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United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station General Technical Report RMRS-GTR-201 September 2007 Using Social Science to Understand and Improve Wildland Fire Organizations: An Annotated Reading List Abstract____________________________________ Larson, Gregory; Wright, Vita; Spaulding, Cade; Rossetto, Kelly; Rausch, Georgi; Richards, Andrea; Durnford, Stephanie. 2007. Using social science to understand and improve wildland fire organizations: an annotated reading list. Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-201. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. 82 p. The wildland fire community has spent the past decade trying to understand and account for the role of human factors in wildland fire organizations. Social research that is relevant to managing fire organizations can be found in disciplines such as social psychology, management, and communication. However, such research has been published primarily for scientific and business audiences, and much of the fire community has not been exposed to it. Here, we have compiled and organized knowledge from a variety of social science disciplines so that it can be used to improve organizational practices related to firefighter and public safety, to assess the effectiveness of safety campaigns, and to improve firefighter safety trainings. This annotated reading list summarizes approximately 270 books, articles, and online resources that address scientific and management concepts helpful for understanding the human side of fire management. The first section, Human Factors and Firefighting, introduces readers to key workshops and writings that led to the recognition that human factors are prime ingredients of firefighter safety. The second section, Foundations for Understanding Organizations, consists of social science research that provides a foundation for understanding organizational dynamics. This section includes readings on decision making and sensemaking, organizational culture, identification and identity, leadership and change, organizational learning, and teams and crews. The third section, Understanding Organizations in High Risk Contexts, explores organizations that deal regularly with risk, uncertainty and crisis. This section includes readings on risk and uncertainty, high reliability organizing, and crisis communication. The publication concludes with Internet resources available for those interested in the management of fire organizations. Keywords: firefighter safety, organizational effectiveness, leadership, decision making, high reliability organization Cover photo—Discussing tactics at Buck Mountain Fire, Detroit Ranger District, Siuslaw National Forest (August 1967). Photo by S. Frear. Courtesy U.S. Forest Service. Cover design by Suzanne Lingle Schwartz. You may order additional copies of this publication by sending your mailing information in label form through one of the following media. Please specify the publication title and series number. Fort Collins Service Center Telephone FAX E-mail Web site Mailing address (970) 498-1392 (970) 498-1122 rschneider@fs.fed.us http://www.fs.fed.us/rm/publications Publications Distribution Rocky Mountain Research Station 240 West Prospect Road Fort Collins, CO 80526 Rocky Mountain Research Station Natural Resources Research Center 2150 Centre Avenue, Building A Fort Collins, CO 80526 Using Social Science to Understand and Improve Wildland Fire Organizations: An Annotated Reading List Authors: Gregory Larson, Associate Professor Communication Studies, University of Montana Missoula, MT Vita Wright, Research Application Program Leader Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute, Missoula, MT Rocky Mountain Research Station U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service Cade Spaulding, Graduate Student Communication Studies, University of Montana Missoula, MT Kelly Rossetto, Graduate Student Communication Studies, University of Montana Missoula, MT Georgi Rausch, Graduate Student Communication Studies, University of Montana Missoula, MT Andrea Richards, Graduate Student Communication Studies, University of Montana Missoula, MT Stephanie Durnford, Graduate Student Communication Studies, University of Montana Missoula, MT United States Department of Agriculture / Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station General Technical Report RMRS-GTR-201 September 2007 Acknowledgments___________________ We thank Jim Saveland for conceiving of, and securing funding for, this project. We also appreciate Dave Thomas’ support from project initiation through completion, including his assistance in annotating approximately 20 books and articles. Both Jim and Dave suggested many readings that greatly improved the content of this list. Karl Weick, Dave Thomas, Mike DeGrosky, and Linda Langner provided in-depth reviews, ideas on organization, and suggested readings. We received additional helpful suggestions from the following individuals: Paul Chamberlin, Jim Cook, Jon Driessen, Don MacGregor, Dick Mangan, Jerry Pepper, Ted Putnam, and Larry Sutton. This project was funded by the USDA Forest Service National Fire Plan, USDA Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station, The University of Montana, and the Wildland Fire Lessons Learned Center. Author Bios________________________ Gregory Larson is Associate Professor in the University of Montana’s Department of Communication Studies. Greg obtained his Ph.D. at the University of Colorado in 2000; his research emphases include: organizational culture, communication technologies, and occupational identity. Greg has published in journals such as Communication Monographs, The Journal of Applied Communication Research, Management Communication Quarterly and Organizational Dynamics. He became interested in the management of wildland firefighting in 1994, while living in Colorado during the aftermath of the South Canyon fire. Vita Wright is Research Application Program Leader at the Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute, Rocky Mountain Research Station, USDA Forest Service. She obtained her Master’s degree in ecology in 1996, and has worked as a research application specialist since 1998. Currently working on her Ph.D. through the University of Montana, College of Forestry and Conservation, she is studying personal and organizational influences to the use of science by federal agency fire managers. Cade Spaulding, while authoring this publication, was a graduate student in communication studies at the University of Montana, Missoula. He obtained his Master’s degree in 2005 while studying the identity and identification among the Missoula Smokejumpers. He is currently working on his Ph.D. in communication at Texas A&M University, College Station. Kelly Rossetto, while authoring this publication, was a graduate student in communication studies at the University of Montana, Missoula. She obtained her Master’s degree in 2005 while studying parental comforting strategies, goals, and outcomes following the death of a child. She is currently working on her Ph.D. in communication at the University of Texas, Austin. Georgi Rausch, while authoring this publication, was a graduate student in communication studies at the University of Montana, Missoula. She obtained her Master’s degree in 2005 while studying identity in nonprofit arts organizations. She is currently working on her Ph.D. in communication at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City. Andrea Richards, while authoring this publication, was a graduate student in communication studies at the University of Montana, Missoula. She obtained her Master’s degree in 2006 while studying verbal negotiation in romantic relationships. She is currently working on her Ph.D. in communication at the University of Texas, Austin. Stephanie Durnford obtained her Master’s degree in communication studies from the University of Montana in 2005. ii Contents____________________________________ Preface...................................................................................................................v