Effects of fatigue on teams and their role in 24/7 operations

Abstract

In 24/7 operations, fatigue from extended work hours and shift work is ubiquitous. Fatigue is a significant threat to performance, productivity, safety, and well-being, and strategies for managing fatigue are an important area of research. At the level of individuals, the effects of fatigue on performance are relatively well understood, and countermeasures are widely available. At the level of organizations, the effects of fatigue are also relatively well understood, and organizational approaches to fatigue risk management are increasingly well documented. However, in most organizational settings, individuals work in teams, and teams are the building blocks of the organizational enterprise. Yet, little is known about the effects of fatigue on team functioning. Here we discuss the effects of fatigue at the levels of individuals, teams, and organizations, and how the consequences of fatigue cross these levels to impact overall productivity and safety. Furthermore, we describe the pivotal role of teams in understanding the adverse organizational effects of fatigue in 24/7 operations and argue that teams may be leveraged to mitigate these effects. Systematic investigation of the effects of fatigue on teams is a promising avenue toward advances in fatigue risk management and provide some ideas for how this may be approached.

Keywords: Cognitive performance; Fatigue risk management; Individual differences; Input-mediator-output-input model; Operational settings; Organizational culture; Team performance.