Teamwork competencies required by members of integrated operations teams in the petroleum industry

Introduction of the operational concept Integrated Operations (IO) by petroleum companies operating on the Norwegian Continental Shelf implies an increased use of distributed teams (IO teams) in operation of petroleum installations. To develop teamwork training programs for members of IO teams, it is necessary to understand what teamwork competencies IO team members need to work proficiently as a team. This paper accounts for the development of the MAITEC model. The model was developed based on a literature survey. It comprises what is suggested to be ten main attributes of IO teamwork competence: IO-mindset, IO team-technology competence, team leadership, inter-personal relations, inter-positional resources, personal resources, communication, shared situation awareness, mutual trust, and decision making. The content of the model was assessed in an empirical study. or as a directional driller). Teamwork competence refers to the skills, knowledge and attitudes that a team member needs, because the task is performed jointly with other people. They include, e.g., competence in communication, in constructing shared situation understanding, and in team leadership. Teamwork under the traditional operational concept mainly involves co-located teams. However, the introduction of IO implies an increased use of distributed teams in operation of petroleum installations. A distributed team may broadly be defined as a team, which consists of minimum two team members. At least one of these will be located at a geographical location that differs from the location of the other team member(s), and collaboration will be mainly technology mediated (adapted based on Hertel et al. (2005)). In a work setting, members of distributed teams tend to have different professional backgrounds and/or to have different departmental or organizational affiliations (Baan and Maznevski, 2008). The term IO team will in the following be used as reference to a distributed team, engaged in operational activity, working under IO within the petroleum industry at the NCS. The goals and tasks of an IO team will not necessarily differ from those of a team that works under the traditional operational concept, but the manner in which the goals and tasks are achieved will differ. This is illustrated in Table 1. The table presents Ringstad and Andersen’s (2006) vision of how IO may change the traditional ways of working in petroleum companies. The three last distinctions have been added to the table, based on Skjerve and Nystad (2010).