Individual qualities for collective problem-solving : Insights from an interview and literature study
(2024)- Abstract
- This report summarises the results from an interview and literature study carried out to identify key individual qualities for collective problem-solving in a fire and rescue service context. The report contributes to the research project FIRE21 (Fire and Rescue Services in the 21st Century) and is part of a work package looking into such individual qualities through using different methods and materials.
A foundational assumption in FIRE21 is that effective emergency management is dependent on effective problem-solving and that such problem-solving takes place in collectives, or so-called problem-solving networks. The aim of FIRE21 is, among else, to better understand how, in the Nordic countries, these networks affect the efficiency... (More) - This report summarises the results from an interview and literature study carried out to identify key individual qualities for collective problem-solving in a fire and rescue service context. The report contributes to the research project FIRE21 (Fire and Rescue Services in the 21st Century) and is part of a work package looking into such individual qualities through using different methods and materials.
A foundational assumption in FIRE21 is that effective emergency management is dependent on effective problem-solving and that such problem-solving takes place in collectives, or so-called problem-solving networks. The aim of FIRE21 is, among else, to better understand how, in the Nordic countries, these networks affect the efficiency of problem-solving during response operations. Key to fulfilling this aim is to better understand how individuals contribute to the network's problem-solving. Therefore, the aim of this specific work package is to investigate what individual qualities are needed for effective collective problem-solving in a fire and rescue service context.
To address this aim, a first step was to investigate existing problem-solving literature to see what has already been concluded on key individual qualities for effective collective problem-solving. However, as a theoretical concept, problem-solving is part of many fields and studied in many different ways. It has played, and still plays, an important role in various fields like mathematics, psychology and computer science. Navigating in such a vast area in search for normative literature on individual qualities is not an easy task and performing a general, systematic, literature study in all fields is virtually impossible. Therefore, we decided to address this challenge by interviewing experienced scholars representing problem-solving research in various disciplines, however all concerned with a context similar to that of the fire and rescue services. Their input would guide us to the most important findings in the literature, thus giving us a good starting point for further data collection.
The study on individual qualities for collective problem-solving in project FIRE21 further relies in following prerequisites. First, the focus is on fire and rescue service response operations. This means that the problem-solving often takes place in a multi-organisational context characterised by urgency, uncertainty and high values at stake. This creates a special problem-solving context which differs from, for example, problem-solving in everyday public-administration. Second, we intentionally use "qualities" as a broad term that could encompass, among else, capabilities, competence, experience, knowledge, skills or traits. Using these other, narrower, terms risk limiting interviewees, or us, in the search for what it is that individuals contribute with in effective collective problem-solving. Last, the study relies on normative literature on what individual qualities are confirmed to impact collective problem-solving positively. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/06bfee61-f242-4523-9cd8-acb877f03366
- author
- Frykmer, Tove LU ; Johnson, Victoria LU and Uhr, Christian LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2024-11-05
- type
- Book/Report
- publication status
- published
- subject
- pages
- 14 pages
- project
- Nordic Fire and Rescue Services, Problem solving in the 21st Century
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 06bfee61-f242-4523-9cd8-acb877f03366
- date added to LUP
- 2025-01-21 15:12:13
- date last changed
- 2025-04-04 14:11:58
@techreport{06bfee61-f242-4523-9cd8-acb877f03366,
abstract = {{This report summarises the results from an interview and literature study carried out to identify key individual qualities for collective problem-solving in a fire and rescue service context. The report contributes to the research project FIRE21 (Fire and Rescue Services in the 21st Century) and is part of a work package looking into such individual qualities through using different methods and materials.<br/>A foundational assumption in FIRE21 is that effective emergency management is dependent on effective problem-solving and that such problem-solving takes place in collectives, or so-called problem-solving networks. The aim of FIRE21 is, among else, to better understand how, in the Nordic countries, these networks affect the efficiency of problem-solving during response operations. Key to fulfilling this aim is to better understand how individuals contribute to the network's problem-solving. Therefore, the aim of this specific work package is to investigate what individual qualities are needed for effective collective problem-solving in a fire and rescue service context.<br/>To address this aim, a first step was to investigate existing problem-solving literature to see what has already been concluded on key individual qualities for effective collective problem-solving. However, as a theoretical concept, problem-solving is part of many fields and studied in many different ways. It has played, and still plays, an important role in various fields like mathematics, psychology and computer science. Navigating in such a vast area in search for normative literature on individual qualities is not an easy task and performing a general, systematic, literature study in all fields is virtually impossible. Therefore, we decided to address this challenge by interviewing experienced scholars representing problem-solving research in various disciplines, however all concerned with a context similar to that of the fire and rescue services. Their input would guide us to the most important findings in the literature, thus giving us a good starting point for further data collection.<br/>The study on individual qualities for collective problem-solving in project FIRE21 further relies in following prerequisites. First, the focus is on fire and rescue service response operations. This means that the problem-solving often takes place in a multi-organisational context characterised by urgency, uncertainty and high values at stake. This creates a special problem-solving context which differs from, for example, problem-solving in everyday public-administration. Second, we intentionally use "qualities" as a broad term that could encompass, among else, capabilities, competence, experience, knowledge, skills or traits. Using these other, narrower, terms risk limiting interviewees, or us, in the search for what it is that individuals contribute with in effective collective problem-solving. Last, the study relies on normative literature on what individual qualities are confirmed to impact collective problem-solving positively.}},
author = {{Frykmer, Tove and Johnson, Victoria and Uhr, Christian}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{11}},
title = {{Individual qualities for collective problem-solving : Insights from an interview and literature study}},
url = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/206567944/Individual_qualities_for_collective_problem-solving_-_an_interview_and_literature_study.pdf}},
year = {{2024}},
}