Emergence of Leadership in a Crisis: A Study of Group Escapes from Fire inUnderground Coal Mines

摘要

The research explores the emergence of leadership in a crisis situation. Thestudy by the U.S. Bureau of Mines focuses on three underground mine fires and the resulting evacuations. The subjects for the study are 48 coal miners, who evacuated the mines as part of eight escape groups. The subjects described their escape during an open-ended interview. Data were coded according to: (1) evidence of leadership behavior, (2) evidence of lack of leadership behavior, and (3) characteristics of the individual in each group who led the subjects out of the mine.