Managing emergencies is taxing for individuals due to the stress of making decisions in dangerous, high-stakes and time-constrained environments. These complex, dynamic environments also make it difficult to coordinate as other responders perform different roles that may have conflicting goals. This study explored some of the challenges faced by emergency management decision-makers through a literature review of 70 papers identified from SCOPUS and EBSCO database searches. Three major challenges for emergency management were identified: stress and fatigue, interoperability and ethical decision-making. Each of these challenges is examined to explore their nature and how they are likely to evolve in the future. This paper provides helpful advice on how to mitigate these challenges. We argue that to better meet these challenges, emergency services organisations need to develop and maintain appropriate doctrine and training, develop a supportive organisational culture and effectively learn the lessons of previous critical incidents.

A qualitative study of Australian wildland firefighters employed by a state government agency was undertaken to: (i) explore the perceived impact of work-related stress factors on participants’ psychological health; and (ii) identify organisational strategies or approaches that firefighters believe could help to protect or improve their psychological health. Twenty-five participants took part in the first round of interviews and 24 participants took part in the second round of interviews. A theoretical model of work-related determinants of psychological health developed by Harvey et al. (2017) was used to inform the thematic coding of interview data. Participants reported a wide variety of work-related stressors that they believe affect their psychological wellbeing. All of the stressors identified by Harvey et al. (2017) were evident in the firefighters’ descriptions of work characteristics and experiences that they believe affect their psychological health, including job insecurity, high job demands, low job control, low social support, work-family conflict and issues related to recognition and reward. However, the wildland firefighters also identified exposure to dangerous work, limited training opportunities, inconsistent application of organisational policies and procedures and administrative workload and demands associated with the community interface as affecting their psychological health. The findings indicate that wildland firefighters perceive no single work-related factor as contributing to psychological ill-health. Rather, the firefighters indicated that their psychological health is affected by the experience of multiple psychosocial risk factors that co-exist and interact with one another in the work environment. Firefighters also identified a wide variety of organisational strategies that they believe could reduce the risk of psychological ill-health associated with work stress. Participants’ suggestions provide practical, actionable solutions with the potential to reduce exposure to stressors in the organisational work environment and better protect wildland firefighters against harm to their psychological health.

Decision-making in disasters and major crises faced by emergency services globally is a difficult combination of science and art to master. To assist decision-makers in these environments, a number of cognitive aids have been developed and subsequently adopted by individuals and organisations alike. However, these aids vary according to their intent and the context in which they are intended to be applied. This review explores the use of cognitive aids in the context of emergency management and explores how existing knowledge regarding the use of cognitive aids from other industries may be translated to emergency management. An iterative literature review of academic and industry material related to cognitive aids during incident and crisis response across a broad range of international emergency service and other industries within the last 20 years was completed. Ultimately, cognitive aids are not a silver bullet when it comes to decision-making in the emergency management context. The correct tool (that is correctly designed) must be correctly applied by trained and competent end users. The Australian emergency management sector may benefit from future research exploring how these existing tools adhere to the good practice principles identified in this study.

The importance of training for effective performance in high-stakes, high-risk work settings is well-known. Successful training is the systematic acquisition of skills, rules, concepts or attitudes that result in improved work performance. Simply exposing people to training situations is not sufficient for them to develop knowledge and skills. This will only occur if the activity results in learning. While much training focuses on the development of technical skills, it is important to train people in non-technical skills, such as decision-making. This paper presents the results of a literature review of 95 peer-reviewed articles that consider the current training and exercise practices used to develop emergency management decision-making capability. The different approaches to training can be categorised into 4 types: discussion-based, operation-based, E-based and post-incident debriefs. This paper discusses current practice in emergency management decision-making training in each of these categories together with studies that have evaluated their effectiveness noting the generally limited nature of evaluation studies. To promote evaluation of training, several studies have developed tools to assess the effectiveness of training. Finally, key takeaway points related to emergency management organisational training and exercise programs are provided.

