Critical Incident Technique
Encyclopedia
The Critical Incident Technique (or CIT) is a set of procedures
used for collecting direct observations of human behavior
that have critical significance and meet methodically defined criteria. These observations are then kept track of as incidents, which are then used to solve practical problems and develop broad psychological principles. A critical incident can be described as one that makes a significant contribution—either positively or negatively—to an activity or phenomenon. Critical incidents can be gathered in various ways, but typically respondents are asked to tell a story about an experience they have had.
CIT is a flexible method that usually relies on five major areas. The first is determining and reviewing the incident, then fact-finding, which involves collecting the details of the incident from the participants. When all of the facts are collected, the next step is to identify the issues. Afterwards a decision can be made on how to resolve the issues based on various possible solutions. The final and most important aspect is the evaluation, which will determine if the solution that was selected will solve the root cause of the situation and will cause no further problems.
1930) are said to have laid the foundation for the Critical Incident Technique, but it is the work of Colonel John C. Flanagan
, that resulted in the present form of CIT (described in Psychological Bulletin, Vol. 51, No. 4, July 1954). Flanagan's work was carried out as part of the Aviation Psychology Program of the United States Army Air Forces
during World War II
, where Flanagan conducted a series of studies focused on differentiating effective and ineffective work behaviors. Since then CIT has spread as a method to identify job requirements, develop recommendations for effective practices, and determine competencies for a vast number of professionals in various disciplines. In particular, it has been used in service research.
In healthcare CIT is used in situations where direct examination of clinical staff and researchers can help them better understand their roles and help them solve practical problems. CIT allows clinical staff to better understand their roles in the clinical setting. Another advantage is that it helps them gain better knowledge about their interactions with patients and other clinicians. It also helps clinical staff better understand their practice from a variety of roles (e.g., physician
, nurse, clinical educator, nurse informatician, faculty member). In healthcare research, CIT can be a good resource in identifying the experiences of a patient in the healthcare setting, exploring the dimensions of patient–provider interactions and determining patient responses to illnesses and treatments.
CIT is also widely used in organizational development as a research technique for identification of organizational problems. CIT is used as an interview technique, where the informants are encouraged to talk about unusual organizational incidents instead of answering direct questions. Using CIT deemphasizes the inclusion of general opinions about management and working procedures, instead focusing on specific incidents.
In market research, CIT has been used more frequently in the last ten years. Although the CIT method first appeared in the marketing literature thirty years ago, the major catalyst for use of the CIT method in service research appears to have been a Journal of Marketing study conducted by Bitner, Booms, and Tetreault (1990) that investigated sources of satisfaction and dissatisfaction in service encounters. Since the Bitner et al. article, nearly 200 CIT studies have appeared in marketing-related literature. For a useful overview, see Gremler's article in Journal of Service Research, Vol. 7, No. 1, August 2004.
CIT has also been used in studies of information-seeking behavior. See e.g. "How senior managers acquire and use information in environmental scanning" by Ethel Auster and Chun Wei Choo (1996); "Information sources used by lawyers in problem-solving: An empirical exploration" by Margaret Ann Wilkinson (2001); or "When Is 'Enough' Enough? Modeling the Information-Seeking and Stopping Behavior of Senior Arts Administrators" by Lisl Zach (2004).
The employment of CIT may also allow construction of typical scenarios of user behavior when they interact with various technologies including information systems. For this, researchers should solicit:
The typical scenarios may be presented visually as a diagram or a causal model. E.g., see the study "The use of interface agents for email notification in critical incidents" by Serenko 2006 published in the International Journal of Human–Computer Studies 64 (11), pp. 1084–1098.
Procedure (term)
A procedure is a sequence of actions or operations which have to be executed in the same manner in order to always obtain the same result under the same circumstances ....
used for collecting direct observations of human behavior
Human behavior
Human behavior refers to the range of behaviors exhibited by humans and which are influenced by culture, attitudes, emotions, values, ethics, authority, rapport, hypnosis, persuasion, coercion and/or genetics....
that have critical significance and meet methodically defined criteria. These observations are then kept track of as incidents, which are then used to solve practical problems and develop broad psychological principles. A critical incident can be described as one that makes a significant contribution—either positively or negatively—to an activity or phenomenon. Critical incidents can be gathered in various ways, but typically respondents are asked to tell a story about an experience they have had.
CIT is a flexible method that usually relies on five major areas. The first is determining and reviewing the incident, then fact-finding, which involves collecting the details of the incident from the participants. When all of the facts are collected, the next step is to identify the issues. Afterwards a decision can be made on how to resolve the issues based on various possible solutions. The final and most important aspect is the evaluation, which will determine if the solution that was selected will solve the root cause of the situation and will cause no further problems.
History
The studies of Sir Francis Galton (circaCirca
Circa , usually abbreviated c. or ca. , means "approximately" in the English language, usually referring to a date...
1930) are said to have laid the foundation for the Critical Incident Technique, but it is the work of Colonel John C. Flanagan
John C. Flanagan
John C. Flanagan, was a noted psychologist most known for developing the Critical Incident Technique, which identifies and classifies behaviors associated with the success or failure of human activity. He was a pioneer of aviation psychology. During World War II Flanagan was commissioned by the U.S...
, that resulted in the present form of CIT (described in Psychological Bulletin, Vol. 51, No. 4, July 1954). Flanagan's work was carried out as part of the Aviation Psychology Program of the United States Army Air Forces
United States Army Air Forces
The United States Army Air Forces was the military aviation arm of the United States of America during and immediately after World War II, and the direct predecessor of the United States Air Force....
during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, where Flanagan conducted a series of studies focused on differentiating effective and ineffective work behaviors. Since then CIT has spread as a method to identify job requirements, develop recommendations for effective practices, and determine competencies for a vast number of professionals in various disciplines. In particular, it has been used in service research.
