Team resource management training for fire service teams has become increasingly popular. However, the effectiveness of this training, adapted from the well-established crew resource management training for flight crews, has not yet been evaluated for this audience. Ninety-one firefighters participated in a Team Resource Management seminar (experimental and control group) and in platoon leader training for conducting After Action Reviews (experimental group only). The intervention was evaluated, and its impact on knowledge acquisition, attitude, and behavioural changes at three different measurement times was assessed. The seminar was perceived as enjoyable and useful and participants stated an increase in knowledge, which was supported by an objective knowledge test assessment. Both the knowledge increase and three positively changed attitudes remained stable over the following seven months. Positive behavioural changes toward Team Resource Management were found in the experimental group only. Overall, the intervention proved to be effective according to several criteria.
High Responsibility Teams (HRTs) tragen mit ihrem Handeln und dessen Konsequenzen eine hohe Verantwortung für das Leben und die Gesundheit von Menschen und für den Schutz der Umwelt. Ungeachtet dessen existieren für viele dieser HRTs, wie z.B. in der Polizei, der Feuerwehr oder der Anästhesie, keine wissenschaftlich fundierten Konzepte für eine nicht-technische Kompetenzentwicklung und -aufrechterhaltung, damit die Teammitglieder in den dynamischen und komplexen Situationen, denen sie oft ausgesetzt sind, zuverlässig und erfolgreich zusammen arbeiten können. Grosser Beliebtheit aber erfreuen sich in der Praxis die in der Aviatik sehr erfolgreich genutzten Crew Resource Management (CRM) Trainings, welche häufig wenig reflektiert für HRTs ausserhalb der Aviatik übernommen werden. In der vorliegenden Arbeit ist nun auf Basis eines Instruktionsdesignmodells ein Vorgehen entwickelt worden diese CRM Trainings systematisch und wissenschaftlich fundiert zu übertragen und für die unterschiedlichen HRTs nutzbar zu machen. Aufbauend auf den gewonnen Erkenntnissen wurde in einer anschliessenden Studie eine Debriefing-Intervention, ein so genanntes CRM-basiertes Seminar in Verbindung mit einem After Action Review, für Feuerwehrteams entwickelt und der Nutzen dieser Intervention umfassend wissenschaftlich fundiert evaluiert. Die gewonnenen Erkenntnisse können von Praktikern wirkungsvoll in ihren eigenen Organisationen genutzt werden. Zudem zeigen sich auch für interessierte Wissenschaftler zukünftige vielversprechende Forschungsgebiete auf.
This article examines power issues related to language diversity in organizations, thus answering the need to investigate the role of language in cross-cultural management. More specifically, it contributes to a better understanding of how intraorganizational power relations are (re)defined through language use. Building on insights from language-sensitive research in international business, the article suggests that a further conceptual development of power is needed to study multilingual organizations and their “politics.” Inspired by the writings of Michel Foucault, it aims at developing a differentiated notion of power that allows moving beyond possessive, competitive, and limitation-oriented understandings. It investigates power from a discursive perspective and thus suggests conceptualizing power as an effect of speaking acts. From this point of view, people contribute to the creation of power relations by adopting a multiplicity of subject positions when they talk about their and others’ experiences in multilingual organizations. These processes were empirically investigated by conducting a qualitative case study of a multinational company located in Switzerland. The findings show a variety of subject positions for members of multilingual organizations, ranging from “winners on the rhetorical battlefield” to “helpers paving unskilled speakers the way.” While being in the position of the “battle winner” means discursively constructing competitive power relations, being a “helper” entails the discursive construction of cooperation-oriented power relations. Adopting a discursive approach thus allows to move the focus from “having”/“not having” power and from conflicts to a broader perspective on power relations. Power is then considered as productive in a general sense, and this productivity might engender competition as well as cooperation.
