Situation Awareness (SA) is a construct that is considered important to safety in dynamic, risky, time-constrained and complex environments, such as military aviation, nuclear reactors and emergency management. Research consideration of SA is complicated by the fact that there is no clearly superior methodology for SA measurement. Typically, SA is considered at the individual level; however, the nature of the SA context often requires more than one individual for safe and effective operations. Team SA is a qualitatively different phenomenon than individual SA. Few models of team SA have been proposed. The primary purpose of this paper was to develop and test a model of team SA. Existing models of team SA were reviewed, an integrated model was put forth, and each of the models was tested. Additionally, the paper explored and compared several methods for quantitatively assessing SA. Results indicate that one measure of SA, SALIENT (Muniz et al, 1997) has the best measurement characteristics. Model testing revealed that all models put forth fit the data adequately, but the summation model yielded the best fit to the data. Implications and suggestions for future research were outlined.
This seminar will examine the design approaches possible with modern views of learning and the outcomes being achieved. It will speculate that new types of design dialogues are important if the products developed are to effectively combine the skills of both the educationalist and the technical expertise of other members of the development team. In the design process while most models focus on the learning task, with interactive environments it is how the user or learner will undertake the task with the tools and functionality built into the software that is more important for creating motivation and engagement. Consideration of the role of the learner as an actor in the interaction can be a useful organising framework for designing ncounters. ; Professor Hedberg is a Director of the Interactive Multimedia Learning Laboratory in the Faculty of Education at the University of Wollongong with primary responsibility for the Information Technology program within the Faculty. He has written and edited numerous books and articles in the area of instructional design, adult education and training, educational technology and policy implications of new technologies in education. He is currently the editor-in-chief elect for the journal Educational Media International. He has been involved as an instructional designer on many media and computer-based teaching materials, including Ask the Workers the first interactive videodisc designed to teach career education in Australian Schools. He was the executive producer for the Australia on CD project StageStruck: Theatre Interactive which won a number of multimedia awards including the 1998 Gold EMMA (European Multimedia Award) and the 1998 BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) Interactive Treatment award. Dr Hedberg consults in the area of training needs assessments, evaluation systems, instructional design and information technology. He has undertaken major contracts locally, with government departments and firms such as Digital Equipment Corporation, BHP, Commonwealth Bank, Optus, Telstra, Coopers and Lybrand, as well as several projects in the United States and Southeast and Northern Asia. He has been the principal consultant on several Web-based learning projects, including a training site for BHP, the development of an online postgraduate curriculum for the University of Wollongong, Faculty of Education with CUTSD funding and course designer for the Master of Education Program delivered over the Web into Hong Kong. ; published_or_final_version ; Centre for Information Technology in Education, University of Hong Kong
The concept of teamworking is the product of two distinct developments. One: a neo- Tayloristic form of organization of work, of which Toyota has shown that it can be very profitable, was packaged and reframed to make it acceptable to the Western public. Two: anti-Tayloristic ways of organizing work, inspired by ideals of organizational democracy, were relabeled to make these acceptable to profit-oriented managers. Drawing on empirical research in Scandinavia, Germany, The Netherlands and the UK, as well as on published case studies of Japanese companies, the paper develops a neo-Tayloristic and an anti-Tayloristic model of teamworking. Key concerns in the teamworking literature are intensification of work and the use of shop floor autonomy as a cosmetic or manipulative device. Indeed, all the features of neo-Tayloristic teamworking are geared towards the intensification of work. However, one of the intensification mechanisms, the removal of Tayloristic rigidities in the division of labor, applies to anti-Tayloristic teamworking as well. This poses a dilemma for employee representatives. In terms of autonomy, on the other hand, the difference between neo-Tayloristic and anti-Tayloristic teamworking is real. In anti-Tayloristic teamworking, there is no supervisor inside the team. The function of spokesperson rotates. All team members can participate in decision-making. Standardization is not relentlessly pursued; management accepts some measure of worker control. There is a tendency to alleviate technical discipline, e.g. to find alternatives for the assembly line. Buffers are used. Remuneration is based on proven skill level; there are no group bonuses. In contrast, in neo-Tayloristic teamworking, a permanent supervisor is present in the team as team leader. At most, only the team leader can participate in decision-making. Standardization is relentlessly pursued. Management prerogatives are nearly unlimited. Job designers treat technical discipline, e.g. short-cycled work on the assembly line, as unproblematic. There are no buffers. A substantial part of wages consists of individual bonuses based on assessments by supervisors on how deeply workers cooperate in the system. Group bonuses are also given. The instability and vulnerability of anti-Tayloristic teamworking imply that it can only develop and flourish when managers and employee representatives put determined effort into it. The opportunity structure for this contains both economic and political elements. In mass production, the economic success of Toyota, through skillful mediation by management gurus, makes the opportunity structure for anti-Tayloristic teamworking relatively unfavorable.
