Shipboard Crisis Management: A Case Study.

The loss of the "Green Lily" in 1997 is used as a case study to highlight the characteristics of escalating crises. As in similar safety critical industries, these situations are unpredictable events that may require co-ordinated but flexible and creative responses from individuals and teams working in stressful conditions. Fundamental skill requirements for crisis management are situational awareness and decision making. This paper reviews the naturalistic decision making (NDM) model for insights into the nature of these skills and considers the optimal training regimes to cultivate them. The paper concludes with a review of the issues regarding the assessment of crisis management skills and current research into the determination of behavioural markers for measuring competence

What is a Good Plan? Cultural Variations in Expert Planners’ Concepts of Plan Quality

This article presents the results of a field research study examining commonalities and differences between American and British operational planners’ mental models of planning. We conducted Cultural Network Analysis (CNA) interviews with 14 experienced operational planners in the US and UK. Our results demonstrate the existence of fundamental differences between the way American and British expert planners conceive of a high quality plan. Our results revealed that the American planners’ model focused on specification of action to achieve synchronization, providing little autonomy at the level of execution, and included the belief that increasing contingencies reduces risk. The British planners’ model stressed the internal coherence of the plan, to support shared situational awareness and thereby flexibility at the level of execution. The British model also emphasized the belief that reducing the number of assumptions decreases risk. Overall, the American ideal plan serves a controlling function, whereas the British ideal plan supports an enabling function. Interestingly, both the US and UK would view the other’s ideal plan as riskier than their own. The implications of cultural models of plans and planning are described for establishing performance measures and designing systems to support multinational planning teams

Threat assessment, sense making, and critical decision-making in police, military, ambulance, and fire services

Military and emergency response remain inherently dangerous occupations that require the ability to accurately assess threats and make critical decisions under significant time pressures. The cognitive processes associated with these abilities are complex and have been the subject of several significant, albeit service specific studies. Here, we present an attempt at finding the commonalities in threat assessment, sense making, and critical decision-making for emergency response across police, military, ambulance, and fire services. Relevant research is identified and critically appraised through a systematic literature review of English-language studies published from January 2000 through July 2020 on threat assessment and critical decision-making theory in dynamic emergency service and military environments. A total of 10,084 titles and abstracts were reviewed, with 94 identified as suitable for inclusion in the study. We then present our findings focused on six lines of enquiry: Bibliometrics, Language, Situation Awareness, Critical Decision Making, Actions, and Evaluation. We then thematically analyse these findings to reveal the commonalities between the four services. Despite existing single or dual service studies in the field, this research is significant in that it is the first examine decision making and threat assessment theory across all four contexts of military, police, fire and ambulance services, but it is also the first to assess the state of knowledge and explore the extent that commonality exists and models or practices can be applied across each discipline. The results demonstrate all military and emergency services personnel apply both intuitive and formal decision-making processes, depending on multiple situational and individual factors. Institutional restriction of decision-making to a single process at the expense of the consideration of others, or the inappropriate training and application of otherwise appropriate decision-making processes in certain circumstances is likely to increase the potential for adverse outcomes, or at the very least restrict peak performance being achieved. The applications of the findings of the study not only extend to facilitating improved practice in each of the individual services examined, but provide a basis to assist future research, and contribute to the literature exploring threat assessment and decision making in dynamic contexts

Threat assessment, sense making, and critical decision-making in police, military, ambulance, and fire services

Military and emergency response remain inherently dangerous occupations that require the ability to accurately assess threats and make critical decisions under significant time pressures. The cognitive processes associated with these abilities are complex and have been the subject of several significant, albeit service specific studies. Here, we present an attempt at finding the commonalities in threat assessment, sense making, and critical decision-making for emergency response across police, military, ambulance, and fire services. Relevant research is identified and critically appraised through a systematic literature review of English-language studies published from January 2000 through July 2020 on threat assessment and critical decision-making theory in dynamic emergency service and military environments. A total of 10,084 titles and abstracts were reviewed, with 94 identified as suitable for inclusion in the study. We then present our findings focused on six lines of enquiry: Bibliometrics, Language, Situation Awareness, Critical Decision Making, Actions, and Evaluation. We then thematically analyse these findings to reveal the commonalities between the four services. Despite existing single or dual service studies in the field, this research is significant in that it is the first examine decision making and threat assessment theory across all four contexts of military, police, fire and ambulance services, but it is also the first to assess the state of knowledge and explore the extent that commonality exists and models or practices can be applied across each discipline. The results demonstrate all military and emergency services personnel apply both intuitive and formal decision-making processes, depending on multiple situational and individual factors. Institutional restriction of decision-making to a single process at the expense of the consideration of others, or the inappropriate training and application of otherwise appropriate decision-making processes in certain circumstances is likely to increase the potential for adverse outcomes, or at the very least restrict peak performance being achieved. The applications of the findings of the study not only extend to facilitating improved practice in each of the individual services examined, but provide a basis to assist future research, and contribute to the literature exploring threat assessment and decision making in dynamic contexts

