Lack of shared understanding is frequently found to be the main cause when accidents are investigated. Still, few studies explicitly explore and document the causal effects of shared understanding in successful work. Thus, the attribution of insufficient shared understanding as an accident cause lacks the substantiation of shared understanding as a contributor to successful work. In this article a case of measurement discrepancies in an offshore drilling operation is studied, and in the elaboration of the case shared understanding is found not to qualify as a condition with significant impact on the collaborative work. One important reason for this is the epistemological inadequacy of the different concepts of shared understanding. Although more critical research on shared understanding is needed before one can conclude more generic on this topic, the findings are important to the current development of Integrated Operations where shared understanding is pointed out as an important target area.
Keywords Shared understanding Á Coordination Á Cooperative work Á Distributed cognition Á Integrated operationsA scene from an offshore drilling operation: at two different stages of the operation, the measurements of the same depth show different results. Due to different types of risks and success criteria, the significance of the depth measurement reliability is different in the short and the long time perspective. The relevant time perspective also differs for the actors involved; while the drilling engineers have a short time perspective and are willing to accept an accuracy in the range of decimetres, the reservoir engineers have a longer time perspective and require less uncertainty of measurements. What role does shared understanding between the actors play in such a situation?