MANAGING THE UNEXPECTED: SENSE‐MAKING IN THE CHINESE EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

In: Public administration: an international journal, Band 94, Heft 2, S. 414-429

Abstract

AbstractChina built a new National Emergency Management System (NEMS) after the 2003 SARS crisis to cope with the challenges of crisis and disaster management, particularly the challenge of joint sense‐making. This article investigates how the NEMS addresses joint sense‐making challenges in crisis management. It explores several recent crises in China to uncover factors that undermine or facilitate joint sense‐making. Our study unearths a low degree of professionalization, plans that do not match crisis events, a lack of accountability, and the absence of unified leadership. These critical factors make it hard for the newly built NEMS to establish a common understanding of a crisis. This article concludes with lessons for China's NEMS that may also be useful for other large countries.