Kip Smith, & Ida Lindgren. (2010). Predicting group faultlines in multinational crisis response teams. In C. Zobel B. T. S. French (Ed.), ISCRAM 2010 – 7th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management: Defining Crisis Management 3.0, Proceedings. Seattle, WA: Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM.
Abstract: Education in crisis response traditionally includes formal field exercises that attempt to replicate to some extent the chaos and complexity of an emergency situation. Part of the complexity facing multinational teams of crisis response professionals is diversity within the team itself. In this paper we discuss the group faultline model of diversity and its impact on team performance. Faultlines exist wherever there is diversity. When faultlines become active – And only when they become active – They form barriers to team cohesion and impediments to team performance. We propose that it is eminently feasible to develop a toolkit that managers of multinational crisis response teams can use to identify and span group faultlines. We identify two classes of tools. The first is a questionnaire that elicits information that can be used to (1) infer faultline length and to predict the relative likelihood of activation, and (2) identify (individual) team members who can span a ruptured faultline and facilitate team cohesion. The identification suggests appropriate actions that the instructor can take to help the team bridge the rift. The second tool in the kit is a checklist of defensive routines – policies and actions that attempt to save face – That can be used to identify faultline rupture. We are currently working at developing the tools in this toolkit.
|