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This study qualitatively compares how 18 experienced emergency responders from the fire services in Bergen, Norway, and London, United Kingdom, maintained and adapted their organisation's work, routines, and leadership practices to maintain operational capacity, preparedness, and resilience during the COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic from 2020-23. Semi-structured, qualitative interviews were conducted with nine experienced emergency responders in London and nine in Bergen, enquiring how the pandemic affected their work, their needs for maintaining operational preparedness going forward, and their COVID-19 experiences. Four themes emerged, related to their emotional experiences, how to maintain readiness, continuing to serve the community, and professionalism and learning. The discussion of these themes highlights the need for flexibility in planning, rather than comprehensive plans, and leadership that understands emergency responders' requirements. Drawing on the unique aspects of this study, a two-country comparison and the focus on experienced emergency responders, recommendations are offered for individual and organisational resilience, and the interface between them.

A simulation was conducted to examine the decision making of 102 high-ranking police and military commanders (male/female = 88/12, mean years of employment = 22.15) engaged in a simulated hybrid attack on Norway. Four 2 × 3 repeated-measures ANOVA tests were performed, with two groups (police, military) and three phases (peace, war, and post-conflict) as independent variables. The decision tasks of force posture and mission urgency, along with Subject Matter Expert (SME) ratings of decision-making performance, served as dependent variables. By using social cognitive theory as the theoretical framework, the analysis demonstrated within-group effects indicating how the transition from peace to war caused more offensive postures, higher urgency levels, and increased performance in wartime. Between-group differences were also found, illustrating that police commanders had higher levels of urgency than military commanders in general. Regarding force posture, within-group differences were only found in the post-conflict phase, when police commanders returned to pre-war levels, while military commanders showed less offensive postures than in peacetime. No significant between-group differences were found in decision-making performance. The analysis demonstrated new empirical findings about how crisis management is impacted by change and the backgrounds of those in charge. The findings have implications for designing interagency frameworks that improve police-military interoperability in collaborative efforts.

This case study describes and discusses the outcomes of an emergency preparedness exercise designed to enhance team processes in a municipal crisis response team. The study presents the case of an emergency preparedness exercise simulating a cruise ship in distress in the High North. The exercise was facilitated by a cross-disciplinary team of faculty members and subject matter experts from emergency preparedness organizations. The results highlight the student assessment of the exercise and identify critical exercise design factors associated with enhanced learning, such as scenario realism, timely preparation, and regular practice. The core members of crisis response teams in municipalities invest limited time and resources in team training; thus, it is essential that their training is effective and grounded in relevant risk and vulnerability analyses and evidence-based problems in municipalities. The study recommends the development of competencies in local emergency response teams based on theoretical frameworks of experiential team learning and shared mental model research.

This study explores the relationship between self-efficacy, task acceptance, and goal setting among senior leaders operating in higher headquarters, particularly within the context of hybrid warfare. The aim is to describe the factors that influence the decision-making (DM) performance of police and military leaders involved in collaborative response efforts during wartime. Path analysis was utilized to investigate an original dataset comprising 102 participants from Norway's police and military (M = 44.4 years). It involved a realistic simulation exercise designed to replicate the challenges associated with hybrid warfare. The study was grounded in Bandura's Social Cognitive Theory. The results indicated that self-efficacy demonstrated a positive and significant indirect effect on DM performance through goal setting. Furthermore, high DM performance in peacetime and high goal setting were both positively associated with DM performance in wartime. This study enhances the understanding of the interplay between self-efficacy, task acceptance, and goal setting in crisis response settings. The findings underscore the significance of cultivating effective DM skills in senior leaders operating in higher headquarters, particularly in defense against hybrid warfare. These insights can be applied to leadership development and policy programs aimed at enhancing national DM frameworks.

Background and Objectives

Drawing on affective events theory, the present study investigates relationships between daily interpersonal conflicts and negative and positive affective reactions, and tested whether trait neuroticism moderates immediate (same day) and persisting (next-day) affective reactions.

Design and Methods

A sample of 53 Norwegian naval cadets completed a diary questionnaire for 30 consecutive days (total N = 1590).

Results

As predicted, the findings showed that cadets reported more negative affect (but not less positive affect) on days they were confronted with affective events that were of a conflicting nature. In addition, the proposed interaction effects between daily conflict and neuroticism were significant for both negative and positive affect. Specifically, the immediate and persistent effects of daily conflicts on negative affect were strongest for individuals high (vs. low) in neuroticism. Moreover, individuals high in neuroticism reported less positive affect on days with conflicts, whereas individuals low in neuroticism reported more positive affect the two days following interpersonal conflicts.

Conclusions

The findings contribute to affective events theory with important knowledge about the role of trait neuroticism in dealing with interpersonal conflicts in a natural work setting.

