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Frontline police officers frequently face ambiguous and high-pressure situations requiring rapid decision-making under uncertainty. Traditional police training often emphasizes procedural and tactical skills, neglecting cognitive competencies such as situational awareness (SA) and shared mental models (SMM). This study investigates whether a brief, theoretically grounded decision-making training program can enhance SA and team behavior among regular and SWAT-type police officers during simulated arrest scenarios. A quasi-experimental 2 × 2 factorial design was employed, involving 166 police officers (category 3: SWAT-type; category 4: regular patrol). Participants were assigned to either a training group (n = 54) or a control group (n = 112). The training program consisted of three modules focusing on decision-making frameworks, scenario-based exercises, and group debriefings. SA was measured using the Situational Awareness Rating Scale (SARS), and team behavior was assessed by subject matter experts during ambiguous and non-ambiguous simulated scenarios. Statistical analyses included factorial ANOVAs and planned comparisons. Trained officers demonstrated significantly higher SA scores than untrained controls (F(1, 162) = 12.587, p < 0.000). SWAT-type officers outperformed regular officers in SA and team behavior across scenarios. A training effect on team behavior was observed only among regular officers in the ambiguous scenario (F(1, 81) = 6.66, p < 0.012). No training effect was found in the non-ambiguous scenario. Effect sizes ranged from small to medium, with the strongest impact observed in SA and ambiguous decision-making. Brief decision-making training improved SA across both officer categories and enhanced team behavior in ambiguous scenarios for regular officers. These findings support the integration of scenario-based, cognitively focused training in police education to better prepare officers for complex operational environments.

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.

Empowering leaders delegate authority, grant autonomy, and assign responsibilities to individuals or teams. Drawing on empowerment theory and self-determination theory (SDT), the present study hypothesizes that daily empowering leadership is related to employee work engagement through (a) psychological empowerment, and (b) the satisfaction of basic psychological needs. We collected data among 86 Norwegian Navy cadets during a 30-day transatlantic voyage (response = 97%; n = 2022 observations). Consistent with hypotheses, results of multilevel mediation path analysis showed that daily leader autonomy support and development support were positively related to daily employee work engagement through psychological empowerment and satisfaction of the needs for autonomy, relatedness, and competence. Moreover, leaders’ autonomy-supportive behaviour was most strongly related to psychological empowerment (not need satisfaction) and indirectly to work engagement when development support was high (vs. low). We discuss how these findings support and contribute to empowering leadership literature, as well as the practical implications.

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.