The Polarity of Directive and Exploratory Information Use in Aerospace: A Macroergonomic Perspective

This research investigates a concept known in organizational design and management literature as polarity management. The concept of polarity management is not the process of choosing one alternative over another, but how to integrate elements of both alternatives when an exclusive focus on either would be dangerous. Training in complex task environments emphasizes the need for effective and rapid recognition of environmental conditions and required task activities, a process broadly recognized as situation awareness. This process of situation awareness reflects a “directive” approach to utilizing information for sensemaking and task performance. By contrast, problem solving tasks in aerospace contexts often require a complex and multidisciplinary troubleshooting process based on exploratory assessments of competing hypotheses to identify and respond to adverse events or faults. This paper addresses the Directive / Exploratory polarity in aerospace contexts, with a particular emphasis on maintaining an effective balance of information needs and context-relevant responses.