Introduction............................................................................................................1 Scope and Organization...........................................................................................................1 Intended Audiences..................................................................................................................2 Obtaining These Readings.......................................................................................................2 References...............................................................................................................................2 Annotated Reading List........................................................................................5 I. Human Factors and Firefighting: An Historical Perspective..........................7 II. Foundations for Understanding Organizations............................................13 A. Decision Making and Sensemaking...................................................................................13 1. How Do People Make Decisions?..............................................................................13 2. What is Sensemaking?..............................................................................................20 3. Sensemaking and Crisis............................................................................................20 B. Organizational Culture........................................................................................................22 1. What is Culture?.........................................................................................................22 2. How Do Cultures Impact Organizations?...................................................................23 C. Identification and Identity...................................................................................................24 1. What Are Identification and Identity?..........................................................................24 2. How Does Identification/ Identity Impact Organizations?...........................................25 D. Leadership and Change.....................................................................................................28 1. What is Leadership?..................................................................................................28 2. How Do Leaders Create/Manage Change?...............................................................32 3. What are the Challenges and Dilemmas of Leadership?...........................................37 E. Organizational Learning.....................................................................................................38 1. What is Organizational Learning?..............................................................................39 2. How are Learning Organizations Created?................................................................39 F. Team and Crew Dynamics..................................................................................................42 1. What are Teams/Crews?............................................................................................42 2. How Do Teams/Crews Work?....................................................................................43 3. How Do Managers Lead Teams/Crews?....................................................................44 III. Understanding Organizations in High Risk Contexts.................................47 A. Risk and Uncertainty..........................................................................................................47 1. How Does Society Define Risk?................................................................................47 2. How Do Disasters Evolve?.........................................................................................48 3. How Do Managers Deal With Risk/Uncertainty?........................................................51 B. High Reliability Organizing.................................................................................................55 1. What is High Reliability Organizing?..........................................................................55 2. What Can We Learn From High Reliability Organizations?.......................................58 iii C. Crisis Communication........................................................................................................61 1. What is Crisis Communication?.................................................................................61 2. What is Effective Crisis Communication?..................................................................63 IV. Internet Resources.........................................................................................67 A. Safety and Training............................................................................................................67 B. Research, Theory, and Management.................................................................................69 C. Blending Eastern and Western Notions of Mindfulness.....................................................71 Citation Index.......................................................................................................73 Keyword Index.....................................................................................................77 Appendix A. Author’s Picks: A Scaled-Down List of    Suggested Readings....................................................................................81 iv Preface_____________________________________ Reading as a Practice in Mindfulness The world of fire management and leadership is becoming increasingly complex. There are greater demands for improved safety performance, reduced suppression costs, increased fuel treatment targets, no escapes, and no mistakes. Plates are overflowing, while the fire manager’s time and attention are scarce resources in high demand. Why then should a wildland firefighter want to take precious time to read one of the papers or books cited in this bibliography? On the surface, these published social science documents might seem to be written for academics and government researchers, holding little interest for on-the-ground fire managers. So, the question—”Why take the time to read a social science document?” is fair, and we answer our own question with one word—mindfulness. To take the time to closely read a few of these books and articles that dwell on the human side of fire management (and to discuss them with a workmate) is to invite one to be more alert to the subtleties and nuances of the fire environment, where a mixture of weather, fuels, topography, and heat can combine with the most complex ingredient of all—the human being. In a recent paper, organizational psychologist, Karl Weick and firefighting human factors psychologist and researcher, Ted Putnam, discuss the distinctions between eastern mindfulness, western mindfulness, and western mindlessness (Weick and Putnam 2006). To be mindful, from a western perspective, they note, is to seek out novel distinctions and to be careful of a thinking process that fixates on single perspectives without awareness that “things could be otherwise”. To be mindless, from the western perspective, is to make sense of the world using old recipes, standard operating procedures, and routines that are often enacted on auto-pilot. Mindlessness increases the wildland fire manager’s chances of falling prey to serious unexpected events while he/she works within the always dangerous fire environment. Using the western definition provided by Weick and Putnam, we can make the case that reading is an acute act of mindfulness as useful to the firefighter as after action reviews, simulations, sand table exercises, tactical decision games, staff rides, or all the other assorted activities associated with becoming a better firefighter. Reading about new concepts can disrupt our routines and cause us to view the world in a totally different light; reading increases requisite variety and makes the work world