A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The number of women participating in intercollegiate athletics at four-year colleges and universities increased substantially between school years 1981-82 and 1998-99, while the number of men participating increased more modestly. The total number of women's teams increased by 3,784 teams, compared to an increase of 36 men's teams. In all, 963 schools added teams and 307 discontinued teams since 1992-93. The two factors cited most often as greatly influencing the decision to add or discontinue teams were the need to address student interest in particular sports and the need to meet gender equity goals and requirements. Schools that discontinued men's teams also found the need to reallocate the athletic budget to other sports. Colleges and universities that discontinued a team typically took three months or less between originating the proposal and making the final decision. Most schools informed members of the campus community of the possibility that the team would be discontinued, and most held meetings with campus groups before making the final decision. Most schools offered to help affected athletes transfer to other schools, and students receiving athletics-related financial aid continued to receive financial aid for at least some period after the team was disbanded. Schools that were able to add one or more teams without discontinuing others used various strategies to increase athletic program revenue and contain costs. Some schools relied on the institution's general fund, while others used private sources and athletic facility rental fees."
This paper examines the experiences of entry level hourly wage workers in a workplace shaped by the "excellence" movement. Their micro-level encounters with the "new work order" are set within the macro-level economic, political and cultural context that structures the work experience.
In September 2000, the Population Council launched a nine-month project to test the effectiveness of teams of "policy champions" to increase the utilization of operations research (OR) findings in reproductive health (RH) policy and programs in the Philippines. The team members, chosen from government, nongovernment, academic, and media institutions, received three days of orientation to become policy champions. The strategy was built upon evidence that local decision-makers in decentralized health systems often have little knowledge of RH, and rarely use research findings in their decision-making. The effort focused on using a research-tested community-based monitoring and information system to help providers identify and respond to unmet need for family planning. As noted in this brief, the approach of involving teams of mobilized policy champions proved effective at influencing program managers to use a research-tested information system for identifying clients with unmet need for family planning. This approach was adopted by regional and national organizations, which plan to expand use of the management tool.
In: Bonner, Gwen (2001) The concept of priority as it relates to a community mental health team. British Journal of Community Nursing, 6 (2). pp. 89-93. ISSN 1462-4753
This article illustrates how a concept clarification exercise can provide evidence to inform local policy development. Based on the framework developed in Walker and Avant's (1995) concept clarification theory, the concept of priority is examined in the context of a team of community mental health nurses. Themes of risk, multidisciplinary working, resources, and nursing role are identified as key areas for consideration, and the difficulties existing between government policy directives towards the severely mentally ill and health promotion are discussed. The article highlights how nursing theory can integrate the concept analysis of priority in planning client care. This is presented using Peplau's (1952) model as a guide to further enhance meaning of generated priorities to nursing practice.
A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Eight federal agencies now have teams that can respond to a terrorist attack involving chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear weapons. Each team varies in size, structure, geographical scope, and task. The teams do not duplicate one another. They have unique capabilities and functions, and many have experience dealing with different types of agents and weapons. The type of terrorist incident would determine which team would be most appropriate to respond. GAO found that federal agencies lack a coherent framework to develop and evaluate budget requirements for their response teams because there is no national strategy with clearly defined outcomes. To improve interagency cooperation, federal agencies have participated in several group activities. For example, the Weapons of Mass Destruction Interagency Steering Group, led by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, is identifying federal response teams that could respond to different terrorist scenarios. Federal, state, and local agencies have also participated in major field exercises that simulated urban terrorist acts. These efforts could go a long way toward improving the operational coordination of federal response teams."
A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In 1999, the Army announced its plans to transform its forces during the next 30 years to enable them to deploy more rapidly and operate more effectively during all types of military conflicts, from small-scale contingencies to major wars. The Army's goal is to be able to deploy a brigade anywhere in the world within 96 hours, a division within 120 hours, and five divisions within 30 days. The first step is to form and equip six interim brigade combat teams by 2008. Created to fill a gap in military capability, the teams are intended to be a lethal and survivable deterrent force that can be rapidly deployed around the world. The commanders in chief envision different uses for the teams according to the unique requirements of their respective regions. However, they generally agree that the teams should provide them with a broader choice of capabilities to meet their operational needs. The Army faces many challenges in assembling its first team. For example, some planned combat capabilities will not be present when the team is certified for deployment next year. In addition, the interim armored vehicle delivery schedule has compressed the time available for training. Army officials believe that the organization at Fort Lewis that was created to help assemble the brigades has been effective in dealing with day-to-day challenges. The Army is chronicling lessons learned in forming the teams, but this information is not readily available in a central source. As a result, the Army may be unaware of some best practices or may repeat mistakes in forming later teams."
