Oil, Religion, Manuel and Emergency Management: about 7 exercises showing that difference matters
Abstract as pdf
Corresponding Author:
Luc ROMBOUT
Antwerp University - Faculty of Sociology Belgium
luc.rombout@uantwerpen.be
Author(s):
The presenter wishes to share observations and analyses of a series of table top and field exercises conducted in a multinational High Reliability Organisation (HRO) in the oil exploration industry.
As part of an emergency preparedness project, bi-national emergency management teams were subjected to different scenarios, disposing of different tools or the lack of.
The unique character of these exercises / experiments consists in the fact that the exercises were conducted in parallel with two teams of varying ethnicity, cultural background, religion, … yet with similar professional training and knowledge of the installation and the activities within their professional context.
The exercises resulted in different approaches by both teams, alternative ways of tackling different scenarios (industrial accident, infectious disease and terrorism) and changes in behaviour based on the availability of instruction sets.
As part of the After Action Review (AAR), the exercise staff’s observations where shared with the participants and the approach, motives and processes where discussed to obtain first hand motivation and explanation why and how some decisions were made.
The exercises themselves were observed and recorded and afterwards analysed in view of group dynamics, decision making processes and remaining improvement in the emergency planning effort. The exercises indicated that team participants acted and influenced the group decision making based on their own perceptions, beliefs, risk appetite, strategic insights and various other aspects. Six table top exercises (TTX) and one field training exercise (FTX) resulted in a very rich variation in decisions, actions and outcomes and clearly demonstrated that the human factor is instrumental in the outcome of crisis management.
The resulting challenge is to determine both the positive and detrimental consequences of this diversity and to develop courses of action, measures to allow for high quality consistency in emergency and crisis management.
How differences matter in emergency, risk and crisis management