more complex and nuanced, so there is little doubt that reading a few of the articles and books cited in this annotated bibliography will increase one’s mindfulness as a fire manager. High Reliability Organizing (HROs) uses the word “mindfulness”. Navy crewmen on aircraft carriers talk about “having the bubble”—the big picture of current operations, and as firefighters, we talk about the importance of “situational awareness” to firefighter safety. To have these capacities in high-tempo, high stress situations, we need to practice reflection skills as well as action skills to become better at “reflecting-in-action”, for “reflection-in-action” is closely related to “mindfulness”, “having the bubble”, and “situational awareness”. We practice action with simulations, tactical decision games, and sand table exercises. We practice reflection with after action reviews and staff rides, journaling, and reflective conversation (“dialogue”). Combining reflection and action is what a learning organization is all about. Reading can help us become more reflective. Ron Heifetz, one of the leading scholars on leadership, uses the metaphor of moving back and forth between the dance floor (where the action is) and getting on the balcony (where we can see and reflect on the big picture) (Heifetz and Laurie 1997). Taking a moment to read one of these articles is a form of getting on that “balcony” and pausing a moment to view the “dance floor” from a different angle with a fresh perspective. Through reading articles and books such as those included in this reading list, one will enter what Mary Catherine Bateson (Bateson 2004) calls “the fellowship of lifelong learners”, or, to paraphrase the words of former Zig Zag Hotshot Superintendent Paul Gleason, one will take a giant step toward becoming a lifelong “student of [the human side of] fire”. The articles and books listed here are a distillation of hundreds of possible entries that could have been included. They were selected by students, professors, on the ground fire practitioners, and federal researchers as excellent jumping off points for fire managers who want to become more knowledgeable about fire and the social sciences and more mindful about how human beings interconnect to make sense of the fire environment. v Our philosophy of reading—why professionals in all walks of forest fire management can sharpen their leadership abilities through reading—parallels the “Professional Reading Program” described by the Wildland Fire Leadership Program at the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho: “This [reading] is not busy work; this is not drudgery. These readings will provoke reflection, discussion, and debate. The selected titles have been chosen for their intrinsic excitement as well as their content. Many of the books will be hard to put down. Let this be your roadmap to an enjoyable and rewarding reading program” (Wildland Fire Leadership Development Program 2005). Here’s to a successful lifetime of reading with the goal of becoming a more mindful fire manager. Dr. Jim Saveland duBois Center for Individual & Organizational Effectiveness Rocky Mountain Research Station Fort Collins, Colorado Dave Thomas Former member NWCG Social Science Task Group Renoveling Ogden, Utah References Bateson, Mary Catherine. 2004. Willing to learn: passages of personal discovery. Steerforth Press. Hanover, New Hampshire. 384 p. Heifetz, Ronald A.; Laurie, Donald L. 1997. The work of leadership. Harvard Business Review. January: 124-134. Wildland Fire Leadership Development Program. 2005. Wildland fire book on books. National Wildfire Coordinating Group. Boise, ID. Available: http://www.fireleadership.gov/toolbox/documents/pro_reading_room.htm. Weick, Karl; Putnam, Ted. 2006. Organizing for mindfulness: Eastern wisdom and Western knowledge. Journal of Management Inquiry 15(3): 275-287. vi Introduction T he wildland fire community has spent the past decade trying to understand and account for the role of human factors in wildland fire organizations. The first Wildland Firefighters Human Factors Workshop marked an important step in bringing social scientists and firefighters together to work on common problems related to firefighter safety. Efforts to understand how human factors apply to fire management and firefighter safety have been documented in the 1995 Wildland Firefighters Human Factors Workshop proceedings (Putnam 1995); Tridata studies (1996a, 1996b, 1998); Karl Weick’s assessment of the Mann Gulch (Weick 1993) and Dude (Weick 2002) fires; the first Managing the Unexpected Workshop (Keller 2004); and the 2005 Wildland Firefighter Safety Summit proceedings (Butler and Alexander 2005). Each of these efforts recognized that firefighters and fire managers face a broad array of mental, communication and management challenges. We hope firefighters and managers will find additional insight into how to address some of these challenges by accessing some the readings annotated in this list. The reading list is based on input from members of the fire community, the “human factors” work that has been done since South Canyon, and management-oriented literature on the social aspects of communication. A significant amount of social science research relevant to the management of firefighters and firefighter safety has been conducted in disciplines such as psychology, sociology, management, and communication. This literature has been published primarily for scientific and business audiences, and much of the firefighting community has not seen it. Here, we have compiled and organized knowledge from the social sciences so that it can be used to manage organizational culture and practices related to firefighter and public safety, assess the effectiveness of firefighter safety campaigns, and improve firefighter safety trainings. More specifically, we have compiled literature on decision making and sensemaking, organizational culture and identity, leadership and change, organizational learning, and team and crew dynamics that may be helpful for understanding influences to individual behavior within an organizational setting. We have grouped the readings into topics so that readers can gain an initial familiarity with pertinent concepts through topical section summaries, and then add depth to existing knowledge through specific article annotations. A key challenge within the fire management community is making this type of knowledge available for use at all levels in the fire organization. Through this reading list, we have attempted to increase access to, and understanding of, concepts that will be helpful to safely meeting fire management objectives. The next step, and a more challenging one, USDA Forest Service RMRS-GTR-201. 2007 will be for readers to draw lessons from this literature that can help them prepare for and manage problems they encounter. In the shadow of past successes and tragedies, we acknowledge the difficult and essential work fire mangers do on a daily basis. We hope this will be a useful resource to the fire management and firefighting community. Scope and Organization The references included in this volume represent a diverse collection of classic and contemporary social science research related to managing organizations. Although not comprehensive, this collection provides a starting point to explore key issues related to management. Readers will primarily find two types of readings: 1) books, written with practitioners in mind, which tend to summarize and tie together research programs (such as Weick and Sutcliffe’s “Managing the Unexpected”) and 2) academic journal articles that report original research. These journal articles tend to focus more on specific issues than the books. They also form the foundations for organizational science. Since the goal of this volume is to increase awareness of potentially useful social science on organizational management, it does not include well known and highly recommended fire books such as Norman Maclean’s “Young Men and Fire” or and Stephen Pyne’s “Fire in America”. The sources selected for inclusion provide insight into key