Decision Making Under Pressure: A Crisis Management Sourcebook for Practitioners

In today’s world, the need for effective crisis management extends far beyond traditional emergency response personnel. With an increasing number of people facing high-stakes decisions under pressure, the demand for agile resilient and critical thinking problem-solvers is higher than ever. The aging demographic in emergency services and the high turnover due to burnout makes it challenging to build expertise through experience alone. This book addresses these issues, providing a knowledge base to help individuals and teams operate effectively in volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous environments.

This comprehensive guide covers a range of topics essential for navigating and leading in crises. It offers insights into the trends contributing to today’s turbulent landscape and provides strategies for resilient and agile problem-solving. Readers will learn how to lead teams in uncertain conditions, mobilize and manage resources effectively, and enhance coordination among multiple organizations. By using a framework to explore the challenges for the self; the social context and the problem-solving situation, the authors present a series of practical tools to help practitioners navigate through volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity to guide action. It will equip any reader with the skill set to confidently tackle incidents, disasters, and crises in whatever setting they find themselves in.

Decision Making Under Pressure: A Crisis Management Sourcebook for Practitioners is an ideal read for practitioners, educators, scholars, and students looking to enhance their decision-making and leadership skills in high-pressure situations, especially those in occupational health and safety, risk management and organizational resilience, ergonomics and human factors, emergency management, crisis leadership, and professional development.

Christine Owen’s career history spans engagement in academia and industry to help people and organizations engaged in safety-critical work to inquire into, learn from and, if needed, change their work practices. Christine has worked with safety-critical organizations for over 35 years, including the aviation field, emergency medicine, the fire and emergency services industry, and public safety.

Christine researches and facilitates professional development in the areas of human factors and organizational culture; decision making under pressure; debriefing; and leadership and adversity, as well as coaching and mentoring. She has been engaged by industry in several practitioner reviews and evaluations. Christine is passionate about supporting organizations to utilize research outcomes and establish evidenceinformed practice. She has over 100 publications in a variety of domains.

David Parsons (ESM) has a passion for creating world-class programs in the organizational resilience areas of risk, crisis decision-making, emergency, and business continuity management. He has served for more than 45 years in a variety of emergency management roles. David is also a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Emergency Services, the Business Continuity Institute, and the Emergency Management Academy of New York, a member of the International Association of Emergency Managers, and an a Life Member of the New South Wales Emergency Service.

David holds a Masters of Emergency Management and degrees in Social Science and Education. David has completed an Emergency Management Fellowship with the Emergency Management Academy in New York, the Leadership in Crises Program with the Harvard Kennedy Business School, and the Lessons Leaned Staff Officer Course with NATO. In 2023, he was awarded an Emergency Services Medal in the Kings Birthday Honours list.