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The primary mission of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is to maintain the safety of the National Airspace System (NAS). As part of this mission, the FAA is tasked with ensuring that future air traffic controllers are adequately trained to perform the high-risk job of directing air traffic. The FAA Academy curriculum for newly hired controllers involves 3-4 months of intensive lessons and performance assessments. It has been suggested that this training program is quite stressful, and successful trainees tend to be those who can better manage stress. To support ATC trainees, researchers at the Civil Aerospace Medical Institute (CAMI) have conducted operational research to develop and evaluate a stress management training to help trainees manage their stress during training at the FAA Academy.

The scientific study of teamwork in the context of spaceflight has uncovered a considerable amount of knowledge over the past 20 years. Although much is known about the underlying factors and processes of teamwork, much is left to be discovered for teams who will be operating in extreme isolation and confinement during a future Mars mission. Special considerations must be made to enhance teamwork and team well-being for multi-year missions during which the small team will live and work together. We discuss the unique challenges of effective teamwork in a Mars mission scenario, and the difficulties of studying teamwork using analogs of the space environment. We then describe the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's current practices and research on teamwork, which includes team selection and composition, teamwork training, countermeasures to mitigate risks to effective team performance, and the measurement and monitoring of team functioning. We end with a discussion of the teamwork research areas that are most critical for a successful journey to Mars. (PsycINFO Database Record

In recent years there has been a marked increase in the study of the influence of leadership on creativity, and the effects of this relationship on organizational performance. While a number of explanations have been broached with regard to the positive effects of leadership on creativity, many of these studies propose different, and often contradictory, methods for leaders to achieve these positive effects on creativity within their organizations and work groups. Additionally, little work has been done examining the effects of leadership on highly creative people in fields requiring creativity. The purpose of this study is to examine two existing leadership theories with regard to their viability as models to explain creative performance of eminent scientists. Eminent scientists represent a population of leaders of highly creative individuals in a field that values the production of innovative ideas and products as a marker of performance. Ninety-three excerpts from the biographies of scientists were content coded for leader behaviors and performance criteria. The results of this analysis indicate that a model based on strategic planning and product championing may serve to explain the positive effects of leadership on creativity in a highly creative population.

There is little doubt that career experiences contribute to scientific achievement; however this relationship has yet to be thoroughly investigated in terms the effects on scientific creativity. In this study, a historiometric approach was used to examine 3 areas of adult career experiences common to scientific achievement. In doing so, prior theoretical work was used to identify career experiences relevant to scientific achievement, and 3 theoretical models were proposed to account for these experiences—adversity, collaborations, and work strategies. Biographies of eminent scientists were then content coded and analyzed. The results indicated that the adversity model did not predict scientific creativity. However, the work strategies model and, to some degree, the collaborations model showed some promise in understanding the development of creative potential in scientists. The nature of the significant relationships among the model components and scientific creativity are discussed in addition to their i...

Constraints often inhibit creative problem-solving. This study examined the impact of training strategies for managing constraints on creative problem-solving. Undergraduates, 218 in all, were asked to work through 1 to 4 self-paced instructional programs focused on constraint management strategies. The quality, originality, and elegance of solutions to social innovation problems were assessed. It was found that providing training in managing resource constraints was generally valuable. For talented individuals, providing training in managing user skill constraints also proved valuable. The implications of these findings for training intended to improve creative thinking are discussed.

Many techniques have been used to train creative problem-solving skills. Although the available techniques have often proven to be effective, creative training often discounts the value of thinking about applications. In this study, 248 undergraduates were asked to develop advertising campaigns for a new high-energy soft drink. Solutions to this problem were evaluated for quality, originality, and elegance. Prior to preparing these advertising campaigns, participants were provided with training in strategies for thinking about the potential applications of creative problem-solutions. It was found that training people to think about the uses of ideas and preparation for idea implementation contributed to the acquisition of stronger mental models and production of advertising campaigns evidencing greater quality, originality, and elegance. The implications of these findings for creative though and creative education are discussed.

This study examined and compared the websites of ideological groups from a communications and media use perspective. Thirty-six websites with message boards categorized as either violent ideological, nonviolent ideological, or nonviolent nonideological were content coded for several distinguishing characteristics. The results indicated that group type was predicted by the type of information presented, the difficulty of becoming a member, and the amount of freedom members had on discussion boards. These findings suggest that characteristics of violent ideological group websites can be used to distinguish them from websites of both nonviolent ideological and nonideological groups. This study also provides a demonstration of a research methodology that can be used to naturally observe ideological groups via an online setting.

