Justin Fidock

Anecdotally Speaking ‐ Using Stories to Generate Organisational Change

Stories told in organisations are being used increasingly as a way of gaining greater insight into organisational culture, leadership and health. These insights should be considered when organisational change is needed to improve effectiveness. This paper examines a method that combines data collection through a story elicitation process with intervention design that promotes change and learning within organisations. In this paper, we describe these processes in detail with a step‐by‐step account of how the authors implemented these processes in a research site. Our experience can act as a guide to other researchers undertaking similar projects. Evidence collected so far suggests that these processes can contribute to organisational change in an incremental way that engages people at various levels within an organisation.

The Impact of Auditory Task Complexity on Primary Task Performance in Military Land Vehicle Crew

Military land vehicles are becoming more technologically advanced, offering much greater capabilities for command and control on the move. The capabilities afforded by these modern vehicles are likely to place greater cognitive demands on the vehicle operators, and an increased requirement for vehicle crews to communicate effectively. This study explored the influence of a secondary task load on both individual and crew performance. Eight driver/co-driver crews operated a driving simulator over two days, during which the complexity of an auditory secondary task, which incorporated a crew-based communication component, was manipulated. The impact of this manipulation on both individual and crew performance was assessed. The results suggest that participants prioritized and protected performance on their primary task when the complexity of the secondary task was increased, at the cost of declines in their secondary task performance. Implications for the use of modern land vehicles in defense fleets are discussed, along with our research program aimed at further exploring the impact of varying cognitive load on crew performance.

Making Virtual Sense: Display Type and Narrative Medium Influence Sensemaking in Virtual Environments

Virtual reality (VR) is being used for training and research in various industries due to its greater immersion relative to flat screen simulation technology. However, the effect of immersive VR displays and background storylines (i.e., narrative) on metacognitive skills, such as sensemaking, remains unexplored. The current study employed a 2 × 2 between-subjects experimental design to investigate the influence of display type and narrative medium on sensemaking for an observation-based driving task. Sixty-eight adults were semi-randomly assigned to one of four conditions. Participants received a pre-mission narrative briefing (text or multimedia) and undertook two simulated driving missions (flat screen or VR display). A structured debriefing followed each mission to assess sensemaking in terms of frequency and type of explanation for mission events. The results indicate that both display type and narrative medium influence sensemaking in virtual environments. For explanations relating to previously encountered mission events, sensemaking frequency was higher in the VR conditions than the flat screen conditions (F(1) = 9.11, p = .004, partial η2 = .15). For explanations relating to the briefing materials, sensemaking frequency was higher in the multimedia narrative conditions than the text-based narrative conditions (F(1) = 8.38, p = .005, partial η2 = .14). Although the findings suggest that VR displays have cognitive benefits over traditional flat screen displays, the likelihood of VR-induced adverse effects (i.e., cybersickness) should be managed (e.g., limiting exposure). These results indicate that narrative medium and display type should be carefully considered by industries using virtual environments for training and research.