Use of head camera-cued recall and debrief to externalise expertise: a systematic review of literature from multiple fields of practice

Background: The study of decision making in complex naturalistic environments poses several challenges. In response to these, video-stimulated cued-recall-debrief was developed. It involves an individual wearing a head-mounted camera which records a task from their point of view. Afterwards, footage captured is reviewed along with a facilitated debrief to help externalise cognitive processes. In theory, motion, audio and visual cues generate a high level of experiential immersion which helps the expert to articulate previously hidden thoughts and actions. / Objective: To examine the current evidence for video-stimulated cued-recall-debrief as a means of explicating expert thoughts and feelings in complex tasks in a range of environments. / Study selection: MEDLINE, EMBASE, Education Resources Information Center, SPORTDiscus, PsycINFO and Google Scholar were searched for articles containing the key terms ‘cued-recall (debrief)’, ‘decision making’, ‘skills’ and ‘video recording’. Studies were included if they examined the following outcomes: (1) feasibility, (2) extent of experiential immersion, (3) ability to generate unique insight into decision-making processes and (4) current applications. 1831 articles were identified initially, and 9 studies were included in the final review. / Findings: Video-stimulated cued-recall-debrief is associated with a high level of experiential immersion and generates between two and four times the number of recollections compared with free recall. It can be used to build models of cognitive activity and to characterise the way in which more and less skilled individuals tend to think and feel. / Conclusions: The technique could be used to explicate expertise within medicine: these insights into performance could be used as a training tool for other practitioners

Leading interagency planning and collaboration in mass gatherings: public health and safety in the 2012 London Olympics

OBJECTIVES: Planning and implementing public health initiatives in mass gatherings such as the Olympic Games pose unique challenges for interorganizational collaboration, which involves interaction among multiple and diverse agencies. Nonetheless, there is limited empirical evidence to support interagency collaboration and public health planning decisions in mass gatherings and how leadership can shape such interactions. We empirically explored these topics in the 2012 London Olympics to identify lessons to inform planning for future mass gatherings. STUDY DESIGN: This is a qualitative case study. METHODS: Data comprised 39 semistructured interviews with key informants conducted before, during, and after the games; in addition, direct observations of field exercises and documentary analysis were also used. Open coding and thematic analysis was used to analyze the data. RESULTS: We identified two main leadership challenges that influenced interagency collaboration: organizational public health leadership and coordinating collaborative decision-making. Two facilitative conditions helped overcome the previous challenges: nurturing interorganizational linkages and creating shared understanding by activating codified frameworks at the organizational level. CONCLUSIONS: Our study highlights leadership issues in interagency collaboration in mass gatherings. Practical implications arising from this study may inform the ways the organizers of mass gatherings, public health and safety agencies, and professionals can engage in effective partnerships and joint working

The ergonomics of command and control

Since its inception, just after the Second World War, ergonomics research has paid special attention to the issues surrounding human control of systems. Command and Control environments continue to represent a challenging domain for Ergonomics research. We take a broad view of Command and Control research, to include C2 (Command and Control), C3 (Command, Control and Communication), and C4 (Command, Control, Communication and Computers) as well as human supervisory control paradigms. This special issue of ERGONOMICS aims to present state-of-the-art research into models of team performance, evaluation of novel interaction technologies, case studies, methodologies and theoretical review papers. We are pleased to present papers that detail research on these topics in domains as diverse as the emergency services (e.g., police, fire, and ambulance), civilian applications (e.g., air traffic control, rail networks, and nuclear power) and military applications (e.g., land, sea and air) of command and control. While the domains of application are very diverse, many of the challenges they face share interesting similarities

Sõjaväeliste juhtide otsustamisoskuse hindamine lahingujuhtimist matkivas olukorras

