical problem consists in determining the relationship between the organizational and the individual plane of development. Therefore, a model to understand the psychodynamics of mindfulness in cooperation is presented and explained in view of the scientification of work. Against this background, societal problems of collaboration within competitive occupational systems or alienated forms of work are revisited.