This paper examines what happens when multiple organisations with competing logics enact social media concurrently and in diverse ways. This is important in organisational fields such as emergency management where it becomes problematic if information provision is fragmented and inconsistent. A qualitative and multi‐level case study of an organisational field is undertaken, comprised of interviews with 45 representatives from 27 organisations, including emergency management organisations, government agencies, non‐government organisations, private organisations, and community groups. Based on our findings, we build understanding of how logics and the enactment of digital technology coevolve in an organisational field. We articulate a theoretical model that explains the reciprocity between logics and the enactment of social media. We also develop a framework that captures an organisational field‐level perspective on the range of ways that information flows across such a field. We contribute to theory on institutional dynamics and to understanding of the enactment of social media in organisational fields. Implications for practice are discussed.

Aircraft accidents are most likely to occur on or within the immediate vicinity of an aerodrome, however, only some aerodromes have a specialised onsite fire and rescue service (Aviation Rescue Fire Fighting Service or ARFFS). ARFFS exist to save life in the event of an aircraft accident, yet there is limited literature about assessing the need for ARFFS. This presents considerable challenges for aviation safety standard setting organisations and has resulted in global inconsistency and disparity relating to the ARFFS. This paper presents two studies that analyse aviation safety and accident data to start to establish an evidence base for decisions about where ARFFS should be located. The first study found that aerodromes with operations that were primarily general aviation had a higher rate of accidents and serious incidents than aerodromes with operations that were primarily commercial air transport. The second study found that narrow bodied aircraft present a greater probability of a fatal outcome (with or without fire) compared to wide-bodied aircraft. Passenger movement rates and the size of aircraft are the basis for many international ARFFS establishment criteria, but the findings in this paper suggests that alone they are not sufficient indicators of the need for an ARFFS.

Emergency management (EM) teams typically operate in complex dynamic environments where they need to synthesize incomplete, contradictory or overwhelming amounts of information into intelligence and produce outputs in a short time-scale. Independent inquiries following large-scale emergencies highlight the central role that team processes such as communication, coordi-nation, and cooperation play in enabling the effective performance of teams. This article de-scribes the development and evaluation of the Team Process Checklist (TPC). The TPC is a 17 -item checklist that is designed to help observers and/or team members better understand and manage EM teams both in real time and after the event (in debriefs and after action reviews). Items for the TPC were identified in the literature on communication, coordination and coopera-tion and then developed through five different regional coordination center (RCC) exercises by observers who used the TPC to evaluate the teamwork of the RCC. Following the development phase four evaluation studies were conducted with EM personnel. In these studies the TPC was rated as having very good usefulness, clarity, and comprehensiveness. The TPC therefore shows considerable promise as a simple, straight-forward way to help people in EM better understand and manage their teams in real time and after the event.

Social media (SM) is increasingly used to reach out to populations for preparedness and response to disasters. Given the disproportionate impacts of disasters on vulnerable populations (e.g., older persons, persons socially/geographically isolated, persons living with disabilities, persons of low socio-economic means) in this study we focus specifically on the attitudes, needs and future plans of vulnerable persons towards accessing and sharing information via SM during extreme weather events. Advancing understanding in this area is important as there is growing evidence that people who may be described as more vulnerable may have different communication needs and less access to disaster related information and technologies. We present the results of a survey of 215 vulnerable persons in Victoria, Australia. Rather than consider vulnerable persons as a homogenous group, we examine how persons with different vulnerabilities perceive SM for accessing and sharing information in the context of disasters and report findings which challenge prevalent assumptions about vulnerable persons and SM. Overall we find that vulnerable persons are not passive recipients of support during disasters but have self-awareness, a strong desire to receive information and the capacity to usefully contribute to the provision of reliable information via SM. With a view to improving outcomes for vulnerable persons in disasters we offer an agenda for future research.

Every year, incident management teams (IMTs) coordinate the response to hundreds of emergency events across Australasia. Larger scale emergencies such as a storms, floods, wildfires, oil spills and chemical explosions can place a lot of pressure on an IMT. Non-technical skills play a central role in the performance of these teams. This article reviewed the broader non-technical skills (NTS) literature before focusing on the NTS required for emergency management. It was found that most NTS frameworks share four to five common skill categories, although there were greater differences at the element and behavioural marker level. A variety of issues were identified in the literature that highlight that emergency management is very different from other domains where NTS systems have been developed. The literature on NTS in conjunction with this set of issues was used to develop a proposed NTS framework for emergency IMTs. This framework comprises 7 skill categories (i.e. communication, coordination, cooperation, decision-making, situation awareness, leadership and coping, stress and fatigue management). The 7 skills can be further delineated into 16 elements and 44 behavioural markers. The framework provides a prototype that can form the basis for further research in this area.

