Coal Age

AUG 2016

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August 2016 www.coalage.com 61 mine rescue continued member was asked to report his or her level of confidence (rang- ing from 0% Confident to 100% Confident) in their team's ability to respond to a real emergency. This set of questions was asked again following the exercise to determine whether participating in this team activity had any effect on team confidence. "How confident are you that your team could, if required, do the following right now in a real mine emergency? • Make quick and effective decisions. • Agree on solutions to difficult problems encountered. • Readapt team strategy in response to unexpected changes in the environment. • Assist with each other's responsibilities. • Maintain clear and efficient communication. • Monitor each other's work for mistakes and give feedback. Using information from the questionnaires and from ob- servations taken during the simulation exercises, researchers were able to identify factors that could be important for mine operators and mine rescue team trainers to keep in mind as they equip teams to respond to real-world emergencies. What Did We Learn? Answering one of our key research questions about training, we found that emergency training in immersive, virtual train- ing environments leads to increased confidence among mine rescue teams (Hoebbel, Bauerle, MacDonald, & Mallett, 2015). These results also begged the question, "aside from formal op- portunities for team training in simulated environments (e.g., virtual, field contests or MERDS, etc.), what other factors can influence mine rescue team performance?" Based on research, the authors suggest that the following relationships exist between other factors that influence mine rescue team performance: Team Familiarity and Confidence: Mine rescue teams whose members interact often — whether at work, outside of work, and/or participate in mine rescue cross-training — had higher levels of confidence in their ability to respond and perform effectively as a team. They also showed more gain in confidence after the NIOSH activity than did those teams with less familiarity with one another. Team Training Climate and Confidence: Teams who per- ceive a supportive training climate — where members feel they get constructive feedback from trainers and realistic "hands-on" training — have more confidence in their ability to respond and perform effectively as a team in an emergency. Moreover, teams who reported both high familiarity with team members and supportive training environments had significantly more confidence in their abilities, both before and after, than those who reported they were less familiar with their teammates and/or felt less supported in team training activities. Also of interest is that teams who felt their formal mine rescue team training may be lacking in some respects, but who reported a high level of familiarity with one another, showed the greatest gains in confidence after participating in the NIOSH virtual exercise. In other words, while such teams did not start out as confident as others, they did show the greatest increases in confidence scores, which suggests they might be able to overcome other limiting factors (e.g., lack of resources) more quickly and dramatically than teams whose members are less familiar with one another. The results of this study offer important considerations for preparing rescue teams to respond successfully to a mine emergency. Teams who feel less supported in their training ex- periences and/or teams who are less familiar with one another may lack the confidence to respond to a real mine emergency. Additionally, confidence has been shown to be strongly relat- ed to performance in emergency response teams outside of mining. Due to variations in team composition and resource availability, there are wide differences across teams for oppor- tunities to practice together in coordinated efforts through mine rescue contests, MERDS and other formal activities. However, it is encouraging to learn that all teams, regardless of composition, may benefit from time spent together outside of more formal training activities. Although this research has shown the benefits of train- ing in immersive virtual reality environments, specifically, it is not always possible or practical for teams to participate in such activities. It is important to recognize that fostering teamwork in a mine rescue team may not require an approach exclusive to immersive training environments. Mine opera- tors, team trainers, and mine rescue teams themselves might also benefit from creative alternatives by encouraging and fa- cilitating a variety of team-based activities. For more information about ongoing NIOSH mine emergency training modules, join the NIOSH Mine Emergency Response we- binar on Thursday, September 8 from noon-1 p.m. EST. Register by emailing Nicole Ortiz at lof9@cdc.gov. References Bauerle, T. J., & Mallett, L. G. (2013, May). "Safety Climate Applied to Crisis Scenarios: Development of a Measure of Mine Emergency Preparedness Climate." Presentation at the biennial Work, Stress and Health Conference, Los Angeles, California. Collins, C. G., & Parker, S. K. (2010). "Team Capability Beliefs Over Time: Distinguishing Between Team Potency, Team Outcome Efficacy, and Team Process Efficacy." Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 83 (4), 1003-1023. Hoebbel, C., Bauerle, T. J., MacDonald, B., & Mallett, L.G. (2015). "Assessing the Effects of Virtual Emergency Training on Mine Rescue Team Dynamics." In: Editor, ed. Proceedings of the Interservice/In- dustry Training, Simulation, and Education Conference (I/ITSEC), Orlando, Florida, Paper No. 15119. Huckman, R. S., & Staats, B. R. (2011). "Fluid Tasks and Fluid Teams: The Impact of Diversity in Experience and Team Familiarity on Team Performance." Manufacturing & Service Operations Man- agement, 13(3), 310-328. Marks, M. A., Mathieu, J. E., & Zaccaro, S. J. (2001). "A Temporal- ly Based Framework and Taxonomy of Team Processes." Academy of Management Review, 26, 356-376. Schaafstal, A. M., Johnston, J. H., & Oser, R.L. (2001). "Training teams for Emergency Management." Computers in Human Behav- ior, 17, 615-626. Waller, M., Lei, Z., & Pratten, R. (2014). "Focusing on Teams in Crisis Management Education: An Integration and Simula- tion-based Approach." Academy of Management Learning & Edu- cation, 13, 208-221.

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