- When stress occurs, attention tends to be directed towards
central issues, which can lead to ‘tunnel vision’. Under high
stress, the search for information is chaotic, for example,
which can lead to incorrect conclusions or conclusions drawn
on the wrong grounds. - Memory capacity declines, which among other things affects
shortterm memory and the individual’s ability to reason and
draw conclusions based on information that comes from several
sources. - A stressed individual changes his or her way of working, usually
by speed being valued higher than carefulness. In the event of
stress, many people also behave as if there is pressure against
the clock, even if this is not the case.
Bass (1990) writes of two different sources of stress that can be
identified in organisations or groups: role conflicts and role am-
biguity. Role conflicts involve contradictory demands between
roles, conflicts in time allocation between roles and insufficient
resources. Role ambiguity involves ambiguity concerning tasks
and objectives in roles, and uncertainty as to the demands that
are placed on task execution. Bass also adds role overload to role
conflicts and role ambiguity. To keep overloading in check, per-
sons in charge try to stay organised so that they are ‘on top of
things’, and to escape overloading of the role, they prioritise tasks
based on their own preferences, i.e. based on what they think is
most pleasant or least disagreeable. Here one sees the significance
of role logic, i.e. that the role that the decision maker holds feels
familiar, that the role is wellpracticed, that the decision maker
has the right competence for the role and that there is a certain
agreement between the everyday demands and needs of the role,
and the emergency situation’s demands and needs.
Bass (1990) also writes that the person in charge can also con-
stitute a stress factor for the group. If he or she, due to the si-
tuation, experiences stress and consequently demonstrates stress
reactions, such as acting irrationally, this can amplify the group’s
stress behaviour. It can even happen that a superior officer or ma-
nagement employee leads his or her group or organisation into a
crisis or worsens a crisis through reduced time perspective and
conservative thought. A stressed leader may be unable to adapt
a group’s actions to the needs of the current situation, which en-
tails that the group’s stress increases with even poorer results as