title: Correlates of team effectiveness: An exploratory study of firefighter's operations during emergency situations.
abstract: This paper examines elements contributing to the effectiveness of firefighting teams carrying out typical tasks. Fourteen firefighter crews were filmed during nineteen real operations and answered questionnaires relating to psychosocial dimensions. Results have shown that "enriched closed-loops" of communication, positive emotional interactions and a "gamma" type of adaptation are positively related to team effectiveness. Conversely, open and incomplete loops of communication, negative emotional interactions, "beta" and "alpha" types of adaptation are negatively related to team effectiveness. Furthermore, there is a mediated link between organisational trust and motivation on the one hand and team effectiveness on the other. These findings highlight the necessity to consider both cognitive and psychosocial variables to account for team effectiveness in the firefighting profession. They also emphasize the need to expand firefighter training to the "non-technical" aspects of the competence.
authors.affiliation: SDIS35 - UBS - Lab-STICC, 2 rue du Moulin de Joué BP80127, 35701 Rennes Cedex, France. Electronic address: elise.jouanne@sdis35.fr.
authors.forename: Elise
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Jouanne
authors.affiliation: IRCCyN, CNRS - Université Rennes 2, BP 92101F, 44321 Nantes Cedex03, France. Electronic address: camilo.charron@univ-rennes2.fr.
authors.forename: Camilo
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Charron
authors.affiliation: UBS - Lab-STICC, 17 bd Flandres-Dunkerque, 56321 Lorient Cedex, France. Electronic address: cchauvin@univ-ubs.fr.
authors.forename: Christine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Chauvin
authors.affiliation: UBS - Lab-STICC, 17 bd Flandres-Dunkerque, 56321 Lorient Cedex, France. Electronic address: gmorel@univ-ubs.fr.
authors.forename: Gaël
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Morel
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D003142:Communication; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D004630:Emergencies; D004644:Emotions; D061388:Firefighters / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D009042:Motivation; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D035502:Trust / Q000523:psychology
keywords: Adaptation; Closed-loop communication; Emergency situations; Fire-fighters; Teamwork