Title: A literature review of methods for providing enhanced operational oversight of teams in emergency management

Authors: Chris Bearman; Sophia Rainbird; Benjamin P. Brooks; Christine Owen; Steven Curnin

Addresses: Appleton Institute, Central Queensland University, 44 Greenhill Road, Adelaide, SA, Australia; Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC, Melbourne, 3002, Australia ' Appleton Institute, Central Queensland University, 44 Greenhill Road, Adelaide, SA, Australia; Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC, Melbourne, 3002, Australia ' National Centre for Ports and Shipping, Australian Maritime College, University of Tasmania, Locked Bag 1397, Launceston, Tasmania, Australia; Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC, Melbourne, 3002, Australia ' Faculty of Education, University of Tasmania, Sandy Bay Campus, Private Bag 66, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia; Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC, Melbourne, 3002, Australia ' Tasmanian Institute of Law Enforcement Studies, University of Tasmania, Sandy Bay Campus, Private Bag 22, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia; Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC, Melbourne, 3002, Australia

Abstract: Teamwork is an important component of effective emergency management. From time to time teamwork will break down in the complex situations involved in managing emergencies. It is important for people who have operational oversight of these teams to be able to detect breakdowns quickly and effectively. However, there is typically little guidance within many agencies about how best to do this. This paper reviews the literature on team monitoring by observers in emergency management and related domains and identifies four key approaches to monitoring teams: 1) coordination, cooperation and task-related communication; 2) information flow; 3) linguistic analysis; 4) team outputs. These methods provide a number of different options that agencies involved in emergency management can use as the basis for developing enhanced operational oversight of teams.

Keywords: emergency management; teamwork; monitoring; wildfire; response; safety.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEM.2018.094237

International Journal of Emergency Management, 2018 Vol.14 No.3, pp.254 - 274

Received: 29 Jun 2016
Accepted: 01 Dec 2016
Published online: 23 Aug 2018 *

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