organizational research that will, hopefully, help firefighters and fire managers figure out new methods of dealing with both routine aspects of their everyday work life and the rarer and more complex fire situations in which they often find themselves. The bibliography that follows is organized into three main sections: • Human Factors and Firefighting • Foundations for Understanding Organizations • Understanding Organizations in High Risk Contexts The first section, Human Factors and Firefighting, makes the case that “human factors” research, and social science research in general, are important tools for developing a complete understanding of firefighter safety. This section introduces readers to key work done in this area since the South Canyon Fire in 1994. The second section, Foundations for Understanding Organizations, focuses on research that provides a solid foundation for understanding organizational dynamics. In this section, we focus on key topics including decision 1 making and sensemaking, organizational culture, identification and identity, leadership and change, organizational learning, and teams and crews. The third section, Understanding Organizations in High Risk Contexts, explores issues related directly to organizations that deal regularly with risk, uncertainty, and crisis. This section includes sub-sections on risk/uncertainty, high reliability organizing and crisis communication. The second and third major sections are divided into topics. In each major section, and for each topic, there is a brief summary of the literature in that section, followed by an annotated list of readings. The annotations highlight relevant points and enable readers to determine whether the specific article or book is likely to be helpful for meeting their reading goals. While annotations were written to reflect the original authors’ content, we have often used the last sentence to comment on the relevance of the article to this reading list. The reading list concludes with a section that reviews some of the Internet resources available for readers who are interested in fire safety, leadership, and communication. Intended Audiences This annotated reading list is intended to serve those in the fire community who are interested in learning more about how the social sciences can be used to identify and solve diverse fire management and communication problems. This includes fire agency managers, trainers, incident commanders, firefighters, line officers, and others working to assess or improve firefighter safety. For those who have read widely in the organizational literature, we hope this volume will provide additional resources of interest. Such readers may find the added depth and understanding they seek by reading journal articles that report on original research findings. For those readers without a broad background in the management research literature, this volume provides many resources with practical applications for your use. Such readers may want to pay particular attention to the suggested readings listed in Appendix A and shown as “Author’s Picks” throughout the document. For ease of use, we: • Divided the readings into the three main sections previously listed. • Summarized each of the main sections and topic areas. • In Appendix A, identified a scaled-down list of books/ articles that readers can use to quickly gain familiarity in each topic area. These readings are shown as “Author’s Picks” throughout the document. Obtaining These Readings We recognize that it may be difficult for those in the field to obtain many of the readings included in this publication. 2 Where electronic access is possible, we have included online addresses in the citations and/or posted articles to the Wildland Fire Lessons Learned Center Library (http://www. wildfirelessons.net/Library.aspx). For those with access to local public or University libraries, it is also possible to obtain books and articles through interlibrary loan programs. For those who work in more remote locations, there are several government resources that provide document delivery (free to Federal employees in the United States). A current list of these resources can be found on the Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute’s website (http://leopold.wilderness.net/library.htm). They include: • Bureau of Land Management Library (http://www.blm. gov/nstc/library/library.html) • National Agricultural Library (http://www.nal.usda.gov/ services/request.shtml) • National Forest Service Library (http://fsweb.wo.fs.fed. us/library) • National Park Service Library (http://library.nps.gov) • USDA Digital Desktop Library (http://www.nal.usda. gov/digitop) • USDA FS Research Publications (http://www. treesearch.fs.fed.us) • USDOI Library (http://library.doi.gov/ill.html) • U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Conservation Library (http://library.fws.gov) References Butler, Bret W. and Alexander, Martin E., eds. 2005. Eighth international wildland firefighter safety summit: human factors—10 years later. April 26-28, 2005; Missoula, MT. Hot Springs, SD: The International Association of Wildland Fire. Available: http://www.iawfonline.org/ summit [July 6, 2007]. Keller, Paul, technical writer-editor. 2004. Managing the unexpected in prescribed fire and fire use operations: a workshop on the high reliability organization. Santa Fe, New Mexico, May 10-13, 2004. Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-137. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. 73 p. Available: http://www.wildfirelessons.net/ HRO.aspx [July 6, 2007]. Putnam, Ted. 1995. Findings from the wildland firefighters human factors workshop. Improving wildland firefighter performance under stressful, risky conditions: Toward better decisions on the fireline and more resilient organizations. 12-16 June 1995; Missoula, MT. Missoula, MT: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Missoula Technology and Development Center. Available: http://fsweb.mtdc.wo.fs.fed.us [July 6, 2007]. USDA Forest Service RMRS-GTR-201. 2007 TriData. 1996a. Wildland firefighter safety awareness study: Phase 1—Identifying the organizational culture, leadership, human factors, and other issues impacting firefighter safety. Arlington, VA: TriData. 202 p. plus appendices. TriData. 1996b. Wildland firefighter safety awareness study: Phase 2—Setting new goals for the organizational culture, leadership, human factors, and other areas impacting firefighter safety. Arlington, VA: TriData. 146 p. TriData. 1998. Wildland firefighter safety awareness study: Phase 3—Implementing cultural changes for safety. Arlington, VA: Tridata. Weick, Karl E. 1993. The collapse of sensemaking in organizations: the Mann Gulch disaster. Administrative Science Quarterly. 38(4): 628-652. Weick, Karl E. 2002. Human factors in fire behavior analysis: reconstructing the Dude Fire. Fire Management Today. 62(4): 8-15. USDA Forest Service RMRS-GTR-201. 2007 3 4 USDA Forest Service RMRS-GTR-201. 2007 Annotated Reading List USDA Forest Service RMRS-GTR-201. 2007 5 6 USDA Forest Service RMRS-GTR-201. 2007 I. Human Factors and Firefighting: An Historical Perspective T he advent of human factors as an element of research in forest firefighting operations may be one of the most critical junctures in the study of firefighters and forest fire management. Most of the following articles on human factors were written by members of the fire community. This section cites key papers that led to the recognition that human factors are prime ingredients of firefighter safety. It addresses firefighter fatalities within the United States and provides practical advice from field practitioners and research scientists dealing specifically with human factors issues of firefighter safety. Atwood, George. 1996. Attitude of wisdom: the experience component in wildland firefighter decisions. Wildfire. 