ABSTRACT
Naturalisticdecisionmakingisconcernedwithhowpeoplemakedecisionsin therealworld,wheretheseareinfluencedbythewiderpressuresandconstraints thatexistoutsidethelaboratory.NDMmodelsofferanaccountofdecision makingunderparticularconditions,namelyuncertainty,highrisk,timepressure andconstantflux(Orasanu&Connolly,1993).Asubsetofthisfieldisthestudy ofemergency1decisionmakerswhofacesuchpressuresintheirextreme.Todate, asanewareaofstudy,emergencydecisionmakingmodelshavetendedtobe eventdriven,withtheresearcherselectingorconstructingamodelwhich describesthedecisionmakingprocedureobserved(Gaba,Fish&Howard,1994; Serfaty,Macmillan,Entin&Entin,1997).Othergeneralmodelsdoexist(e.g. Klein'sRPD,1989;Rasmussen,1983)anddescribetoanextentgenericdecision makingobservedincriticalincidents.However,thesearenotuniversally applicable,astheevent-drivenmodelsindicate.Withinemergencydecision research(andNDM),thereisatrendtodevelopadifferentdecisionmodelfor everydomainstudied.Theproliferationofmodels,inidiosyncraticformats,and lackofcorrespondenceacrossdomains,makesitdifficulttocompareacrossthe fieldtoestablishgenericprocessesofdecisionmakingincrises(Flin,1996).This lackofcoherenceismakingitdifficultforresearchersinthefieldtodiscussthe widertheoreticalargumentswithoutgetting'boggeddown'intheminutiaeof specificsituationdifferences.Whatemergencydecisionmakingrequiresisa frameworkthroughwhichmodelsandsituationscanbecompared.
