Resilient performance in building maintenance: A macro-cognition perspective during sudden breakdowns

Building maintenance encompasses multiple tightly inter-connected agents (e.g., technicians, occupants, supervisors, and equipment). Variable working conditions and limited resources may affect the safety and sustainability of the activities. Although recent studies have explored how complex systems can perform resilient behavior in facing the complexity of everyday activities, the factors that effectively contribute to resilient performance are still paired with limited empirical evidence. We studied the performance of the maintenance team during sudden breakdowns of air-conditioning devices in a large university campus, using the Functional Resonance Analysis Method (FRAM). A FRAM diagram containing 30 functions was organized including six macro-cognitive functions (expertise, sensemaking, communication, coordination, collaboration, and adaptation/improvisation), examining their role in anticipating, and responding to emergencies, and eight functional units that are directly impacted by disturbances were analyzed in more detail. Results indicate that macro-cognitive functions can greatly impact the functionality of the maintenance team in pursuit of their goals. Moreover, we noted those macro-cognitive functions here analyzed depend on each other to produce resilient performance.

"Are we in this together?": embedding social identity detection in drones improves emergency coordination

Autonomous systems, such as drones, are critical for emergency mitigation, management, and recovery. They provide situational awareness and deliver communication services which effectively guide emergency responders' decision making. This combination of technology and people comprises a socio-technical system. Yet, focusing on the use of drone technology as a solely operational tool, underplays its potential to enhance coordination between the different agents involved in mass emergencies, both human and non-human. This paper proposes a new methodological approach that capitalizes on social identity principles to enable this coordination in an evacuation operation. In the proposed approach, an adaptive drone uses sensor data to infer the group membership of the survivors it encounters during the operation. A corpus of 200 interactions of survivors' talk during real-life emergencies was computationally classified as being indicative of a shared identity or personal/no identity. This classification model, then, informed a game-theoretic model of human-robot interactions. Bayesian Nash Equilibrium analysis determined the predicted behavior for the human agent and the strategy that the drone needs to adopt to help with survivor evacuation. Using linguistic and synthetic data, we show that the identity-adaptive architecture outperformed two non-adaptive architectures in the number of successful evacuations. The identity-adaptive drone can infer which victims are likely to be helped by survivors and where help from emergency teams is needed. This facilitates effective coordination and adaptive performance. This study shows decision-making can be an emergent capacity that arises from the interactions of both human and non-human agents in a socio-technical system.

How Can Authorities Support Distributed Improvisation During Major Crises? A Study of Decision Bottlenecks Arising During Local COVID-19 Vaccine Roll-Out

Despite the increased importance attributed to distributed improvisation in major crises, few studies investigate how central authorities can promote a harmonic, coordinated national response while allowing for distributed autonomy and improvisation. One idea implicit in the literature is that central authorities could help track and tackle common decision bottlenecks as they emerge across "improvising" local authorities as a result of shared, dynamic external constraints. To explore this idea we map central functions needed to roll-out vaccines to local populations and identify and classify bottlenecks to decision-making by local authorities managing COVID-19 vaccine roll-out in Norway. We found five bottlenecks which emerged as vaccine roll-out progressed, three of which could feasibly have been addressed by changing the local authorities' external constraints as the crisis developed. While the national crisis response strategy clearly allowed for distributed improvisation, our overall findings suggest that there is potential for central authorities to address external constraints in order to ease common bottlenecks as they emerge across local authorities responding to the crisis. More research is to explore alternative centralized response strategies and assess how well they effectively balance centralized and distributed control. The study contributes to the growing literature examining the interaction between local and centralized response in crisis management.