To carry out their roles, first responders need to have appropriate skills. It is important to identify and train in key skills appropriate for the tasks that first responders will perform. Once these skills have been acquired, they need to be maintained otherwise they will decay to the point where performance of the skill is no longer acceptable. This means that emergency services organisations need programs that appropriately maintain the skills of their volunteers and employees. To deliver cost-effective training, these organisations need a good understanding of what key skills are required for tasks that are regularly performed, why and how quickly these skills decay and how these skills can be maintained. To help emergency services organisations better understand these important concepts, this paper reviews relevant literature on skill decay and skill maintenance. Task decomposition methods and training needs analysis are introduced to assist organisations determine what key skills they require. This provides information to make sound, evidence-based decisions about recurrent training programs that can maintain the skills required by first responders and retain efficacy in the organisation.

Purpose of Review Prescribed fire escapes continue to challenge most fire and land management agencies and many communities. This article considers the issue from knowledge management (KM) and organizational learning (OL) perspectives. We review organizational initiatives and the literature that have developed over the last 10 years to support learning from escaped prescribed fires, then use this to evaluate current learning practices and identify potential next frontiers for improving performance. Due to the difficulty obtaining statistics for non-federal entities, this review focuses primarily on developments in the US Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, but also captures reviews from the US Department of Interior, and the State of Victoria, Australia. Recent Findings The recurring issue of prescribed fire escapes may in part be explained by the increasing challenges and expectations fire and land management agencies and prescribed fire managers face. Agencies are being asked to burn more area and suitably contain prescribed fires with fewer resources. In many jurisdictions, this challenge is heightened by increasingly tough climate conditions, shifting demographics internal and external to their agencies, changing patterns of land use, and requirements to meet increasing fuel reduction targets. A range of interventions has been developed and implemented by state and federal land and fire management agencies to support improved performance through KM and OL. However, prescribed fires continue to escape, often for the same reasons they always have, leading us to ask: is there a next frontier or level for improving performance though learning? Summary This paper reviews recent developments in KM and OL to develop a model of organizational learning for prescribed fire. We then use this lens to review learning from prescribed burn escapes in Australia and the USA, highlighting the opportunities and challenges that agencies continue to face. Four areas of concentration to further strengthen OL are proposed, namely (i) strengthening the organizational learning culture, (ii) greater use of communities of practice to enhance lesson sharing, (iii) addressing the slow build time for prescribed burning expertise to replace pending retirements, and (iv) improving non-technical skills and human factors training.

This study tested the confirmatory factor analytic (CFA) model of the Resilience at University (RAU) scale and considered the conceptual properties of the scale relative to students transitioning from the adolescent-to-adulthood psychological developmental stage. Survey data were obtained from 808 Australian undergraduate business students. Using the holdout sample (sub-sample B), the factorial structure of the set of 19 items loading onto a 7-factor structure demonstrated very good model fit and all factor loadings were significant. Evidence confirming the internal consistency of the scales was more equivocal. While the CFA confirms the validity of the seven-factor structure, the Cronbach’s alpha indicates issues within four of the seven subscales. It was identified that changes to four of the dimensions would help ensure that the RAU demonstrates both the validity and the reliability required for an effective scale for its intended population. To address the reliability issues, several of the subscales will benefit from additional items to better explicate the concepts concerned and to improve reliability. A key challenge, however, of developing a resilience measure for use with university students is the transitional psychological developmental stage of the undergraduate cohort.

Secondary schools are purported to play a significant role in the resilience enhancement of adolescents; however, there are no measures of resilience designed specifically for use in secondary schools. To address this shortcoming, a resilience at secondary school (RASS) scale was developed and its psychometric properties explored. Five hundred and sixty-two female secondary school students aged from 12 years to 18 years completed the 20-item RASS, which was adapted from the Resilience at University scale. Confirmatory factor analysis using structural equation modeling revealed a 19-item, seven-factor structure. Convergent validity of all the subscales was tenable. Internal consistency of two subscales was not ideal, indicative of the need for further research. The RASS scale and subscales represent promising empirical measures of resilience at secondary schools in Australia. With further refinement, the RASS offers educators in secondary schools a practical measure founded on the skills and behaviours considered critical for psychological resilience which can be used to inform resilience-building curriculum activities.

