Decision-Making in Crisis Situations by Sauvagnargues Sophie;

Author:Sauvagnargues, Sophie;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated
Published: 2018-09-28T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter written by Noémie FRÉALLE, Florian TENA-CHOLLET and Sophie SAUVAGNARGUES.

1 Taken from the observations of crisis simulations carried out in the context of thesis research (Fréalle 2018).

5

How Can We Evaluate the Participants of a Crisis Management Training Exercise?

5.1. Introduction

Feedback provided on catastrophic events such as Fukushima (Japan, 2011) or AZF (France, 2001) highlighted the complexity of strategic decision-making in emergency situations. Besides, the recurrence of crises in the field of major hazards implies that managing organizations participate in crisis management training exercises in order to develop skills both at the individual and the collective level. The limitations of current training in terms of evaluation and debriefing have prompted us to conduct research on the development of a methodology for assessing and facilitating debriefing, called EVADE (EValuation and Assistance for DEbriefing). This methodology, developed following the observation of 39 exercises, is based on the creation of an educational toolkit that makes it possible to structure and formalize the assessment of skills required in a crisis unit. A total of 192 educational objectives, classified according to three levels of difficulty, make up the educational base frame that must be used by facilitators to structure not only technical expectations but also the organizational aspects necessary for the efficient functioning of a crisis unit during crisis management. Observation and assessment tools are set up to conduct real-time assessment of trainees during the simulation exercises in crisis management. What is more, they allow a dynamic assessment that, based on the follow-up of the educational objectives of the exercise, makes it possible to interactively adapt the scenario to the performance of trainees in real time.

Crisis management in the field of major risks depends on the strategic response offered by managing organizations. In fact, the crisis response procedure, commonly known as “crisis unit”, aims to implement anticipatory, vigilance and intervention measures (Lachtar 2012). Due to its suddenness, the appearance of a crisis makes decision-making complex and fills it with urgency and uncertainty (Crocq et al. 2009). In all cases, the situation requires decision-makers to provide strategic responses under stress (Dautun 2007). One of the main difficulties faced by these teams lies in the fact that they are ephemeral: because of the rarity of these events, these teams are only activated when a crisis actually takes place (Dautun and Lacroix 2013). The specificity of this top decision-making place, which is both structured and highly hierarchical, presents a serious risk, that of isolation, especially due to its remoteness from the terrain and its compartmentalization (Maisonneuve 2010). Given the complexity of the first moments of a crisis, it is essential for crisis managers to be better prepared to be surprised when confronted with unforeseen situations during training (Lagadec 2012). This training comprises the organization of exercises, making it possible to simulate a crisis situation and therefore to activate the crisis unit (Gaultier-Gaillard et al. 2012). It is through these scenarios that crisis managers will be able to gain experience, improve their level of expertise and teamwork-related skills (Sayegh et al. 2004; Heiderich 2010).

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