Väitekirja elektrooniline versioon ei sisalda publikatsiooneSündmused Gruusias 2008. aastal ning Ukrainas 2014. aastal on viinud olukorrani, kus NATO riigid on keskendumas iseseisva kaitsevõime tugevdamisele ning järjest enam ka reservüksuste juhtide väljaõppele. Reservarmee põhimõtetest lähtub ka Eesti Kaitsevägi (EKV), mis on aga väike ja saab konflikti puhkemise korral loota vaid sellele, et reservüksuste ülemad suudavad lahingolukordades tegutseda paremini kui vastane. EKV jaoks on seega oluline reservülemate väljaõpe, mis 11-kuulise kestuse jooksul peab valmistama nad ette tegutsemaks olukorras, kus juhitakse oma üksust lahingus. Paraku pole rahuajal võimalik lahingujuhtimist praktiseerida muul moel, kui õppeolukordades, mis ei pruugi aga tagada piisavat autentsust. Sama kehtib ka õppe tulemuslikkuse hindamise kohta, mida pole EKV võimalik praegu piisava usaldusväärsusega teha. See omakorda ei võimalda langetada adekvaatseid otsuseid väljaõppe tõhustamiseks ja isikkoosseisu valimiseks ning samuti pärsib see teadus- ja arendustegevust EKV-s. Seega on EKV-l vajadus usaldusväärse mõõtevahendi järgi, mis võimaldaks kulutõhusalt mõõta reservülemate otsustusvõimet lahinguolukordades. See doktoritöö keskendubki reservülemate otsustusvõime mõõtmiseks sobiliku mõõtevahendi koostamisele ning selle usaldusväärsuse testimisele. Selleks viidi esmalt läbi süstemaatiline kirjandusanalüüs eesmärgiga tuvastada, milliseid mõõtevahendeid on varasemalt kasutatud väikeüksuste ülemate otsustamise mõõtmiseks lahingutegevuse juhtimisel. Lisaks huvituti, kuidas neid mõõtevahendeid on kasutatud ning millised neist sobiks kasutamiseks EKV-s koheselt või modifitseerituna. Selgus, et laialdaselt kasutatav ning ka EKV vajadustele vastav mõõdik on olukorrapõhine otsustamistest (OPT) vaatamata sellele, et ükski tuvastatud mõõdikutest ei keskendunud otseselt lahinguolukorras otsustamisele. Seega koostati otsustamise mõõtmiseks sobivad testid ning rakendati neid Kaitseväe Akadeemia kadettidest (134) ning reservrühmaülema baaskursuse ajateenijatest (80) koosneva valimiga. Selgus, et koostatud testid annavad usaldusväärseid tulemusi, eristades lahendajaid hästi nii erineva väljaõppe taseme kui varasema kogemuse alusel. Seega sobivad OPT-d hästi mõõtma väikeüksuse ülemate otsustamisoskust lahingujuhtimisel. Töö praktilise tulemusena saab EKV edaspidi kasutada valminud mõõtevahendit erinevatel eesmärkidel, sealhulgas väljaõppe hindamiseks ja tõhustamiseks ning samuti teadus- ja arendustegevuses. Edasised uuringud võiks keskenduda sellele, et välja selgitada, kui hästi ennustab OPT-de tulemuslik lahendamine tegelikku sooritust üksuse juhtimisel.The events in Georgia in 2008 and in Ukraine in 2014 have led to a situation, where many European countries are focusing on strengthening their homeland defense capabilities by reintroducing conscription and looking for ways to improve the performance of their reserve soldiers and reserve commanders. The Estonian Defense Forces (EDF), modest in size, are also built on the principle of reserve army. It means, that EDF can only rely on excellent tactics during combat situations, thus soldiers and commanders with the best decision making skills are crucial. It follows, that the training of reserve officers is important for EDF, however, there is only 11 months training time available for this purpose. During that time, young men, who have no earlier military exposure, have to get the preparation to lead the military unit during the time of war. The situation is even more complicated, because unlike in the case of other professions, in military profession, commanders cannot practice their job during peacetime other than in military exercises. This however may not provide sufficient authenticity. The same applies to the assessment of learning outcomes – it cannot be done with sufficient credibility. This in turn does not allow to take adequate decisions for enhancing training, selecting right personnel for different jobs and it also discourages research and development in the EDF. Thus there is a need for a suitable instrument for measuring platoon leaders’ decision making skills in critical battle leading situations. The goal of this PhD project is to develop and validate an instrument for measuring low level military commanders decision-making skills in battle leading situations. To accomplish this goal, firstly a systematic literature review was undertaken to determine, what instruments and how had previously been used for the purpose of our interest. It came out, that the most suitable and also widely used instrument is Situational Judgement Test, however, none of found instruments was focusing on decision-making in battle leading situations. Thus, suitable instrument for measuring decision-making was designed and applied using a sample of cadets (134) from land forces basic course and conscripts (80) from the reserve commander basic course of the Military Academy of EDF. It came out, that the test developed was found to produce reliable results, that enabled to distinguish well between the test takers on the basis of the level of training and previous experience. It was thus concluded, that developed test were well suited to measure the decision-making skills of small unit commanders in battle leading situations. As a result of current PhD project, EDF will be able to use the instrument for a variety of purposes, including for example the evaluation and improvement of training as well as for research and development. Future research could focus on finding out how well the test results predict commanders’ actual battle leading performance.https://www.ester.ee/record=b537318