Group Interaction in High Risk Environments

Combining data from seven interdisciplinary projects in three settings - aviation, nuclear power plants, and the hospital operating theatre - this text looks at how task load affect interaction among members of a high risk team, and how it affect the results of the team's work.

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What governs the way in which people work together and handle technology in high risk environments? The understanding of decision making, communication and the other dimensions of team interaction within aircrews and other teams in highly stressful situations, is based on a multitude of diverse factors, each with its own literature and individual studies. This book is about how teams function in just such situations, providing a uniquely integrated and interdisciplinary account of the dynamics and main explanatory factors of team interaction under high workload. The book stems from the interdisciplinary research project 'Group Interaction in High Risk Environments' (GIHRE), a Collegium of the Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz Foundation. The goals of the project, and therefore the book, are to investigate, analyze and understand the behavior of professional groups working in high risk environments and to develop practical suggestions for enhancing performance. A central focus of this book is how groups in these professions deal with the factors that can threaten the safety and effectiveness of their task performance, whether these factors are part of the environment or part of the team itself. Four representative workplaces were investigated in three broad settings: in aviation, the cockpit of a commercial airliner; in medicine, the operating room and the intensive care unit of a hospital; in nuclear power, the control room of a nuclear power plant. The international and interdisciplinary composition of the Collegium ensures the book features a variety of different methodological and conceptual approaches, which are brought to bear at both theoretical and practical levels. Readers working in all related fields will find value in the case descriptions, the academic synthesis of the similarities between them, and ways to approach new challenges; specialists in applied psychology, human factors and technical management will gain new insights.