In this study, a total of 102 high-ranking commanders from a military and police background were included in a simulation involving hybrid attacks on Norway. The aim was to explore the commanders’ decision-making in the context of hybrid warfare and changing threats. Data were collected in a simulated national headquarters and analyzed by a multinominal logistic regression method using a scenario that transformed from peacetime into war and returned to peace. The results demonstrated significant differences in the commanders’ preferences for unilateral or interagency forces depending on whether decisions were made in peacetime, war or the post-conflict phase. The results also showed how the commanders’ level of operational experience was associated with an increased preference for interagency forces. The current findings are new empirical insights into a thus far neglected aspect of decision-making research and have implications for improving police-military interoperability in major security crises.

This study uses the full-range leadership model to argue that on days when leaders engage in transformational leadership behaviors, they identify follower strengths and stimulate followers to show personal initiative. We propose that transformational leadership is related to follower work engagement and performance through follower strengths use and personal initiative. Moreover, we hypothesize that followers' personal initiative is most effective when followers use their strengths. A total of 57 Norwegian naval cadets filled out a diary booklet for 30 days (response = 72.6%; n = 1242). Multilevel modeling analyses largely supported our hypotheses. On the days when leaders used transformational leadership behaviors such as intellectual stimulation and individual consideration, followers were more likely to use their strengths and take initiative. These behaviors, in turn, predicted next-day work engagement and next-day job performance. Moreover, followers’ personal initiative was particularly related to work engagement when strengths use was high rather than low. We discuss how these findings contribute to the leadership literature by showing how leaders inspire their followers to lead themselves. In addition, we elaborate on the practical implications for leadership training.

The crisis triggered by Covid-19 has exposed the interdependencies of modern society and sparked interest in local response to protracted and complex crisis situations. There has been a growing awareness and interest in the key roles of political and professional stakeholders, their emotional regulation and how they influence team performance and outcomes in dealing with uncertainty and complex crisis situations. While cognitive and behavioral aspects of crisis leadership are well researched, less is understood about how one can mitigate negative emotions, instill trust, or restore public faith and support of security forces and emergency response teams during crises. In addressing this gap, we propose a simplified conceptual roadmap for research and training of local crisis leadership. In this, we emphasize complex problem solving, team interaction, team context and technology and team training design. These four factors represent significant barriers if neglected. On the other side, they may be considerable force multipliers when better understood and managed. We suggest how seven research and training questions could be linked to the four conceptual factors and guide an evidence-based approach to develop local crisis leadership.

Objective: High-quality healthcare services is delivered by teams rather than individuals and depends heavily on multidisciplinary cooperation between dispersed healthcare professionals. The aim of this scoping review is to identify common barriers and innovative applications of technology supporting team processes and patient safety, in geographically dispersed healthcare services.

Methods: Studies were identified from searches in APA PsychINFO, Epistemonikos and Medline databases, from 2010 to 2023. A detailed search strategy was performed, and studies were included, based on prior established criteria.

Results: Among the 19 studies that fulfilled our inclusion criteria, the majority (85%) were from Europe or North America, and most studies (53%) were quantitative, with a cross-sectional study design. Several reported observed distributed team processes in training and education. Most studies described barriers and detailed how innovative approaches and technological solutions were introduced to improve communication, coordination, and shared mental models in distributed healthcare settings. A small proportion of studies (16%) used health services data to examine interpersonal exchange and team processes.

Conclusion: The scoping review offer recommendations to enhance future research on distributed team processes in healthcare services.

Purpose: This study aimed to examine the applicability of Bandura’s social cognitive theory in predicting organizational performance in dynamic and ambiguous hybrid warfare contexts. Specifically, the study investigated the influence of dyad composition, past performance in peacetime, collective self-efficacy, and persistence on wartime performance among high-ranking police and military commanders.

Study design/methodology/approach: One hundred and thirty-eight participants, consisting of police and military commanders, took part in a simulation exercise that escalated from peace to war. The participants were assigned to three types of dyads (N = 69); all-police (n = 20), all-military (n = 27), and mixed police-military (n = 22). The study utilized path analysis to examine the direct and indirect effects of the variables on wartime performance.

Results: The model developed in this study accounted for 54% of the variance in wartime performance (R2 = 0.54). Path analysis showed direct effects of persistence (β = −0.33) and peacetime performance (β = 0.45) on actual performance in wartime. Direct effects also showed how persistence was predicted by dyad composition (β = −0.24) and peacetime performance (β = −0.50). Indirect effects indicated how persistence mediated the effects of peacetime performance (β = 0.17) and dyad composition (β = 0.08) on actual performance in wartime.

Originality/value: This study contributes to the understanding of how social cognitive factors, as described by Bandura’s theory, can predict decision outcomes in collaborative crisis response settings involving police and military commanders. The findings have implications for policy-making and provide recommendations for further research in this area.