5(3). Annotation: Atwood notes that while managers must adopt a passion for safety, the true test is on the fire line. Supervisors are in charge of making decisions that ultimately put safety first. Atwood argues that improvement will not come from the top down, or the outside in, and that firefighting experience is the most critical factor in safe and effective decision making. The more experience that individuals have fighting fires, the more capable they will be at making faster and safer decisions. Fire fighting experience and commitment to safety will help create a culture in the fire fighting organization that will lead to intuitively safe decision making strategies. Keywords: decision making, safety, firefighter safety Braun, Curt C. 1995. Addressing the common behavioral element in accidents and incidents. In: Putnam, Ted, project leader. Findings from the wildland firefighters human factors workshop. Improving wildland firefighter performance under stressful, risky conditions: toward better decisions on the fireline and more resilient organizations. June 12-16, 1995; Missoula, MT. Missoula, MT: USDA Forest Service, Fire and Aviation Management: 28-30. Annotation: Burning fires are a relatively constant threat to human safety. Human behavior is the critical variable in reducing the likelihood of accidents. Braun suggests five ways to address human behavior: 1) look at the entire system of events that contribute to accidents rather than restricting the scope of investigation exclusively to the immediate causes; 2) focus on frequency and look at not only reported accidents, but also “near-miss” cases; 3) evaluate current training and management techniques; 4) determine what behaviors are being reinforced formally as well as informally; USDA Forest Service RMRS-GTR-201. 2007 and 5) establish remediation plans. Thus, in making final evaluations of accident situations and training, it is important that managers look at the entire system of behaviors contributing to the condition rather than viewing the situation in isolation. Keywords: risk, accidents, behavior, systems thinking Butler, Bret W. and Alexander, Martin E., eds. 2005. Eighth international wildland firefighter safety summit: human factors—10 Years Later. April 26-28, 2005; Missoula, MT. Hot Springs, SD: The International Association of Wildland Fire. Available: http://www.iawfonline.org/summit [July 6, 2007]. Annotation: The 8th International Wildlife Safety Summit continued efforts aimed at improving wildland firefighter safety by focusing on human and social factors. The summit explored a number of issues related to wildland fire safety, and the proceedings included a workshop organized around the theme “Human Factors Ten Years Later”. The summit featured 28 oral presentations, six verbal presentations, and 19 poster presentations addressing a number of topics related to wildland firefighting including human factors, culture, leadership, physiological and sociological issues, legal implications, and tools and technology. Keywords: firefighter safety, human factors Gleason, Paul. 1991. Lookouts, communication, escape routes, safety zones. Unpublished presentation. Available: http://www.myfirecommunity.net/documents/1991_LCES_ Paul_Gleason.pdf [July 6, 2007]. Annotation: In a presentation to the USDA Forest Service’s national Fire and Aviation Staff, Gleason provides a clear overview of his proposed Lookouts, Communication, Escape Routes, Safety Zones (LCES) method of training firefighters for greater safety. After defining LCES, he discusses how it should be implemented on the ground. He emphasizes the importance of lookouts, span of leadership control, safety zones on downhill and indirect fire lines, floating divisions, and wildland/urban interference. He cites ignorance, casualness, and distraction as the primary causes of firefighter accidents. Supervisors must ensure that basic fire behavior and suppression skills are learned and reviewed, that shelters are not used as a safety net to justify unwise behavior, and that firefighters on the fire line monitor one another and keep communication lines open. Keywords: LCES, training, decision making 7 Keller, Paul, technical writer-editor. 2004. Managing the unexpected in prescribed fire and fire use operations: a workshop on the high reliability organization. Santa Fe, New Mexico, May 10-13, 2004. Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-137. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. 73 p. Available: http://www.wildfirelessons.net/ HRO.aspx [July 6, 2007]. Annotation: Keller’s report summarizes the 4-day Managing the Unexpected Workshop held in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on May 10-13, 2004. This workshop focused on how to apply high reliability organizing concepts and how to overcome personal immunities to change within the prescribed fire and wildland fire use communities. A central activity of the workshop was a “staff ride,” where attendees learned about the Cerro Grande prescribed fire, which escaped and burned into Los Alamos, NM, in May 2000. The staff ride allowed participants to gain insights into the application of the high reliability organizing concepts that contribute to mindfulness and ultimately enhance the capability to discover and manage unexpected events. These concepts, drawing from Weick and Sutcliffe’s book, “Managing the Unexpected,” include a preoccupation with failure, reluctance to simplify, sensitivity to operations, commitment to resilience, and deference to expertise (see Weick and Sutcliffe 2007 in Section III.B.2.). Participants were immersed in these concepts in order to learn how to integrate them into their future work at both the local and national levels. Keywords: high reliability organization, organizational learning, sensemaking, Cerro Grande Mangan, Richard. 1999. Wildland fire fatalities in the United States: 1990-1998. Tech. Rep. 9951-2808-MTDC. Missoula, MT: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Missoula Technology and Development Program. 17 p. Available: http://www.fs.fed.us/t-d/pubs [July 6, 2007]. Annotation: While reports on specific fatalities and fire entrapments are prepared annually, such information is typically presented without interpretations or recommendations. This summary of fire fatalities reexamines the annual report data and offers specific recommendations for improving safety and reducing fatalities. Mangan’s summary notes that burnovers make up less than 20 percent of the total causes of fatalities on fires. Other sources of fatalities include aircraft accidents, heart attacks, vehicle accidents, falling snags, and other miscellaneous causes. Managers can reduce the risk of fatalities by encouraging individual responsibility, maintaining good physical fitness, ensuring continued fire behavior training, improving fire fighting strategies and tactics, and using protective clothing and equipment. Keywords: firefighter safety 8 Mangan, Richard. 2002. Injuries, illnesses, and fatalities among wildland firefighters. Fire Management Today. 62(3): 36-40. Annotation: Mangan discusses some of the physical and environmental demands placed on firefighters that contribute to injuries, illnesses, and fatalities. He makes recommendations about clothing, hydration, diet, sleep, and physical/ emotional stress in order to reduce many of the potential health risks common to the firefighting profession. Keywords: health, injury, stress OSHA. 1995. Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s investigation of the South Canyon fire, February 8, 1995. Washington, DC: U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration. 