Examining the effects of communication training and teamcomposition on the decision making of Patriot air defense teams

An experiment investigating the effect of communication training and three group composition variables was performed with Patriot air defense teams for two different types of aircraft identification tasks. It was predicted that communication training would significantly enhance communication quantity and quality and, in turn, team performance for both tasks. Although the training did sometimes improve team communication processes, it did not improve team performance. The variable that had the biggest positive effect on communication quality and team performance was the number of hours a team had worked together. This effect was only found, however, for the type of task for which Patriot teams routinely train. It did not transfer to the less frequent and more cognitively stressing task where there is conflicting information about unknown aircraft, as in the USS Vincennes tragedy     

Team task analysis: identifying tasks and jobs that are team based

This paper presents initial information on the development and validation of three team task analysis scales. These scales were designed to quantitatively assess the extent to which a group of tasks or a job is team based. During a 2-week period, 52 male students working in 4-person teams were trained to perform a complex highly interdependent computer-simulated combat mission consisting of both individual- and team-based tasks. Our results indicated that the scales demonstrated high levels of interrater agreement. In addition, the scales differentiated between tasks that were predetermined to be individual versus team based. Finally, the results indicated that job-level ratings of team workflow were more strongly related to team performance than were aggregated task-level ratings of team-relatedness or team workflow. These results suggest that the scales presented here are an effective means of quantifying the extent to which tasks or jobs are team based. A research and practical implication of our findings is that the team task analysis scales could serve as criterion measures in the evaluation of team training interventions or predictors of team performance.     

On the bridge to learn: Analysing the social organization of nautical instruction in a ship simulator

Research on simulator training has rarely focused on the way simulated contexts are constructed collaboratively. This study sheds light on how structuring role-play and fostering social interactions may prove fruitful for designing simulator training. The article reports on a qualitative study of nautical students training in a ship simulator. The study examines how a group of students, together with a professional maritime pilot, enacted professional roles and collaboratively constructed a simulated context for learning to navigate. Their activities on the bridge were framed within the maritime profession’s hierarchical system of captain and officers, and we examine in detail how these institutionally defined positions become important resources for meaning-making during role-play. The article portrays how two competing activity contexts were constructed, and how the role-play provided opportunities for enacting professional roles and work tasks. However, it also shows that it is challenging to pick up on what is significant to learn and to confront this in debriefing. The article concludes that the students’ collaboration and meaning-making is an entity of training that may be more efficiently addressed.     

Mobile computing in urban emergency situations: Improving the support to firefighters in the field

Communication support is a serious limitation for Latin American firefighters when they deal with emergency situations. The insufficient number of radio channels and the impossibility to deliver digital information force firemen to improvise during response processes, e.g., to make decisions using their experience and poor or null supporting information. These improvised actions affect the time required to take control of an emergency, and also affect the evolution of the crisis situation. Provided most of Latin American fire companies are volunteer organizations, communication solutions that could help to overcome these problems are usually expensive for them. This article presents a low-cost mobile collaborative application, which may be used in emergency situations to overcome most of the firefighters’ communication problems. The application, named MobileMap, is the result of the research and development work conducted by the authors, supported by a Chilean fire company, during the last three years. MobileMap allows ad hoc communication, decisions support and collaboration among firefighters in the field using mobile devices. This solution complements the radio communication systems. Since the interactions supported by MobileMap are recorded, it is possible to analyze such information after the crisis and learn for future emergencies. The tool was evaluated in simulated and real scenarios, and the obtained results are highly encouraging.     

Ergonomic research study on aircraft luggage handling.

In this study, the lifting and carrying of freight and luggage at a large German airport is classified by typical conditions of performance. These manual load handling tasks take place in height-restricted workplaces. Different methods for an ergonomic evaluation of these tasks are used. The results of the epidemiological, physiological, and biomechanical studies indicated a strain bottleneck during loading tasks in aircraft holds. Therefore, an additional laboratory study was done, in order to analyse the influence of work weight and weight of work object on heart rate, subjective RPE, and number of work objects handled. As a result of the study, the airport has developed a special lifting and carrying training for the aircraft handlers which aims to reduce strain on the postural and locomotor apparatus by an appropriate technique of work. The training programme consists of theoretical instruction by a company doctor and practical exercises under the supervision of a specially-trained sports teacher.     

