ABSTRACT

We have analyzed some examples of communication and co-operation in an emergency control centre. The distribution of information and the distribution of tasks is a complex cognitive activity. In some cases this activity is regulated by institutional rules; in other cases the persons involved have to decide when to call on another person, how to transfer data and how to feed back data about the activities performed. For time-critical com­ plex tasks like this, strict rule-based behaviour seems to be insufficient, as much of the success of managing this dynamic task seems to depend on flexibility and what we call “cognitive empathy”.