9 p. Annotation: On July 7, 1994, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) began a formal and independent investigation into the health and safety factors leading to the deaths of one Bureau of Land Management and 13 Forest Service firefighters during the South Canyon Fire of 1994. This investigation reviews events leading to the tragedy, makes recommendations, and cites nine unsafe conditions or practices that contributed to the tragic deaths of these workers, including such things as the identity of the Incident Commander, inadequate safety zones, escape routes, weather forecasts, fire lookouts, downhill fireline construction, and various management failures. Keywords: firefighter safety, South Canyon, OSHA Putnam, Ted. 1995a. Findings from the Wildland Firefighters Human Factors Workshop. Improving wildland firefighter performance under stressful, risky conditions: Toward better decisions on the fireline and more resilient organizations. June 12-16, 1995; Missoula, MT. Missoula, MT: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Missoula Technology and Development Center. Available: http://fsweb.mtdc.wo.fs.fed.us [July 6, 2007]. Annotation: The 1994 fire season, when 34 people died, was the catalyst for this 5-day workshop, where firefighters, safety managers, psychologists, and sociologists discussed the role of human factors in firefighter safety. Workshop participants examined firefighters, firefighter crews, fire management, fire culture, and fire communities with the goal of creating a more resilient organization for firefighter safety. The workshop began with four keynote speakers (Kurt Braun, David Hart, Gary Klein, and Karl Weick) who discussed human behavior, recognition-primed decision strategies, cultural attitudes, and insights from high reliability organizations (HROs) pertinent to improving communication, leadership, group structure, and sensemaking, which in turn can decrease stress and the chance of catastrophic errors. Participants took a field trip to Mann Gulch, where they discussed, from a psychological perspective, how and why 13 firefighters died there. The final 2 days of the workshop were spent exploring solutions and developing long-term and short-term recommendations. This publication summarizes USDA Forest Service RMRS-GTR-201. 2007 the workshop discussion. It covers four main topics: 1) reorganization strategies for fire agencies based on HRO’s; 2) fire management Incident Management Team (IMT) and fire crew reorganization using crew resource management as a model; 3) better assessment and feedback, and 4) future organizational studies, changes, and training that could improve safety. It includes suggestions related to fire organizational culture, situational awareness, mission analysis, decision making, communication, leadership and cohesion, adaptability/flexibility, assertiveness, and assessment and feedback. The author notes that the workshop was a “first step in what will be a long journey toward a better understanding of the human side of wildland firefighting”. Keywords: human factors, high reliability organizing, crew resource management, situational awareness Putnam, Ted. 1995b. Analysis of escape efforts and personal protective equipment on the South Canyon Fire. Wildfire Magazine. 4(3): 42-47. Annotation: This article is a detailed reconstruction of firefighter behavior and personal protective equipment use on the South Canyon Fire. Putnam reveals two failures that contributed to the deaths of 14 firefighters. First, many firefighters held onto their tools and packs during the escape effort. This slowed them down and prevented many of the firefighters from escaping. Second, fire shelters were improperly deployed, lost after deployment due to turbulent wind conditions and hot gasses preceding the flames, or not deployed at all. Putnam makes several recommendations to prevent these conditions from recurring on future fires. First, firefighters must be trained in such a way as to resist the urge to carry tools when running from a life threatening fire. They must also be trained in proper shelter storage, deployment, and use through mandatory fire shelter training courses and mandatory refresher training courses. Keywords: South Canyon, fire shelters, tools Putnam, Ted. 1995c. The collapse of decision making and organizational structure on Storm King Mountain. Wildfire 4(2): 40-45. Annotation: Putnam notes that the need for a serious examination of psychological and sociological factors related to firefighter safety under stressful and risky conditions is long overdue. After looking at the typical firefighter’s decision making process under normal conditions and then examining another model under stressful and risky conditions, he examines the collapse of team cohesion, leadership, and decision making in the South Canyon Fire of 1994. He states that the 10 Standard Fire Orders, 18 Watchout Situations, and nine Downhill/Indirect Line Construction Guidelines may contribute to an information overload for firefighters on the job and should be reduced. Fire managers need to be more aware of current research on group cohesion, leadership, and individual decision making prior to sending firefighters USDA Forest Service RMRS-GTR-201. 2007 into dangerous situations. In addition, Putnam argues that current methods of training firefighters are inadequate for the stresses of actual fire fighting because they focus too much on how to avoid entrapments and too little on how to behave when they are entrapped. Training must focus more on escape, shelter deployment, and decision making under stress with an emphasis on current psychological and social science research to avoid future entrapment fatalities. Keywords: human factors, decision making, leadership, South Canyon, Storm King Saveland, J.M. 2005. Integral leadership and signal detection for high reliability organizing and learning. In: Butler, Bret W.; Alexander, Martin E., eds. 2005. Eighth International Wildland Firefighter Safety Summit: Human Factors—10 Years Later. April 26-28, 2005; Missoula, MT. Hot Springs, SD: The International Association of Wildland Fire. Annotation: Saveland’s analysis shows that, from 1933 to 2003, the average number of fire entrapment fatalities has not decreased, but has stayed at about 4.6 deaths per year. In order to lower that statistic and make “significant advances” in the prevention of future fatalities, Saveland suggests using the concept of signal detection theory and developing leaders who possess the personal humility and professional will to face adaptive challenges. Signal detection theory allows the analysis of critical fire safety issues and fatalities to be viewed as hits, false alarms, misses or correct rejections. Currently, most fatality investigation reports are viewed only in a simplistic, cause and effect manner, usually screened through such templates as the Ten Standard Firefighting Orders or the Eighteen Watch-out Situations. The nuances that actually cause a specific fatality or accident are lost by using such a black and white approach. Saveland demonstrates how signal detection theory nicely fits within the theoretical frameworks of other sensemaking concepts such as the learning organization and high reliability organizing. Saveland concludes this paper with a thorough discussion of various styles of adaptive leadership, including the leadership research of Ronald Heifetz (see Heifetz 1994 in Section II.D.1.), Daniel Goleman (see Goleman 2000 in Section II.E.2.; Goleman and others 2002 in Section II.D.1.), and Ken Wilber (see Wilber 2000 in Section III.E.2). To make a “quantum leap” in lowering firefighter fatalities, leaders must create an organizational climate “where the truth is heard and the brutal facts confronted”. In the last section of this paper, Saveland lists some “next steps,” including using signal detection theory in After Action Reviews, benchmarking the Marine Corp Warrior Project, moving the arts into safety analysis, and developing organizational policies that facilitate forgiveness and grace. Keywords: signal detection theory, high reliability organizing, leadership, firefighter safety 9 Saveland, J. 1995. Creating a passion for safety vs. management oversight & inspection. Wildfire. 