Selecting managers for a hazardous environment

Abstract

Following civilian disasters such as Piper Alpha, Hillsborough and King’s Cross, personnel professionals are rethinking the types of individuals needed to fill senior posts, considering the demands of responding to a serious emergency. Presents the results from a project designed to examine the current selection, training and assessment procedures for managers of offshore oil and gas installations in the North Sea, with particular emphasis on their ability to take command in the event of a serious offshore incident. Personnel and operations managers in 38 oil and gas exploration and production companies in the UK were interviewed. Characteristics sought in an offshore installation manager were leadership and command ability, communication skills, sound judgement, decisiveness and a stable disposition. Selection decisions were based predominantly on the candidate’s previous performance, appraisal reports and managerial recommendations rather than more formal methods such as interview panels, assessment centres or psychometric tests. An industry‐wide concern regarding managerial competence has led to increased use of emergency management simulations for training and assessment. The lack of formal assessments during the selection procedure is surprising, but the recent introduction of high fidelity, emergency management simulations present an additional source of valuable information on future candidates if assessment data are collected rigorously.