A chapter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This report discusses the Drug Enforcement Administration's (DEA) Mobile Enforcement Team Program. GAO found that since the program was established in 1995, DEA has enhanced its management of the program and provided for greater headquarters oversight and monitoring. In implementing the program and carrying out deployments, the field division METs generally complied with some of the pertinent requirements and guidelines that GAO reviewed. However, some DEA headquarters files did not contain adequate documentation, GAO could not determine whether the METs consistently and adequately assessed the requesting local law enforcement agencies' abilities to address, on their own, the drug and related violence problems for which DEA's program assistance was requested. DEA expects the program to focus on specific, targeted gangs in the areas in which the METs are deployed and that deployments will generally continue until the targeted individuals are arrested and the targeted drug gangs have been disrupted or dismantled. Consistent with the nature and objectives of the program, investigators focused primarily on street-level drug dealers and were mostly local and regional in scope. DEA collects data on various performance measures to assess the results of individual deployments and the overall program. It reports internally and externally on program results for some of the performance measures. However, the measures have problems and limitations related primarily to the inconsistency in data collection."
Over the past year, the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) has sponsored a process improvement team to improve the way the department conducts NEPA environmental review processes. A primary focus of this effort has been to reduce the likelihood that decisions made during the process will be revisited or discarded later in the process, resulting in wasted time, money and effort. Prior to the reinvention approach, the formal NEPA environmental process was started after the project was in the design stage, and after the project's scope and budget had been set, and legislative commitments had been made on a preferred alternative. With support from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), a team of federal and state agencies has proposed a revised process that would begin the formal NEPA process earlier, during the planning stage of potential future projects. The other major change is getting commitments from dedicated permitting and regulatory agencies to assist in the early planning stages required by NEPA. By "moving NEPA back to the planning stage," WSDOT will better meet the intent of NEPA, which is to consider environmental impacts of projects in the planning stages to allow for improved project design with decreased impacts. The new process as defined allows resource and regulatory agencies to be involved in the decision making steps of NEPA, and we have defined formal "concurrence" steps that commit each agency to approval of the steps in NEPA, or to non-concur based on our agencies regulatory authority. In cases of nonconcurrence it allows major environmental issues to be addressed up-front rather than in the permit stages of the project when it is more expensive to re-design project elements. Major changes with the new process: • NEPA included in Planning: The revised process would begin the NEPA process at the planning stage, and end it at some point during design. Too often, work done during planning is ignored or redone when a project reaches the design stage. • Interdisciplinary Project Management Team: The revised process has an interdisciplinary team that includes members from planning, traffic, environmental and project development functions. • Agency Input: Permitting agencies have agreed to be part of the planning process, signing of on specific decision points to allow for "decisions that stick" rather than reconsidering issues at different stages of the process. • Decision Steps: The following decision steps are approved by the agencies or the project planning stops until resolution can be completed. Each agency with permitting jurisdiction over the projects must agree to the following critical steps, and once approved, can not go back and request document revisions on these particular issues: 1. Purpose and Need 2. Screening Criteria and Data Needed for Review of Alternatives 3. Alternatives to Review In the EIS 4. Preferred Alternative • Improved NEPA Documents: With agency and local government involvement, the major environmental concerns are identified earlier in the process, and better avoidance and minimization will result. This should assure faster permits in the end, since the agencies have been involved throughout. The Corps of Engineers, and Ecology will use the final EISs that are completed as our decision documents for permits. In the past, we often had to create our own EISs to meet our permitting requirements. • Better Public Input: The public is involved through the steering committees and in scoping and public outreach efforts. In the past, the public would be heavily involved in the planning process, then when the EIS was prepared and changes were made to meet environmental requirements, it appeared to the ICOET 2001 Proceedings 270 A Time for Action frustrated public that the planning process was being done twice. By combining these efforts, we are getting better public support of the process. Three pilot projects are being tested with the new process. Many other DOT projects are also following the revised way to do NEPA, and better coordination has resulted. The agencies are committed to the success of the process, and dedicated staff has been assigned to each project. Better planning is resulting.
Crucial to the success of the proposed Framework Convention on Tobacco Control will be an understanding of the political and economic context for tobacco control policies, particularly in low-income and middle-income countries. Policy studies in Thailand and Zimbabwe employed the analytical perspective of political economy and a research strategy that used political mapping, a technique for characterizing and evaluating the political environment surrounding a policy issue, and stakeholder analysis, which seeks to identify key actors and to determine their capacity to shape policy outcomes. These policy studies clearly revealed how tobacco control in low-income and middle-income countries is also being shaped by developments in the global and regional political economy. Hence efforts to strengthen national control policies need to be set within the context of globalization and the international context. Besides the transnational tobacco companies, international tobacco groups and foreign governments, international agencies and nongovernmental organizations are also playing influential roles. It cannot be assumed, therefore, that the tobacco control strategies being implemented in industrialized countries will be just as effective and appropriate when implemented in developing countries. There is an urgent need to expand the number of such tobacco policy studies, particularly in low-income and middle-income countries. Comprehensive guidelines for tobacco policy analysis and research are required to support this process, as is a broader international strategy to coordinate further tobacco policy research studies at country, regional and global levels.
