Forming Habits in Emergency Organisations—Training for Extreme Situations

Abstract

This paper examines learning processes in crisis management organizations, focusing on Incident management and command in the military, police, and county administrative board in Sweden. Using a participation lens, we explore human interactions during high-pressure crises. Our research question is formulated as follows: How does the practice of training for crisis shape practitioners' habits regarding crisis management in organizations? To examine this, we conducted 19 days of fieldwork, including observations and 18 semi-structured interviews, enabled a comparative analysis of organising in incident management situations. We found that training groups influence organizational routines, suggesting that learning routines involve habit formation through repeated actions. This challenges traditional incident command training assumptions and highlights the need for training programs that prioritize relevance over realism.