Nuclear Team Skills Taxonomy

Abstract

The Nuclear Team skills Taxonomy is a specialized framework developed by O’Connor, O’Dea, and Flin (2008) to systematically identify and assess the critical team skills required by operations personnel in nuclear power plants. The taxonomy’s development involved extensive domain familiarization, including control room observations and documentation review, followed by in-depth Critical Incident Technique (CIT) interviews with 38 operations team members across three British nuclear facilities. The resulting framework organizes 314 identified teamworking statements into five core categories and 16 component elements. This taxonomy serves as a robust tool for evaluating operational team performance, identifying specific training needs, and supporting detailed mishap investigations within the high-reliability nuclear industry.

Keywords

Nuclear operations, team skills, taxonomy, Critical Incident Technique (CIT), high-reliability organizations, shared situation awareness, human factors, crew resource management, decision making, performance assessment.

Authors

O’Connor, O’Dea, Flin

Purpose

The primary purpose of the Nuclear Team skills Taxonomy is to establish a clear, structured framework for the assessment and evaluation of the non-technical team skills demonstrated by operations personnel within nuclear power generation facilities. By providing a common nomenclature and set of behavioral anchors, the taxonomy facilitates standardized evaluation of team performance in real-time operations, simulator training, and post-incident analysis.

This framework is specifically designed to translate complex team behaviors into measurable elements, thereby supporting the development of targeted training interventions and enhancing overall operational safety and reliability within this critical infrastructure sector.

Construct

The taxonomy measures the essential non-technical team skills necessary for safe and efficient operation of nuclear power plant control rooms and associated operational environments. These skills are grouped into five overarching categories, encompassing 16 specific behavioral elements derived directly from critical incidents experienced by nuclear operations teams.

The core constructs measured include processes related to information management, collaborative decision making, effective interpersonal exchange, coordination of resources, and team influence/leadership dynamics. The five categories are: Building Situation Awareness, Team Focused Decision Making, Communication, Co-ordination, and Collaboration (sometimes referred to as Influence).

Validity

While formal statistical validation studies (e.g., construct validity via confirmatory factor analysis) were not reported in the foundational work, the taxonomy possesses strong face and content validity. The structure and elements were derived directly from real-world critical incidents reported by 38 experienced operations team members via the Critical Incident Technique (CIT) methodology. This qualitative, bottom-up approach ensures that the identified skill elements are highly relevant and representative of the actual behavioral requirements encountered by nuclear operations personnel.

The process of identifying 314 statements concerned with teamworking and subsequently mapping them into the five categories establishes robust content coverage specific to the nuclear domain. Further studies would be required to evaluate its observational validity when used by independent raters in live or simulated environments.

Reliability

The original development of the Nuclear Team skills Taxonomy demonstrated acceptable levels of inter-rater reliability during the categorization and coding phase of the behavioral statements. This indicates that the authors and researchers were consistent in classifying the 314 raw statements into the defined 16 elements and five categories.

However, the authors explicitly noted that no formal assessment was conducted regarding the reliability of the taxonomy when used in practice for observational purposes (e.g., monitoring team performance in a simulator or control room). Practical application of the taxonomy for evaluating team skills would necessitate rigorous rater training and subsequent assessment of inter-rater reliability among observers to ensure consistent and objective scoring.

Factor Analysis

Factor analysis was not applicable or reported for the development of this scale. The structure of the Nuclear Team skills Taxonomy was established through a qualitative, inductive methodology—the Critical Incident Technique. This technique organizes observed behaviors (critical incidents) into meaningful categories based on expert consensus and domain relevance, rather than statistical reduction of quantitative survey items.

Instrument

Test Type: Observational Assessment Framework / Behavioral Taxonomy

Format: Structured observational checklist and framework defining five categories and 16 behavioral elements, typically used by trained raters during simulated or actual operations.

Language Available: English (Original development was conducted in British nuclear facilities).

Population Group: Operations team members in nuclear power generation facilities.

Age Group: Adult (Occupational population).

Population Details: 38 operations team members from three British nuclear power plants were interviewed during the development phase.

Test Methodology: The taxonomy provides definitions and examples of desired behaviors to guide observation, coaching, and evaluation of team skills.

Keywords

Nuclear safety, organizational psychology, industrial ergonomics, crew resource management, non-technical skills, operational performance, behavioral assessment, team training, Critical Incident Technique.

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: [Not Reported]

Affiliation Email addresses: [Not Reported]

Correspondence Address: [Not Reported]

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

Test Year: 2008

Permissions: The taxonomy was published in the International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics. Permissions for commercial or extensive use must be sought from the journal publisher and the authors.

Fee: [Not Reported]

Reference’s

O’Connor, P., O’Dea, A., & Flin, R. (2008). Identifying the team skills required by nuclear operations personnel. International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics, 38, 1028-1037.

Items of the Nuclear Team skills Taxonomy

IMPORTANT: The following scale items must be preserved in their original language and must not be changed in any way.

Category	Elements	Definition	Example
Building situation awareness	Develop understanding	Analyzing and sharing the information in order to develop an accurate model of the problem or task.	The CCR team had to think back to what was being done just prior to the power loss in order to identify what might have caused the power loss.
	Anticipation	Forward planning to identify and discuss contingency strategies and/or possible future problems.	A consideration that they kept in mind at this time was: if they had come off, then the whole side of the country might have lost electrical supply.
	Maintain overview	Retaining a broad picture of a task or situation without becoming involved in the details.	The SCE took the bigger picture while the other CCR personnel dealt with the problem.
	Performance monitoring	Observing the activities and performance of other team members.	CCR Supervisor took account of the inexperience of the desk engineer and kept a watchful eye on what he was doing.
Team focused decision making	Analytical decision making	Gathering and integrating information from team members, selecting the best solution, and evaluating the consequences.	The CCR team had to decide whether to trip the reactor or stay on load.
	Procedure following	Following written procedures.	Operations Technicians work to the job instructions.
	Intuitive decision making	Associating cues in the environment to appropriate corrective actions and making a decision.	The CCR team was responding to alarms, and reacting to the system.
	Initiative	Using judgment to make decisions and carry out tasks without needing to be told what to do.	The Team Leader heard about this on the radio and thought it sounded strange, and went over to investigate the problem.
Category	Elements	Definition	Example
Communication	Assertiveness	Communicating ideas and observations in a manner which is persuasive to other team members.	The Operation Technicians had to tell the control room personnel to wait.
	Information exchange	Exchanging information clearly and accurately between team members.	The Plant Engineer was kept informed of how things were progressing.
Co-ordination	Adaptability	Reacting flexibly to changing requirements of a task or situation.	UDEs from another shift were in the control room at this time working as a single team.
	Supporting behaviour	Giving help to other team members in situations in which it was thought they need assistance.	If someone is struggling, and the operation technician is not busy, he will come and help.
	Team workload management	Prioritizing and coordinating tasks and resources.	There was a need to prioritize activities.

Category	Elements	Definition	Example
Collaboration	Leadership	Directing and coordinating the activities of, and motivating other team members, assessing team performance, and establishing a positive atmosphere.	The CCR Supervisor directed the activities on the desk.
	Co-operation	Two or more team members working together on a task which requires meaningful task interdependence without any leadership.	At times like that the generation team ‘muck-in’ together to get jobs done.
	Followership	Co-operating in the accomplishment of a task as directed by a more senior team member.	The operation technicians needed to work to the directions of the control room personnel as required.