High-Reliability Organizing (HRO) in the COVID-19 Liminal Zone: Characteristics of Workers and Local Leaders

HRO has become better studied, producing concepts that bring clarity to its structure and function. Reliability, safety, and resilience, as concepts, do not carry the same immediacy of a fellow worker in danger or bringing a novice into the workforce in a way that that novice may save you. Reviewing how workers did their jobs while ensuring their own safety reveals elements of HRO that are at risk of becoming lost. We reviewed the experiences of WWII heavy bomber crews, high-rise ironworkers, underground miners, prison chaplains, fire rescue ambulance crews, and Vietnam aerial combat aviators. From their experience, we describe a VUCA-2T environment (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity. Ambiguity-Threat, Time Compression). Workers pass through, if not caught up in, a liminal zone. The common themes across work domains include suppressing fear, trust, helping the novice, protecting your partner, recognizing fear in fellow workers, and local leadership. Perhaps the organization's response to liminality differentiates management by high reliability organizing from conventional organization management.