Principal uses
CIT can be used in a wide variety of areas. In general it is most useful in the early stages of development of large scale tasks and activity analysis within existing projects. This is mainly due to the method's ability to quickly separate out major problem areas that reside in a system.In healthcare CIT is used in situations where direct examination of clinical staff and researchers can help them better understand their roles and help them solve practical problems. CIT allows clinical staff to better understand their roles in the clinical setting. Another advantage is that it helps them gain better knowledge about their interactions with patients and other clinicians. It also helps clinical staff better understand their practice from a variety of roles (e.g., physician
Physician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
, nurse, clinical educator, nurse informatician, faculty member). In healthcare research, CIT can be a good resource in identifying the experiences of a patient in the healthcare setting, exploring the dimensions of patient–provider interactions and determining patient responses to illnesses and treatments.
CIT is also widely used in organizational development as a research technique for identification of organizational problems. CIT is used as an interview technique, where the informants are encouraged to talk about unusual organizational incidents instead of answering direct questions. Using CIT deemphasizes the inclusion of general opinions about management and working procedures, instead focusing on specific incidents.
In market research, CIT has been used more frequently in the last ten years. Although the CIT method first appeared in the marketing literature thirty years ago, the major catalyst for use of the CIT method in service research appears to have been a Journal of Marketing study conducted by Bitner, Booms, and Tetreault (1990) that investigated sources of satisfaction and dissatisfaction in service encounters. Since the Bitner et al. article, nearly 200 CIT studies have appeared in marketing-related literature. For a useful overview, see Gremler's article in Journal of Service Research, Vol. 7, No. 1, August 2004.
CIT has also been used in studies of information-seeking behavior. See e.g. "How senior managers acquire and use information in environmental scanning" by Ethel Auster and Chun Wei Choo (1996); "Information sources used by lawyers in problem-solving: An empirical exploration" by Margaret Ann Wilkinson (2001); or "When Is 'Enough' Enough? Modeling the Information-Seeking and Stopping Behavior of Senior Arts Administrators" by Lisl Zach (2004).
The employment of CIT may also allow construction of typical scenarios of user behavior when they interact with various technologies including information systems. For this, researchers should solicit:
- the cause, description and outcome of a critical incident
- users' feelings and perceptions of the situation
- actions taken during the incident
- changes (if any) in their future behavior.
The typical scenarios may be presented visually as a diagram or a causal model. E.g., see the study "The use of interface agents for email notification in critical incidents" by Serenko 2006 published in the International Journal of Human–Computer Studies 64 (11), pp. 1084–1098.
Advantages and disadvantages
By identifying possible problems associated with major user–system or product complications, CIT recommendations try to ensure that the same type of situations do not result in a similar loss. There are both advantages and disadvantages to using this method, as shown below. In all, however, CIT has been demonstrated to be a sound method since first presented in 1954. Relatively few modifications have been suggested to the method in the more than 50 years since it was introduced, and only minor changes have been made to Flanagan's original approach. This indicates a certain robustness.Advantages
- Flexible method that can be used to improve multi-user systems.
- Data is collected from the respondent's perspective and in his or her own words.
- Does not force the respondents into any given framework.
- Identifies even rare events that might be missed by other methods which only focus on common and everyday events.
- Useful when problems occur but the cause and severity are not known.
- Inexpensive and provides rich information.
- Emphasizes the features that will make a system particularly vulnerable and can bring major benefits (e.g. safety).
- Can be applied using questionnaires or interviews.
Disadvantages
- A first problem comes from the type of the reported incidents. The Critical Incident Technique will rely on events being remembered by users and will also require the accurate and truthful reporting of them. Since critical incidents often rely on memoryMemoryIn psychology, memory is an organism's ability to store, retain, and recall information and experiences. Traditional studies of memory began in the fields of philosophy, including techniques of artificially enhancing memory....
, incidents may be imprecise or may even go unreported. - The method has a built-in bias towards incidents that happened recently, since these are easier to recall.
- Respondents may not be accustomed to or willing to take the time to tell (or write) a complete story when describing a critical incident.
Examples in informatics / case studies
- Serenko, A. (2006). "The use of interface agents for email notification in critical incidents". International Journal of Human-Computer Studies 64(11): 1084–1098.
- Stach, A. and Serenko, A. (2010). "The impact of expectation disconfirmation on customer loyalty and recommendation behavior: Investigating online travel and tourism services". Journal of Information Technology Management XX(3): 26–41.
- Providing Critical Incident Stress Debriefing (CISD) to Individuals & Communities in Situational Crisis, Joseph A. Davis, PhD, LLD(hon), B.C.E.T.S., F.A.A.E.T.S. 1998 by The American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress, Inc.
- Use of the critical incident technique in primary care in the audit of deaths by suicide, Redpath, A Stacey, E Pugh and E Holmes County Durham Health Authority, UK
- Audit of deaths in general practice: pilot study of the critical incident technique, Berlin A, Spencer JA, Bhopal RS, van Zwanenberg TD. Medical School, University of Newcastle upon Tyne
Sources
- http://www.apa.org/psycINFO/cit-article.pdf
- http://www.ncchta.org/fullmono/mon919.pdf (Not Found as of 24 November 2009)
- http://www.usabilitybok.org/methods/p2052?section=basic-description
- http://www.ul.ie/~infopolis/methods/incident.html (Not Found as of 24 November 2009)
- http://www.aaets.org/arts/art54.htm
- http://www.criticalincidents.net (Not Found as of 24 November 2009)
- http://www.viktoria.se/~dixi/BISON/resources/gremler2004.pdf