Redundant Deliberation About Negative Consequences: Decision Inertia in Emergency Responders

Power, Nicola ORCID: 0000-0001-6196-1284 and Alison, Laurence ORCID: 0000-0003-2459-0976 (2017) Redundant Deliberation About Negative Consequences: Decision Inertia in Emergency Responders. PSYCHOLOGY PUBLIC POLICY AND LAW, 23 (2). pp. 243-258.

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/law0000114

Abstract

Major emergencies are high-stakes, ambiguous, dynamic, and stressful events. Emergency response commanders rely on their expertise and training to mitigate these factors and implement action. The Critical Decision Method was used to interview 31 commanders from the police (n = 12), fire and rescue (n = 15), and ambulance services (n = 4) in the United Kingdom about challenges to decision making. Transcripts were analyzed in 2 ways: (a) using thematic analyses to categorize the challenges to incident command and (b) grounded theory to develop a theoretical understanding of how challenges influenced decision processing. There were 9 core challenges to incident command, themed into 2 categories: (a) those relating to the perceived characteristics of the incident itself; and (b) those relating to uncertainties about (inter)personal dynamics of the team(s) responding. Consideration of challenges featured prominently in decision makers' prospective modeling, especially when thinking about goal accomplishment (i.e., What if I deploy now? What if I do not?). Commanders were motivated to save life (attack/approach goal), yet also sought to prevent harm (defend/avoid goal). Challenges led commanders to redundantly deliberate about what to do; their prospective modeling was related to the anticipation of potential negative consequences that might arise both for acting (attack) and not acting (defend). Commanders identified this difficult trade-off, yet described how experience and their responsibility as a commander gave them confidence to overcome decision inertia. Future research is needed to identify whether decision making training on how to anticipate and overcome difficult cognitive trade-offs would lead to more flexible and expedient commanding.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	decision inertia, redundant deliberation, anticipated consequences, prospective modeling, emergency services
Divisions:	Faculty of Health and Life Sciences Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of Management Faculty of Health and Life Sciences > Institute of Population Health
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	19 Jun 2023 08:58
Last Modified:	19 Jun 2023 08:58
DOI:	10.1037/law0000114
Open Access URL:	https://eprints.lancs.ac.uk/id/eprint/83139/2/PPP_...
Related URLs:	Author Publisher
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3171074