Knowledge, or expertise, has been held to contribute to creative problem-solving. In this effort, the relationship of one form of knowledge, mental models, to creative problem-solving was assessed. Undergraduates were asked to solve either a marketing or an education problem calling for creative thought. Prior to generating solutions to these problems, the mental models used by undergraduates to understand problems in these domains were assessed in terms of their objective and subjective features. It was found that both objective and subjective features of peoples mental models were related to the quality, originality, and elegance of problem solutions. The implications of these findings for understanding the role of mental models in creative problem-solving are discussed.

People make errors in their creative problem-solving efforts. The intent of this article was to assess whether error-management training would improve performance on creative problem-solving tasks. Undergraduates were asked to solve an educational leadership problem known to call for creative thought where problem solutions were scored for quality, originality, and elegance. Prior to beginning work on their problem solutions, participants were provided with training in 0 to 4 error-management strategies. It was found that error-management training was beneficial for talented people (as indicated by scores on the pretraining exercise) resulting in solutions of greater originality. The implications of these findings for improving performance on creative problem-solving tasks are discussed.

In recent years, it has become apparent that knowledge is a critical component of creative thought. One form of knowledge that might be particularly important to creative thought relies on the mental models people employ to understand novel, ill-defined problems. In this study, undergraduates were given training in the use of causal relationships in applying mental models in creative problem-solving. A pre-post design was used to assess the effects of this training on mental models and creative problem-solving. It was found that causal analysis training resulted in the acquisition of better mental models (in terms of subjective and objective attributes) and better solutions (in terms of quality, originality, and elegance) to problems calling for creative thought among high-ability participants. The implications of these findings for understanding the role of mental models in creative problem-solving are discussed.

It has been argued that leader cognition is a particularly important influence on team performance under conditions of crisis or threat. The goal of the present effort was to assess the merits of processing performance information, as opposed to processing social information, for leader performance in terms of creativity of solutions and the quality of solutions with respect to domain specific performance variables. Undergraduates were asked to assume the role of a leader in a marketing firm and provide solutions to three marketing problems. It was found that providing training in strategies for working with performance information (e.g., causes, resources, restrictions, and contingencies) resulted in higher levels of performance than providing training in strategies for working with social information (e.g., actors, affect, goals, and social systems). Moreover, training in strategies for working with performance information proved especially beneficial when more elements of the problem situation were under leader control. The implications of these findings for understanding leader cognition and leader performance are discussed.

It has been argued that leaders rely on case-based, or experiential, knowledge when attempting to solve organizational problems. To test this proposition, undergraduates were provided with instruction in strategies for working with cognitive (e.g. causes) or social (e.g. actors) knowledge in solving leadership problems. It was found that both forms of instruction contribute to better vision formation, better planning, and generation of more creative solutions to leadership problems. The effects of training were not moderated by time pressure. However, it was found that calling leaders' attention to threats could compensate for training. The implications of these findings for understanding leader cognition are discussed.

Due to the rapidly changing economy, innovation is becoming more and more critical for the success and survival of many organizations. Although several factors shaping innovation (e.g., strategy, climate, etc.) have been examined in the literature, the leadership of innovation has received relatively less attention. In this article, we attempt to summarize the literature on the leadership of creative efforts focusing on critical leadership behaviours. We also explore a model of core leader functions tailored for creativity and innovation, as well as a model of innovation planning. The implications of these models for the leadership of innovation are discussed.

This chapter argues that leadership effectiveness is a complex topic, and explores the critical boundary conditions which must be taken into account in appraising leader effectiveness. The major strategies used to appraise leader effectiveness are then elaborated. The implications of these methods for appraising leader effectiveness are examined with respect to both theory development and practice. The amount and nature of the discretion granted by an individual forms an important boundary condition under which appraisal of leader effectiveness occurs. Substantive measures must be judiciously employed to appraise leader effectiveness. Social outcomes measures appraise the outcomes emerging from the exercise of influence. Appraisals of leader effectiveness that are either too early or too late will prove of little value. A substantive analysis of how effective leadership will be showed should offer the basis for selection of the set of effectiveness measures being applied.

Background data, or biodata, measures are widely applied in personnel selection. In the present effort, it is argued that background data measures reflect the recall of differential experiential, or case-based, knowledge. The techniques for developing and scaling background data measures are described and evidence bearing on the reliability and validity of these measures is discussed. Critical contingencies bearing on the application of these measures in personnel selection are described. Potential directions for future research are examined along with issues bearing on the application of background data measures in personnel selection.