4(3): 38-41. Annotation: In this hard-hitting paper, Saveland takes issue with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) report prepared after the South Canyon fire (OSHA 1995). He states that “the report will not help prevent future loss of life,” and that the report is, in fact, a quick fix (single-loop learning) that will not create a climate where employees have a renewed passion for safety. Saveland uses the concepts of organizational learning, especially systems thinking, to develop his critique of the OSHA report. He notes that the highest quality behavioral changes occur in employees after an accident happens, when the process of change comes from the inside-out, where the employee is allowed freedom to respond to the information produced by an accident and adjust his/her behavior accordingly. Instead, Saveland states that the OSHA report was from outside-in, that the report blamed the firefighters at South Canyon for the fatalities, and argues that this top-down blaming approach is seriously flawed. He also demonstrates how the casual factor and the nine unsafe conditions or practices analyses that were used in the OSHA report removed individual responsibility and replaced it with a blame-based patriarchal system that would only make matters worse. Saveland’s method of improving this blame-based organizational culture is to start looking outside of the box, into such areas as sensemaking (see Weick 1993 in this section), how we can become highly skilled at being incompetent (see Argyris 1990 in Section II.E.1.), to study creative decision making that is value focused, and to more fully understand the power of conversational dialogue as a valid method to comprehend these complex problems (see Isaacs 1993 in Section II.A.2.). Saveland ends his paper by noting: “You can’t mandate a passion for safety, it must come from the heart”. Only individual responsibility created in organizations that welcome “self-responsible actions” will cause a true passion for safety. Keywords: South Canyon, OSHA, firefighter safety, systems thinking Thackaberry, J. A. 2005. Wisdom in the Lessons Learned Library: work ethics and firefighter identities in the Fire Orders. In: Butler, Bret W. and Alexander, Martin E., eds. 2005. Eighth International Wildland Firefighter Safety Summit: Human Factors—10 Years Later. April 26-28, 2005; Missoula, MT. Hot Springs, SD: The International Association of Wildland Fire. Annotation: Based on fire accident investigation reports and the Standard Fire Orders, Thackaberry used ethical theory to investigate how various “work ethics” embedded in the reports were signals that the Fire Orders were changing based on changing ethical stances in the fire community. She believes the documents housed in such depositories are not only cause and effect analyses of what went wrong on fatal forest fires, but also contain texts that carry a moral force which is often contradictory. Her study was designed 10 to “uncover the operative ethics that have justified the Fire Orders at different points in time”. She uses the Blackwater Canyon in Idaho, Ludlow fire in Mississippi, South Canyon fire in Colorado, and Cramer fire in Idaho, among others, as case studies to test her ethical theory. She discussed three types of ethical systems: the duty ethic, the ethic of virtue, and the utilitarian ethic. Under the duty ethic, a firefighter can be fairly certain of what is “right” and what is “wrong”. However, with the ethic of virtue, it is nearly impossible to ascertain the logic of each situation and one must depend on the decision maker to do that. The utilitarian ethic highlights the consequences of an action as only being good or bad if its outcomes are seen as good or bad. In the 1930s, before the Fire Orders were issued, fire operations probably worked under the virtue ethic, where firefighters modeled their job behaviors on exemplary role models. In the late 1950s, when the Fire Orders were first developed, the virtue ethic started evolving into a duty ethic where the Fire Orders were viewed more as military commands than as generalized ways of thinking about fires. The fire reports from the 1980s and 1990s are viewed by Thackaberry as fully shifting to a duty ethic posture where the Fire Orders should never be bent. In the 1990s, the Fire Orders began drifting back to a virtue ethic. She discusses veteran firefighter John Krebs’ “back to basics” reordering of the Fire Orders, suggesting the reordering is representative of the virtue ethic for firefighting organizations. Thackaberry finishes with the proposition that these historic texts, if retooled from a humanistic standpoint, might be used as exemplars for high reliability organizations. Keywords: Standard Fire Orders, ethics, communication, South Canyon, systems thinking TriData. 1996a. Wildland firefighter safety awareness study: Phase 1—identifying the organizational culture, leadership, human factors, and other issues impacting firefighter safety. Arlington, VA: TriData. 202 p. plus appendices. Annotation: Following the tragic deaths of 14 firefighters in the 1994 South Canyon fire, the USDA Forest Service commissioned the TriData Corporation to investigate the effects of culture, leadership, and human factors on wilderness firefighter safety. Phase I is the first of three detailed reports delivered to the Forest Service. This study is built on information gleaned from personal interviews, focus group sessions, and survey responses of over 1,000 participating wilderness firefighters across the nation. Phase I defines the problem of firefighter safety, as expressed by firefighters themselves. It focuses on six major areas: strengths of the organization, organizational culture, leadership and accountability, human psychological factors, external influences, and prioritizing the responses. The study reinforces the idea that human factors have a large impact on firefighter safety. Keywords: firefighter safety, human factors, leadership, culture USDA Forest Service RMRS-GTR-201. 2007 TriData. 1996b. Wildland firefighter safety awareness study: Phase 2—setting new goals for the organizational culture, leadership, human factors, and other areas impacting firefighter safety. Arlington, VA: TriData. 146 p. Annotation: Following the tragic deaths of 14 firefighters in the 1994 South Canyon fire, the USDA Forest Service commissioned the TriData Corporation to investigate the effects of culture, leadership, and human factors on wilderness firefighter safety. Phase I is annotated in this bibliography. Phase II is the second of three detailed reports delivered to the Forest Service. In order to promote safety, it lays out a plan for creating the “organizational culture of the future”. The first of nine chapters is an introduction to the organization and scope of the report. Chapter 2 explains the methodology and statistics used for the report, and Chapter 3 discusses the highest and lowest rated solutions that resulted from Phase I of the study. The next four chapters are organized by content area and discuss the research teams’ findings regarding: organizational culture, leadership and fire management, human and psychological factors, and external influences on safety. Chapter 8 provides a summary of the report and implications for future research. Finally, Chapter 9 explains how to evaluate and measure safety levels both globally and intermediately. The report contains many tables and figures to illustrate the concepts discussed. Keywords: firefighter safety, human factors, leadership, culture, firefighter safety TriData. 1998. Wildland firefighter safety awareness study: Phase 3—implementing cultural changes for safety. Arlington, VA: Tridata. Annotation: Following the deaths of 14 firefighters in the 1994 South Canyon fire, the USDA Forest Service commissioned the TriData Corporation to investigate the effects of culture, leadership, and human factors on wilderness firefighter safety. The TriData study is built on the information taken from personal interviews, focus group sessions, and survey responses of over 1,000 participating wilderness firefighters across the nation. Phase III is the last of three detailed reports delivered to the Forest Service. Phase III focuses on four major areas related to wildland fire safety: organizational culture, leadership and fire management, human and psychological factors (including training), and external influences on safety. The study also includes practical advice for moving forward and implementing changes, including on-the-job training and decision skills training. Weick, Karl E. 1993. The collapse of sensemaking in organizations: the Mann Gulch disaster. Administrative Science Quarterly. 