Improving the Effectiveness of Virtual Teams by Adapting Team Processes

Results are presented from a study on virtual teams and whether appropriate early training can positively influence their effectiveness. Sixteen teams that worked together for periods ranging from three months to three years were studied. Team processes that emerged naturally from long-duration teams were formalized and taught to shorter duration teams. These shorter duration teams comprised three different cohorts, each of which received different levels of training. It was found that the adoption of formal procedures and structured processes significantly increased the effectiveness of virtual teams. Tasks that lend themselves to a structured approach were most effectively accomplished during virtual meetings, whereas face-to-face interactions were better for relatively unstructured, discussion intensive tasks. The performance of a virtual team was significantly improved when team processes were adapted to the affordances of the CMC environment. It is shown that this adaptation can occur very rapidly if teams are trained on the technology as well as on work processes that best exploit it.     

The Routineness of Routines: Measuring Rhythms of Media Interaction

The routines of information work are commonplace yet difficult to characterize. Although cognitive models have successfully characterized routine tasks within which there is little variation, a large body of ethnomethodological research has identified the inherent nonroutineness of routines in information work. We argue that work does not fall into discrete classes of routine versus nonroutine; rather, task performance lies on a continuum of routineness, and routineness metrics are important to the understanding of workplace multitasking.

In a study of 10 information workers shadowed for 3 whole working days each, we utilize the construct of working sphere to model projects/tasks as a network of humans and artifacts. Employing a statistical technique called T-pattern analysis, we derive measures of routineness from these real-world data. In terms of routineness, we show that information workers experience archetypes of working spheres. The results indicate that T-patterns of interactions with information and computational media are important indicators of facets of routineness and that these measures are correlated with workers' affective states. Our results are some of the first to demonstrate how regular temporal patterns of media interaction in tasks are related to stress. These results suggest that designs of systems to facilitate so-called routine work should consider the degrees to which a person's working spheres fall along varying facets of routineness.     

Construction of Meaning in Socio‐Technical Networks: Artefacts as Mediators between Routine and Crisis Conditions

This article focuses on the construction of meanings taking place in organizational routinized innovation processes. The results of the single case study investigating the company Carmlod, which institutionalized a routine process for their innovations, show how boundary objects like standardized methods and designed objects facilitate the communication process within interdisciplinary teams. Nevertheless, there is no guarantee that team members continue using the distinct meanings of the mutually shared object. They follow their strategies and goals according to their professional disciplinary knowledge. Only when a fundamental crisis takes place, in which nobody knows the right strategy to achieve a possible solution any more, do artefacts within the contingent space of manoeuvre become important. In the process, team members are forced to enter into a coercion‐free discourse within a socio‐technical network that allows them to come up with true innovation and genuine collectively shared meanings.     

Studying distributed cognition of simulation-based team training with DiCoT

Health care organizations employ simulation-based team training (SBTT) to improve skill, communication and coordination in a broad range of critical care contexts. Quantitative approaches, such as team performance measurements, are predominantly used to measure SBTTs effectiveness. However, a practical evaluation method that examines how this approach supports cognition and teamwork is missing. We have applied Distributed Cognition for Teamwork (DiCoT), a method for analysing cognition and collaboration aspects of work settings, with the purpose of assessing the methodology’s usefulness for evaluating SBTTs. In a case study, we observed and analysed four Emergo Train System® simulation exercises where medical professionals trained emergency response routines. The study suggests that DiCoT is an applicable and learnable tool for determining key distributed cognition attributes of SBTTs that are of importance for the simulation validity of training environments. Moreover, we discuss and exemplify how DiCoT supports design of SBTTs with a focus on transfer and validity characteristics.

Practitioner Summary: In this study, we have evaluated a method to assess simulation-based team training environments from a cognitive ergonomics perspective. Using a case study, we analysed Distributed Cognition for Teamwork (DiCoT) by applying it to the Emergo Train System®. We conclude that DiCoT is useful for SBTT evaluation and simulator (re)design.     

