Across Organizational Boundaries: Pathways of Vulnerability in International Airports

Abstract

International airports are complex sociotechnical systems that have an intrinsic potential to develop safety and security disruptions. In the absence of appropriate organizational defenses, and when the potential for disruptions is neglected, crises can occur and jeopardize aviation services. This investigation examines the ways in which modern international airports can be ‘authors of their own misfortune’ by adopting practices, attitudes and behaviors that could increase their overall level of vulnerability. A sociotechnical perspective, the Macroergonomic approach, is applied in this research in order to detect the organizational determinants of vulnerability in airport operations. Qualitative data nurture the case study on international airports produced by the present research, whose findings highlight that systemic weaknesses frequently reside in areas at the intersection of physical, organizational and social spaces. Specific pathways of vulnerability can be drawn across these areas, involving the following systemic layers: individual, task, tools and technology, environment and organization. This investigation expands the existing literature on the dynamics that characterize crisis incubation in multi- organization, multi-stakeholder systems such as international airports and provides practical recommendations for airport managers to improve their capabilities to early-detect symptoms of organizational vulnerability.