Published works

This document forms Part two in a series of reports on decision making, team monitoring and organisational performance. It should be read in conjunction with:

• Decision making, team monitoring and organisational performance part one: executive summary
• Decision making, team monitoring and organisational performance part three: team performance monitoring research stream
• Decision making, team monitoring and organisational performance part four: organisational performance research stream.

All parts can be located at www.bnhcrc.com.au, under the Practical decision tools for improved decision-making in complex, time constrained and multi-team environments project page.

This research stream investigates strategic decision-making during emergency events.  It has a specific focus on how coordination occurs at regional and state levels of emergency management (EM), although does not exclude the interactions between these levels and the IMT.  The research will apply the following sequence:

1. To understand and interpret decision-making processes in emergency management in Australia and New Zealand (outlined in this report);

1. Identify opportunities to improve decision-making (outlined in this report) and,

1. To test heuristics (cognitive rules of thumb) and other strategies to improve decision making in controlled environments to assess their validity and reliability (future research activity).

To support these objectives, this section of the report is structured in the following way. First we examine the literature relevant to this specific ‘class’ of decisions made at Regional and State levels, noting that more than one type of decision-making process is applied. We then look at different decision models that are used in EM and critique them with respect to the literature.  We then explore some of the limitations of these models and identify the opportunities for enhancement. Finally, we propose a strategy for the next stage of the research project. We suggest using a human-centred design process and an assessment of end-user organisation’s maturity to appropriately tailor a tool to the organisation.  Embedded within the design process will be the testing protocol to assess validity and reliability of the tool.