The demands on teams coordinating emergency management at state and regional levels can be considerable. These teams may be supporting multiple incidents and are prioritising resources, liaising with other organisations and managing public interests. Also, during large-scale emergencies, teams will be working under conditions of stress and fatigue, which are known to impair cognitive processes such as memory and decision-making. This paper describes a checklist-based cognitive aid that can be used by teams to help retain their focus on tasks that need to be completed. This checklist is based on a hierarchical task analysis that was developed with emergency management agencies using observations, subject matter expert advice and prototype piloting. The checklist is a simple, straightforward set of prompts that help managers keep track of operational tasks and, thus, helps to reduce mental workload and improve cognition. The checklist can be used as a prompt to help emergency managers address the tasks they have oversight for, as a training and development resource, and as a diagnostic and monitoring tool to assess how well a control centre is operating. This can be assessed in real time and through the after-action review process. The checklist is a flexible tool that can help people better manage emergency response activities.

The 21st Century has been termed “the century of disasters.” Worldwide there were twice as many disasters and catastrophes in the first decade of this century as in the last decade of the 20th Century. All continents are affected, both directly and indirectly. And the trend continues, fuelled by climate change, demographic changes and social dynamics. The serious challenges facing government in cities, regions and nations of the world relate to acute shocks (such as forest fires, floods, earthquakes, tsunamis, pandemics and terrorist attacks) and chronic stresses (such as high unemployment, religious extremism, inefficient public transport systems, endemic violence, chronic shortages of food and water). Information is among the key life-supporting essentials in a disaster response, as well as water and basic foods, which are vital to sustain lives. It is information technology these days that gives us access to most of this information. We rely greatly on it. In this sense, information management with effective use of information systems should be conducted and evaluated among disaster relief agencies. Successful information management will result in making higher situational awareness in a field that is crucial for a disaster response. It also guides us to build a disaster-resilient community, which can adapt the society to those unexpected events. These issues should be tackled at each level of the governance (international, national, regional, local, etc.), and with regards to all relevant dimensions (social, technological, interoperability, agility, etc.). This minitrack features government and disaster information management, including the development of disaster resilience communities/societies. Eight papers have been selected that deal with any aspect of the analysis, design, development, deployment, implementation, integration, operation, use or evaluation of ICT for discussing government roles for disaster responses, disaster information management, and resilience communities. In addition, some of these papers present innovative and break-through visions regarding “disaster information, technology and resilience.” 1. e-Flooding: Crisis Management Through Two Temporal Loops

Despite increasing attention on organizational responses to digital platforms the Information Systems research has overlooked the influence of platforms on the public sector. In this paper we draw on the concept of institutional logics to examine the impact of platforms on the emergency sector. A qualitative case study of the emergency sector is undertaken, comprised of interviews with organizations-including emergency response organizations, government agencies, firms, non-government organizations and community and volunteer groups. The findings reveal the interplay between the prevailing 'command and control' and 'community' logics and the 'platform' logic and how the tensions and synergies between them are shaping the information landscape in the sector. We demonstrate how organizations embody and resist aspects of the platform logic.

This study contributes to ongoing attempts by scholars to understand the many ways that social media is being used by disaster and crisis response actors. We present a case study consisting of emergency response organizations, government agencies, local government, non-government organizations, community groups and platform-based actors, and focus specifically on how social media is used in this context to support the information needs of vulnerable groups. We examine how tension between the presence of top-down, generic information and the need for contextualized and specific information is resolved, and the translation processes that occur between the range of actors. We also offer recommendations for future research to address the disproportionate impacts of disasters and crises on vulnerable groups.

In 2015, the Australasian Fire and Emergency Service Authorities Council (AFAC) commissioned a review of the evidence base to establish the rationale for capabilities central to effective incident management. The review focused on the capabilities required for senior AIIMS Level 31 Incident Management Team roles. Results were used to inform standards for the AFAC Emergency Management Professionalisation Scheme. The review considered the human factors and emergency management literature as well as research conducted through the Bushfire CRC. Analysis and synthesis of the evidence identified three broad capabilities, each with three sub-capabilities important in incident management. The three categories were to model leadership and teamwork, to think and plan strategically and demonstrate self-awareness. This article outlines the evidence base and the capabilities developed through this review and contributes to the evidence base for incident management capability. Guidance on what will be needed in continuing professional development program is provided.