Identifying challenges to critical incident decision-making through a macro-, meso-, and micro- lens: A systematic synthesis and holistic narrative analysis

It is predicted that emergency responses to critical incidents will increase over the next few decades, as society faces unique and dynamic challenges (e.g., pandemics, migrant crises, and terrorism). As such, it is necessary to breakdown, identify, and evaluate the unique barriers associated with decision-making in the context of critical incident responses. The aim of the current study was to synthesize the bibliographic characteristics of the research on decision making and present a holistic narrative analysis of the multi-layered factors. Additionally, the systematic synthesis of evidence facilitated a critical appraisal of the quality and distribution of evidence across macro-, meso-, and micro- levels. Results suggested that research was moderately heterogeneous, as evidence captured diverse narrative factors. However, micro-centric characteristics (e.g., cognitive-related factors) were not well represented. Instead, research primarily focused toward intermediate meso-level characteristics, capturing factors such as "interoperability" and "organization policy and procedure" as critical challenges to decision-making. Six key narratives were also identified and discussed. Both the quality appraisal and narrative findings suggested that research should seek opportunities to experimentally assess, evaluate and validate decision-making. Whilst this has previously appeared ethically and practically problematic, advances in technology, research and analysis have allowed high-fidelity simulation experimentation to recreate critical incidents.

Multiteam Systems in Long Duration Exploration Missions: A Qualitative Analysis of Key Characteristics and Challenges

Given the unprecedented environment of long duration space exploration (LDSE), success simply cannot occur without the coordinated efforts of multiple teams, both in flight and on the ground. These multiteam systems (MTSs) are needed to achieve the complex and dynamic tasks of spaceflight missions that will be longer and more uncertain than any previously experienced. Accordingly, research is limited in terms of how to best coordinate these teams and their dynamics—and in particular, how to best prepare LDSE teams to work across time and space effectively. To begin to address these critical questions systematically, qualitative data was extracted from a series of ten interviews with experts in spaceflight and long duration analog environments. Using thematic analysis techniques, we identified several consistent themes for affective, behavioral, and cognitive elements of teamwork occurring within and between teams. We examine each of these in detail, to identify the dynamics of what is currently known and where research needs to go to provide guidance for spaceflight organizations as well as others attempting to successfully implement MTSs in novel, complex environments.

“Dare to Share”: Improving Information Sharing and Risk Assessment in Multiteam Systems Managing Offender Probation

Managing offenders released from prison requires a multiteam system (MTS) approach, with teams from across police, probation, and other criminal justice agencies. However, public inquiries highlight current approaches are impaired by poor information sharing that compromises risk assessment and recall decisions, which can allow serious further offences to occur. Little research has focused on the causes of these information sharing difficulties. The current study draws on the perspectives and experiences of probation and police officers to improve understanding of causes of information sharing difficulties. The research is conducted within the context of a new enhanced information sharing ‘Direct Access’ initiative implemented in one region of the UK (Devon and Cornwall) that permits probation to directly access police information technology systems. This provides a novel opportunity to cross validate MTS theory to the real-world context of offender management and considers what works in practise to overcome information sharing challenges. Eleven semi-structured interviews were conducted with police (N = 4) and probation (N = 7) officers. Thematic analysis revealed six themes: i) information sharing difficulties and impact; ii) causes of information sharing difficulties; iii) impact of ‘Direct Access’ on information sharing practices; iv) workload inequality; v) training; and vi) evolution of ‘Direct Access’. Overall, findings highlight that information sharing difficulties are causes by not knowing what information to request or share, limited resources, lack of clarity about General Data Protection Regulation and concern about consequences of breaching this. These barriers can result in delays and failures to share information, which hinders the accuracy of risk assessments and ability to safeguard. Findings also highlight that providing statutory partners with ‘Direct Access’ to I.T systems can improve the relevance and timeliness of information. However, ‘daring to share’ is not enough to address trust issues without also clarifying expectations regarding information use and perceived workload inequalities.

Insights on Public Health Professionals Non-technical Skills in an Emergency Response (Multi-Team System) Environment

This paper provides practitioner and academic insights into the importance of examining non-technical skills in a multiteam system emergency response. The case of public health professionals is highlighted, illustrated with unique qualitative field data which focused upon the use of non-technical skills at a meso level of analysis. Results reflected the importance of context upon the multiteam system and highlighted seven non-technical skills used by public health professionals to support an effective response. Recommendations for future research and implications for practice are noted for this hard to access professional group, located within emerging advances in the scientific inquiry of complex and increasingly evident, multi-team systems.