Access to this document was granted through an Emerald subscription provided by emerald-srm:198285 [] For AuthorsIf you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -The purpose of this paper is to study why collaboration among police, fire, and ambulance services is minimised at accident scenes. Design/methodology/approach -Observations and semi-structured interviews were carried out during 2007-2008. The data material comprises a total of 248 hours of observations on 20 occasions and 57 interviews with 80 people. Findings -The study identifies the difference between rhetoric and practice in connection with accident work. Collaboration is seen as a rhetorical ideal rather than something that is carried out in normal practice. Asymmetry, uncertainty and lack of incentives are important explanations as to why only limited forms of collaboration are actually implemented.Research limitations/implications -The paper shows a distinction between collaboration as rhetoric and practical collaboration at accident scenes. Practical implications -The article proposes a multi-faceted collaboration concept. In this way, collaboration can be developed and refined. Originality/value -The results of the study show that police, fire, and ambulance services want to develop excellent forms of collaboration at the accident scene, but avoid this as it leads to uncertainty and asymmetries and because of a lack of incentives. However, simpler forms of collaboration may be realistic in the organisation of everyday work at accident scenes.

This article aims to study whether exercises contribute to learning that can be useful in actual emergency work. It reports the findings of a study about professional emergency personnel's perceptions of the impact of collaboration exercises. Surveys were distributed and collected from emergency personnel in conjunction with three collaboration exercises that took place in Sweden in spring 2012.The survey included personnel holding different positions within the police department, fire department and ambulance services. Among them were also operational personnel such as officers. A total of 94 professional emergency personnel agreed to participate by answering the survey. The response rate was 95%. The study shows that collaborative elements in exercises contribute to perceived learning (R 2 = 0:53), and that learning, in turn, has a perceived beneficial effect on actual emergency work (R 2 = 0:26).The perceived results of collaboration, learning and their impact on actual emergency work, however, are moderate.The exercises were characterised by long waiting times and gave few opportunities to practise different strategies. Only a few respondents felt that they learned something about the collaborating organisations' ways of communicating and prioritising. Many also thought that the exercises were more useful for command officers than for operational personnel. Thus, the study shows that by strengthening the collaborative elements of the exercises, the perception of the participants' actual emergency work can be developed.

In this study, a critical examination of collaboration, focusing on the alternatives, is carried out. The study is based on empirical data from four inter-organizational exercises involving ambulance police and fire departments. We studied collaboration between the three organizations, from the arrival of the first units, until the mission was completed. It was found that collaboration was practiced to a relatively small degree, and that it primarily took place due to understaffing. In summary, the different organizational phenomena are sorted on a scale of stability vs. change. The result of the study shows that the organizations observed strive for stability, preferring repeated and well-known behaviour.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify what is practiced during collaboration exercises and possible facilitators for inter-organisational collaboration. Design/methodology/approach – Interviews with 23 participants from four collaboration exercises in Sweden were carried out during autumn 2011. Interview data were subjected to qualitative content analysis. Findings – Findings indicate that the exercises tend to focus on intra-organisational routines and skills, rather than developing collaboration capacities. What the participants practiced depended on roles and order of arrival at the exercise. Exercises contributed to practicing leadership roles, which was considered essential since crises are unpredictable and require inter-organisational decision making. Originality/value – The results of this study indicate that the ability to identify boundary objects, such as injured/patients, was found to be important in order for collaboration to occur. Furthermore, lessons learned from exercises could benefit from inter-organisational evaluation. By introducing and reinforcing certain elements and distinct aims of the exercise, the proactive function of collaboration exercises can be clarified.

The studied team developed cooperation with synchronous elements but never attained a level that corresponds to idealized conceptions of teams. This is used as a basis for challenging ideas that teams are harmonious and free from conflicts and that cooperation takes place without friction.