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The Impact of Non-Technical Issues on Decision-Making by Coal Mining Incident Management Teams

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The Impact of Non-Technical Issues on Decision-Making by Coal Mining Incident Management Teams The impact of non-technical issues on decision-making by coal mining incident management teams. Ruth Grace Fuller BEng Hons Civil Engineering Grad Dip Psychology BSc Hons Psychology Grad Dip Secondary Education A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at The University of Queensland in 2014 Sustainable Minerals Institute Abstract A serious incident in an underground coal mine can claim many lives in an instant. The lives of those who survive the initial moments can be dependent on the decisions made by the incident management team (IMT). The IMT is a team of mine employees assembled immediately upon the discovery of an incident to manage the response. Evaluations of annual emergency exercises conducted at underground coal-mines in Queensland have indicated that IMT decision-making is generally sub-optimal. This finding was echoed by the Royal Commission into the New Zealand Pike River Coal Mine Tragedy that occurred in 2010. In many other high-reliability roles technical and non-technical issues have been found to impact decision-making. The goal of this research is to explore the role of non-technical issues in emergency decision-making following an underground coal mining incident. A review of the Queensland emergency exercise reports, direct observation of emergency simulations, and interviews with twenty-five mining personnel with real-life incident management experience at underground coal mine emergencies has led to the development of a non-technical skills taxonomy for decision-making in mining IMTs. The decision-making process in a mining IMT has been shown to be a broad socio-psycho-technical process within which technical and non-technical issues cannot be separated. Technical, social and cognitive skills are imperative to maintain adequate communication, situation awareness and optimal decision-making throughout the emergency management process. Declaration by author This thesis is composed of my original work, and contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference has been made in the text. I have clearly stated the contribution by others to jointly-authored works that I have included in my thesis. I have clearly stated the contribution of others to my thesis as a whole, including statistical assistance, survey design, data analysis, significant technical procedures, professional editorial advice, and any other original research work used or reported in my thesis. The content of my thesis is the result of work I have carried out since the commencement of my research higher degree candidature and does not include a substantial part of work that has been submitted to qualify for the award of any other degree or diploma in any university or other tertiary institution. I have clearly stated which parts of my thesis, if any, have been submitted to qualify for another award. I acknowledge that an electronic copy of my thesis must be lodged with the University Library and, subject to the General Award Rules of The University of Queensland, immediately made available for research and study in accordance with the Copyright Act 1968. I acknowledge that copyright of all material contained in my thesis resides with the copyright holder(s) of that material. Where appropriate I have obtained copyright permission from the copyright holder to reproduce material in this thesis. Publications during candidature Fuller, R., Cliff, D. and Horberry, T. (2012). Optimising the Use of an Incident Management System in Coal Mining Emergencies. Australian & New Zealand Disaster and Emergency Management Conference, Brisbane, 16 – 18, April 2012. Available at: http://anzdmc.com.au/proceedings.pdf Horberry, T., Xiao, T., Fuller, R. and Cliff, D. (2013). The Role of Human Factors and Ergonomics in Mining Emergency Management: Three Case Studies. Int. J. Human Factors and Ergonomics. Vol 2, Nos 2/3, pp116-130 Horberry, T., Burgess-Limerick, R. and Fuller, R. (2013). The Contributions of Human Factors and Ergonomics to a Sustainable Minerals Industry. Ergonomics, 56(3):556-64 Publications included in this thesis No publications included. Contributions by others to the thesis Professor David Cliff suggested researching decision-making in mining IMTs, and introduced the researcher to the mining industry and relevant contacts. Professor Robin Burgess-Limerick contributed to critically revising the thesis in the last six months of the PhD candidature. Statement of parts of the thesis submitted to qualify for the award of another degree None Acknowledgements I’d like to acknowledge the support of my supervisors Professor David Cliff and Professor Robin Burgess-Limerick. I’d like to acknowledge the financial support received from the Minerals Industry Safety and Health Centre in the form of a research scholarship. I’d further like to acknowledge the significant input from the interviewees. They were extremely generous with their time. Their enthusiasm for my research has motivated me throughout the PhD process and I am extremely grateful that they shared their experiences with me and the industry. I sincerely hope that this thesis meets their expectations. Thank you to my husband David Fuller for financial support and the final formatting in LaTeX. Keywords decision-making, incident control, mining, non-technical skills, situational awareness, communications, stress. Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classifications (ANZSRC) ANZSRC code: 170202, Decision Making, 70% ANZSRC code: 170107, Industrial and Organisational Psychology, 10% ANZSRC code: 091405, Mining Engineering, 20% Fields of Research (FoR) Classification FoR code: 0914, Resources Engineering and Extractive Metallurgy, 20% FoR code: 1702, Cognitive Sciences, 80% Contents 1 Introduction 11 1.1 Background ...................................... 11 1.2 The Coal Mining Safety and Health Act 1999/Coal Mining Safety and Health Regulation 2001 . 14 1.3 Level 1 Exercises . 15 1.4 TheMineRe-entryAssessmentSystem(MRAS) . 15 1.5 TheMiningEmergencyManagementSystem(MEMS) . 16 1.6 Research Question . 19 1.7 AimsandObjectives ................................. 19 1.8 Thesis Outline . 20 2 Literature Review 21 2.1 Decision-Making . 21 2.2 UsinganincidentcontrolsystemintheminingIMT. 27 2.3 Non-technicalissues.................................. 28 2.3.1 SituationAwareness ............................. 29 2.3.2 Communication . 35 2.3.3 Leadership . 38 2.3.4 Trust . 41 2.3.5 Teamwork . 43 2.3.6 Emotion and Stress . 45 3Level1ExerciseReports 51 3.1 Introduction . 51 3.2 Method . 53 3.2.1 Design . 53 3.2.2 Procedure . 53 3.3 Results . 54 3.3.1 Decision-making . 55 3.3.2 SituationAwareness ............................. 58 3.3.3 Leadership . 62 3.3.4 Assertiveness ................................. 63 3.3.5 Communication . 64 3.3.6 Fatigue . 64 3.3.7 Teamwork . 65 3.3.8 Stress . 67 3.3.9 Emotion . 67 3.3.10 Trust . 68 3.4 Discussion . 68 4 Mining Emergency Management Simulations 71 4.1 Introduction . 71 4.2 Method . 72 4.2.1 Participants . 72 4.2.2 Materials . 72 4.2.3 Procedure . 75 4.2.4 Analysis .................................... 76 4.3 Results . 76 4.3.1 Decision-making . 76 4.3.2 Communication . 78 4.3.3 SituationAwareness ............................. 84 4.3.4 Leadership . 86 4.3.5 Teamwork . 87 4.3.6 Assertiveness ................................. 88 4.3.7 Stress and Fatigue Management . 88 4.3.8 Emotion . 88 4.3.9 Trust . 89 4.3.10 Personal Strengths and Limitations . 89 4.4 Discussion . 90 5 Interviews: Real Mining IMT Experiences 93 5.1 Introduction . 93 5.2 Method . 93 5.2.1 Recruitment of interviewees . 93 5.2.2 Participants . 93 5.2.3 Interview overview . 94 5.2.4 Procedure . 95 5.3 Results . 100 5.3.1 Decision-making in the IMT . 100 5.3.2 SituationAwareness ............................. 104 5.3.3 Collaboration and Cooperation . 117 5.3.4 Trusting Others . 128 5.3.5 Caring for others . 132 5.3.6 Personal strengths and limitations . 138 5.3.7 Communication in the IMT . 162 5.3.8 Leadership . 169 6 Discussion 179 6.1 Decision-making in the mining IMT . 179 6.2 Contributiontoacademicknowledge . 187 6.3 The way forward . 187 6.3.1 The limitations and benefits of MEMS . 188 6.3.2 Suggested changes to the MEMS system . 190 6.3.3 Training to address the social and cognitive skills that can support MEMS191 6.3.4 Level 1 reports . 193 6.3.5 Level 1 exercises . 194 6.3.6 Industry clarification . 195 6.3.7 Future research . 197 6.4 Conclusion . 197 List of References 199 List of Tables 2.1 Performance criteria for o↵shore installation managers . 40 3.1 References to generic non-technical skills in Level 1 reports . 52 4.1 Mining specific observations template . 74 5.1 Coal mining experience by employment status . 94 5.2 The decision making non-technical issues taxonomy . 105 List of Figures 1.1 Mining Emergency Management System . 17 2.1 Information Processing Model of Decision-Making . 22 List of Abbreviations Abbreviation Definition AIIMS Australian Interagency Incident Management System (Australian ICS) CFMEU Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union CIMS Coordinated Incident Management System (New Zealand ICS) CRO Control Room Operator IC Incident Controller ICCS Incident Command and Control System (NSW mining) ICS IncidentControlSystem(usedintheUS) IMT Incident Management Team MEMS Mining Emergency Management System (Qld mining) MRAS Mining Re-entry Assessment Schedule NDM Naturalistic Decision-Making NZMRS New Zealand Mines Rescue Service ppm parts per million QMRS Queensland Mines Rescue Service RPDM Recognition.
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