Dear UK Polar Network personnel,
I am Andres Käosaar, a PhD student at the University of Central Florida (USA), working on team trust dynamics in Polar environments under the supervision of Professor Shawn Burke (University of Central Florida, USA). My project also includes the collaboration of Mr. Moses Rivera (University of Central Florida, USA) and Dr. Pedro Marques-Quinteiro (Universidade Lusófona, Portugal).
We believe you might be the best people in your organization to turn to for asking for help related to reaching participants for the study.
We are looking for individuals who are either currently on an expedition/mission in any polar stations/vessels/missions or who have participated in any polar expedition/mission since June 2021.
If you would be so kind and forward the study invitation to people who you know have this experience or to the organizations/stations in your network, we'd be very thankful. From our side, we offer a summary of the study together with best practices and learning points from the data that we gather. This material would help polar organizations and stations think more systematically about what makes specific polar teams successful.
The study invitation for individual participants has been included in the email as an attachment.
The study is entirely online, and the total time required is 20 minutes (2 10-minute blocks). First, they will be asked to complete the first part of the questionnaire whenever they have time (it takes approximately 10 minutes). Then a week after completing the first questionnaire, we will send them a link to the second and last part of the questionnaire (estimated completion time 10 minutes).
To access the first part of the study, click the survey link below:
https://ucf.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_8dGzcVU05sKNCYe
For the second portion of the survey, we will send a second survey link to the email addresses the participants provided within the first survey.
As previously mentioned, our study aims to investigate what influences trust between team members in Isolated, Confined, and Extreme (ICE; e.g., teams in polar regions) environments. Since there is not much literature about it in this specific context, the study promises to be an important contribution, thus your help is incredibly valuable.
We are collecting data from as many different stations, expeditions, and vessels as possible so that we will have a more complete picture of trust in ICE and how to make better teams for those environments. As part of our study, we will summarize our findings, practical implications for stakeholders (e.g., station managers and teams), and practical recommendations for both teams and individuals that could support everyone who will embark on another journey to the Antarctic or Arctic environment. We will share these recommendations and findings with everyone who joined the study and/or helped us to reach participants.
We would highly appreciate your contribution. Please let us know what you think and also feel free to just forward the email to any people who you are aware of that fit the description of people we are looking for.
If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to contact the Primary Investigator (PI), Andres Käosaar via email: Andres.kaosaar@ucf.edu
Thank you,
Andres Käosaar, MA
Moses Riviera, MS
Dr. Pedro Marques Quintero
Prof. C. Shawn Burke
