Safe operation of nuclear power plants is dependent on several different aspects, such as, training, interface design, procedures, as well as the operators’ collaboration and shared understanding of the situation. In the... [ view full abstract ]
Safe operation of nuclear power plants is dependent on several different aspects, such as, training, interface design, procedures, as well as the operators’ collaboration and shared understanding of the situation.
In the nuclear industry, individuals are collaborating in a complex environment in order to reach a common goal. Teamwork is generally regarded as a multi-dimensional concept where of two or more people interact dynamically, interdependently and adaptively. Teams need to hold special knowledge and skills, and they need to share goals, expectations, and vision. In dynamic work situations, the team must seek, collect, integrate, analyze and disseminate information from multiple sources under varying conditions, and integrate the information and their specialized knowledge to create and execute plans.
Teamwork can be distinguished from taskwork. Taskwork is the team members’ interaction with tasks, tools, machines and systems. In practice, teamwork and taskwork will often occur as interwoven parts of team activities. Current theory and empirical results point to the significance of leadership, team situation awareness, decision-making, communication, back-up behavior and support, workload and resource management for technical performance.
In a nuclear power plant control room, the shift supervisor holds the overall responsibility for the operational activity in the plant. The other crewmembers are monitoring, controlling and operating the plant - and are updating the shift supervisor on the current plant state.
A simulator study were the teams ran through unforeseen, challenging emergency scenarios, was analyzed qualitatively in order to reveal the role of team leadership to achieve adequate collaboration and team performance in challenging situations. Aspects that were looked into were inspired by current theory and empirical results, and the factors that were discovered as most influencing included the nature of leadership, coordination, adaptive problem solving, situation awareness and technical competence.
Keywords: Team leadership, collaboration, unforeseen emergencies, nuclear, simulator study