38(4): 628-652. Annotation: Weick reviews the details of the Mann Gulch disaster as presented in Norman MacClean’s book, “Young Men and Fire”. He frames the disaster as an example of disintegration of the role structure and sensemaking in an organization. At the most crucial point in the fire, firefighters on the team leader’s crew were unsure of their situation and their role in the group. This situation caused them to panic. Weick uses this example to argue that organizations are held together by communication, and it is more tenuous than we think. Therefore, organizational members need to work on resilience in order to endure tragedies. Weick explains four sources of resilience: improvisation and bricolage, virtual role systems, the attitude of wisdom, and respectful interaction. Keywords: crisis, sensemaking, Mann Gulch Weick, Karl E. 2002. Human factors in fire behavior analysis: reconstructing the Dude Fire. Fire Management Today. 62(4): 8-15. Annotation: Weick reviews lessons learned from the tragic Dude Fire. Weick explains how humans make sense of their experiences by talking, and that safety is best achieved when it is easy for people to make sense of the situation. Because the environment of firefighting is often uncertain, firefighters need to frequently update their interpretations of what is happening. However, people can be overwhelmed by a series of events and make mistakes referred to as the “human factors” of firefighting. He gives a detailed explanation of three human factors, including regression to habitual behaviors, tunnel vision, and misunderstanding. Weick then deconstructs the Dude Fire and discusses all the possible barriers to effective communication during that event. He concludes with practical advice on how to avoid future firefighting tragedies. Keywords: crisis, sensemaking, human factors, Dude fire, communication, behavior Keywords: firefighter safety, culture, cultural change, human factors, leadership USDA Forest Service RMRS-GTR-201. 2007 11 12 USDA Forest Service RMRS-GTR-201. 2007 II. Foundations for Understanding Organizations T he books and articles annotated in this section will help readers understand how organizations work. By reading these works, fire managers can gain insights into such topics as how decisions are made or what kind of leaders perform best in teams. As a whole, these readings provide a foundation for understanding the dynamics of human interaction in organizational contexts. There are six subsections in this section. First, Decision Making and Sensemaking examines how decisions are made in organizations and explores the sensemaking perspective as an alternative to more traditional models of decision making. The second subsection, Organizational Culture, demonstrates how the culture of an organization shapes both decision making and sensemaking. The third subsection, Identification and Identity, examines how professional identity and other allegiances influence the way people act in an organizational context. The fourth subsection, Leadership and Change, explores the attributes of effective leaders, especially during periods of organizational turbulence or change. The fifth subsection, Organizational Learning, overviews recent thought on how organizations learn from past experiences. The sixth subsection, Team and Crew Dynamics, looks specifically at team dynamics and describes the fundamentals of effective teams. A. Decision Making and Sensemaking It goes without saying that decision making is a critical skill used by all fire managers at whatever level of the organization they are operating. But what is a good decision? How does one make a “good” decision? How can one tell if their decision making process is flawed? This section explores good as well as poor decision making practices. This section provides overviews of decision making approaches (Montgomery and others 2005; Schneider and Shanteau 2002) and decision analysis (MacGregor and González-Cabán, in press). It explores what constitutes effective decision making, provides specific approaches to decision making (Bullis 1993; Klein 2003; Klein and Weick 2000; Kofman and Senge 1993; Nutt 2002; Useem 2006), and addresses how decisions are made when decision makers are faced with pressures such as budget cutbacks (Bozeman and Pandey 2004), time constraints, high stakes USDA Forest Service RMRS-GTR-201. 2007 outcomes (Gonzales 2004), high-levels of personal responsibility, limited information, changing goals, shifting conditions (Klein 2000), and differing management styles (Kuhn and Poole 2000; Nutt 1999). This section then turns to readings that offer sensemaking as an alternative to traditional notions of how decisions are made. After defining sensemaking (Weick 1995), readings address how sensemaking plays out in crisis situations (Weick 1988) and the connection between decision making and safety. Author’s Picks • Klein, Gary. 2000. Sources of power: how people make decisions. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. 338 p. • Montgomery, Henry; Lipshitz, Raanan; Brehmer, Berndt, eds. 2004. How professionals make decisions. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers. 472 p. • Nutt, Paul C. 1999. Surprising but true: half the decisions in organizations fail. Academy of Management Executive. 13(4): 75-89. • Weick, Karl E. 2001b. Making sense of the organization. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, Inc. 483 p. 1. How Do People Make Decisions? Bozeman, Barry; Pandey, Sanjay K. 2004. Public management decision making: effects of decision content. Public Administration Review. 64: 553-564. Annotation: This article investigates whether the content of decision tasks or the reasons for decisions influence the decision making process. Specifically, the article analyzes budget cutbacks and information technology as decision content that may affect decision making. The results suggest that the content of decisions that need to be made determines the subsequent decision making process. For information technology decisions, cost effectiveness is not as important when making decisions, average decision time is much longer, and decisions are generally viewed as permanent and stable. For cutback decisions, cost-effectiveness is 13 very important when making decisions, decisions are made much more quickly, and decisions are viewed as unstable and changeable. Keywords: decision making Bullis, Connie. 1993. Organizational values and control. In: Conrad, Charles, ed. The ethical nexus. Norwood, NJ: Ablex: 75-100. Annotation: Using the USDA Forest Service as an example, Bullis shows how decision making is largely determined by decision premises. Examples of premises include values, beliefs, and more broadly, culture. Bullis explores the ability of organizations to control decision making through employee identification with shared value premises. The results indicate that professional identities influence decision making and professional relationships. This chapter presents a case study focused on three professional groups in the Forest Service—foresters, engineers, and biologists. Foresters, whose professional identities are closer to the official Forest Service identity, report organizationally “correct” mission statements and decision premises. They also consider the Forest Service as a whole, rather than their own profession, when making decisions. Foresters’ levels of identification are higher than other professionals, and they make decisions consistent with official Forest Service goals. Engineers, whose professional identities are not strongly integrated with the Forest Service identity, view mission statements literally, emphasize their professional rather than organizational values, and are more likely to disagree with Forest Service values. Their disagreements in values often center on cost-effectiveness. Biologists, whose professional identities are significantly lower than foresters and engineers, were found to contradict the Forest Service mission statement. Based on a feeling that the Forest Service f