Abstract
Incidents command has changed in Denmark. This is evident in how the crew and incident commander education has evolved. The education has evolved from a traditional perspective focusing on a shared situational picture to a relational perspective focusing on sensemaking. As part of this change, new management tools have been introduced, among others, ‘mål med indsats’, abbreviated MMI (incident purpose), which is a way to help the crew commander communicate intent. During the initial explorative interviews for this assignment, it became clear that MMI is not used among the conscripts at the Danish Emergency Management Agency. Therefore, this assignment investigates how the incident commander from the Danish Emergency Management Agency can facilitate sensemaking during an incident, and how significant this is for the conscripts. To investigate this, the assignment uses social constructivism as a philosophical worldview and the qualitative method, specifically focus group interviews with six conscripts from one of the Danish Emergency Management Agency’s operative bases, to gather the necessary empirical data. The data from the interviews were analysed using Karl E. Weicks’ sense making theory and Edward L. Deci and Richard M. Ryan Self-determination theory. Using this, it is evident that the incident commander from the Danish Emergency Management Agency can influence the conscripts' perception during an incident. Especially cues and identity are important for the conscripts' sensemaking. In addition, the assignment discovered that there is a correlation between the conscripts' feeling of purpose and their motivation during an incident. If the conscripts do not see the purpose of the incident, they become amotivated. If the incident commander does not support the conscripts’ sensemaking, they make sense of the incident themselves; this unsupported sensemaking may be negatively focused compared to one supported by the incident commander.