Cultivating a longitudinal learning process through recurring crisis management training exercises in twelve Swedish municipalities

This study illustrates how crisis management capability is developed in series of recurring exercises, rather than in one single exercise. Over one hundred table‐top and role‐playing exercises were performed and evaluated in a longitudinal cross‐case action research study in 12 Swedish municipalities. By consciously adapting training formats, municipalities were lead through three learning phases: obtaining role understanding (phase 1: knowing what to do), developing information management skills (phase 2: knowing how to do it), and mastering self‐reflection in regular time‐outs (phase 3: knowing when and why to do something). This final learning outcome, being able to concurrently execute, evaluate, and reorganize an ongoing crisis management performance, may be the most valuable capability of a crisis management organization when crisis strikes.     

Automating and informating: roles to examine technology’s impact on performance

Previous studies on the impact of technology on performance (usefulness) have looked at the Information System (IS) in its role as supplier of information (informating role) and thus they have studied the influence of information quality and system quality on usefulness. However, an IS also has a role in the automation of tasks (automating role), which these studies do not take into account. Accordingly, this paper proposes a factor model that (1) includes explicitly both roles; (2) considers that informating and automating roles mediate the relation between these technological factors (information quality and system quality) and usefulness and (3) includes a system’s level of intervention (i.e. the degree to which technology participates in carrying out the tasks) as an additional factor that determines usefulness. Using a questionnaire, data were gathered on 229 Enterprise Resource Planning system users from different organisations and functional areas and structural equations model was used for analysis. Results show that information quality explains usefulness through both roles. System’s level of intervention explains usefulness through the automating role and system quality explains usefulness through the informating role. The factors’ differentiated effects through each role may help managers to establish more effective criteria and priorities in the various stages of an IS’s life cycle.     

Making sense of telebanking information systems: the role of organizational back ups

A case study of a telebanking information system located within a state-owned European bank is described and analysed. Findings indicate that while the information system supports the operators’ work practice in routine situations, it fails to do so when the work flow is disrupted. The case demonstrates how a pervasive pattern of stability is achieved through a variety of back-up mechanisms enacted and improvised in the work setting. The paper concludes with the implications of these findings for the theory and practice of information systems design.     

Why Worry? Motivation for Crisis Preparedness Work among Municipal Leaders in Sweden

Much of the responsibility for societal safety and crisis preparedness rests with local municipal leaders. These tasks are demanding, and often insufficiently prioritized and supported. The purpose of this study was to identify factors influencing motivation to work with these issues, and to explore relationships among such factors. Two datasets, formed the basis of the analysis. From the qualitative analysis, a model was developed describing three main categories of motivational factors: person‐related, organizational and activity‐related. Actual crisis experience was found to influence factors in all three categories. Differences regarding motivational forces could be identified among different roles among officials. Self‐determination theory is applied to the model, illustrating possible ways to influence motivation for work with preparedness issues.     

A method for measuring team skills

A method for identifying and measuring team skills, specifying team training objectives and the objective assessment of team performance is described. First, a theoretical model of team performance is outlined and then a version of Hierarchical Task Analysis specially adapted to analysing team tasks is described. The two are then combined into an event-related measurement scheme, which provides a set of objective criteria by which key team skills can be assessed. The method is illustrated by an example from a basic Anti-Submarine Warfare training exercise which forms part of the Principal Warfare Officer's course at the Royal Naval School of Maritime Operations. The potential of the method is discussed, including the opportunities it may provide for the standardization of team performance assessment and in the use of new technology in the partial automation of shore-based and ship-board team training.     

A method for measuring team skills

A method for identifying and measuring team skills, specifying team training objectives and the objective assessment of team performance is described. First, a theoretical model of team performance is outlined and then a version of Hierarchical Task Analysis specially adapted to analysing team tasks is described. The two are then combined into an event-related measurement scheme, which provides a set of objective criteria by which key team skills can be assessed. The method is illustrated by an example from a basic Anti-Submarine Warfare training exercise which forms part of the Principal Warfare Officer's course at the Royal Naval School of Maritime Operations. The potential of the method is discussed, including the opportunities it may provide for the standardization of team performance assessment and in the use of new technology in the partial automation of shore-based and ship-board team training.     

