Team Performance in Automated Systems

The tremendous increase in automated systems in the workplace seems to have caught the behavioral sciences unprepared. Despite the almost common place use of automated systems in a variety of occupations, there is only a small body of literature that has discussed the effects of these systems on performance. In fact, it is only recently that social scientists have turned their attention to this important aspect of performance (cf. Mouloua & Parasuraman, 1994). Consequently, the need to understand the degree to which automation affects human performance in complex systems is becoming an urgent topic for applied scientists.