An Examination Of Cultural Influences On Team Cognition And Information Sharing In Emergency Crisis Management Domains: A Mixed Methodological Approach
Open Access
- Author:
- Endsley, Tristan Caroline
- Graduate Program:
- Information Sciences and Technology
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- October 05, 2016
- Committee Members:
- Michael David Mcneese, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Michael David Mcneese, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Peter Kent Forster, Committee Member
Frederico T Fonseca, Committee Member
Susan Mohammed, Outside Member - Keywords:
- Team Cognition
Culture
Multicultural Teamwork
Emergency Crisis Management
Team Mental Models
Teams
Teamwork
Information Sharing
Team Communication
Hidden Knowledge
Mixed Methodology
Blended Epistemology
Quantitative
Qualitative
Simulation
NeoCITIES
Team Simulation - Abstract:
- The consequence for better understanding and facilitating teamwork during crisis and disaster response in the coming years is significant. It becomes clear that environmental and situational complexity requires a reliance on teams to carry out response efforts. Crises, regardless of the type of event, require complex decision-making and planning under uncertainty within a high stress environment. Furthermore, the complexities of crisis and disaster environments can be compounded by the cognitive complexities of diversity present in multinational teams or even in international response efforts. In complex crisis management and disaster response environments, designing effective systems that facilitate teamwork and improve team cognition presents significant challenges, given the nature of crisis events as disruptive to infrastructure, communications, and everyday systems of life. Historically, the utilization of simulations to explore numerous concepts relevant to cognition in sociotechnical systems, such as teamwork, macrocognition, information sharing, hidden knowledge, common operational picture, decision making, planning, etc., has indicated their effectiveness for understanding phenomena in complex sociotechnical systems while maintaining a controlled, safe environment. NeoCITIES is a human-in-the-loop, scaled world simulation centered on emergency crisis response. In the current study, NeoCITIES was used to assess multicultural and national team cognition in complex environments. From an interdisciplinary perspective, the current study aimed to: 1) identify effective teamwork in crisis and disaster response, facilitating and improving effectiveness of human responses to these events and limiting loss of life and damage to communities; 2) develop the essential tools that will assist in effective crisis response, assisting both teams and individuals; 3) explore the impacts of culture background on cognitive processes, in order to facilitate team work in multicultural settings. This study presents several major findings from a concurrent mixed methods study. Both quantitative and qualitative methodological approaches were utilized to assess cultural influences on team cognition in emergency crisis management scenarios. Namely this study identified differences in multinational team performance from national team performance on the NeoCITIES simulation task, and lower levels of information sharing overall and for hidden knowledge events by multinational teams. In addition to these findings, several approaches to teamwork in this setting, perspectives on cultural, and potential interventions for teamwork issues were identified qualitatively. Multiple methodological, theoretical, and practical implications of the current study were identified, with contributions made to the fields of Human Factors, Information Science, and Cognitive Systems Engineering.