Allocating training instances to learning agents for team formation

Agents can learn to improve their coordination with their teammates and increase team performance. There are finite training instances, where each training instance is an opportunity for the learning agents to improve their coordination. In this article, we focus on allocating training instances to learning agent pairs, i.e., pairs that improve coordination with each other, with the goal of team formation. Agents learn at different rates, and hence, the allocation of training instances affects the performance of the team formed. We build upon previous work on the Synergy Graph model, that is learned completely from data and represents agents’ capabilities and compatibility in a multi-agent team. We formally define the learning agents team formation problem, and compare it with the multi-armed bandit problem. We consider learning agent pairs that improve linearly and geometrically, i.e., the marginal improvement decreases by a constant factor. We contribute algorithms that allocate the training instances, and compare against algorithms from the multi-armed bandit problem. In our simulations, we demonstrate that our algorithms perform similarly to the bandit algorithms in the linear case, and outperform them in the geometric case. Further, we apply our model and algorithms to a multi-agent foraging problem, thus demonstrating the efficacy of our algorithms in general multi-agent problems.     

Learning in context: Extensively computerized work groups as communities-of-practice

As computing becomes increasingly integral to organizational life, how work groups learn to successfully use computing becomes a critical issue. The current focus in the management information systems literature is on individual training and teaching methods. The context in which people and groups learn is overlooked in these studies. But work groups provide different types of learning environments, some which encourage learning while others discourage it. Three characteristics of work group environments help explain why learning varies: differential valuation of work roles in organizations (clerical vs professional work groups); differential participation in legitimate peripheral learning (through the presence of local expertise and time to interact and learn); and differential levels of participation in noncanonical communities-of-practice (especially through grass roots computing implementations). Two contrasting case studies illustrate how these concepts result in different learning environments. Professional work groups are more highly valued in organizations and members are given more autonomy to participate in legitimate peripheral learning and emerging communities-of-practice, while clerical groups are less valued, isolated from other practitioners and more rigorously held to canonical work practices. Participation in computing implementations also provides opportunities for learning that are missing in groups that have computing forced on them by management.     

Measurements of team workload: A time pressure and scenario complexity study for maritime operation tasks

Workload is a critical factor influencing team performance in complex systems. There remains no consensus on the selection of team workload measures. Through an experiment based on simulated maritime operation tasks, team workload was manipulated by time pressure and scenario complexity to investigate the responses of three categories (subjective, performance-based, and physiological) of potential team workload measurements. The results show that time pressure had significant effects on all the three categories of measurements, especially on subjective indicators, miss rate, completion rate, operation accuracy, and eye movements. Significant main effects of scenario complexity on subjective team workload and the selected team performance measurements were also found, such as response latent time, miss rate, completion rate, and operation accuracy. Physiological measurements may not be sensitive for measuring team workload when scenario complexity serves as a major influencing factor of team workload.     

Keeping it together: The role of transactional situation awareness in team performance

It has been argued that communications in teams are a means of transmitting Situation Awareness to improve performance. This study explored the frequency and types of situation awareness transactions in two groups of teams. Twelve teams were grouped into either more effective or less effective teams, based on performance measures. Distributed Situation Awareness theory predicts that Situation Awareness transaction are a medium for co-ordinating teamwork, and that more of these transaction will lead to improved performance. Differences in the frequency and type of transactions were observed between the more effective teams and the less effective teams with the former having a higher frequency of overall communications and, more importantly, a higher number of relevant situation awareness transaction types compared to less effective teams. Situation awareness transactions supported the team in making sense of the situation they found themselves in as it unfolded and enabled team members to perform their discrete tasks and therefore contribute to overall team success.Relevance to industry: Teams are a major feature of most industrial applications of work and communication play an important role in coordinating team work. Communication has been found to be linked to both team performance and situation awareness. Situation awareness is distributed in teams through transactions of information. A study was devised to explore the differences between more effective and less effective teams on a number of situation awareness transactional factors. Analysing the team as a functional unit of situation awareness is presented for future work.     

Selecting and Developing Crisis Leaders Using Competency-Based Simulations

Crisis simulations provide organizations with a powerful means of selecting and training its leaders to effectively handle crisis situations. This article provides a hands-on approach to developing high-quality crisis simulations in organizations. Several topics are discussed, including: (1) the use of a Behavioural Crisis Analysis (BCA) to define the critical tasks and knowledge, skills and abilities involved in effectively addressing a crisis; (2) guidelines for designing a high-fidelity crisis exercise; (3) methods for measuring the crisis handling performance of participants during the simulation; and (4) how to use the information obtained from the simulation for selecting, coaching and developing crisis leaders.