Suchergebnisse

In an emergency or disaster situation, it is likely that a conglomerate of societal resources will respond to various needs. In such a multi‐organizational setting, collaboration becomes necessary. Empirical findings suggest that collaboration can be very problematical and this paper argues that a possible explanation can be found in intra‐organizational leadership ideals, dysfunctional in a collaborative context. In order to facilitate a principal discussion, an analytical framework for discussing leadership and collaboration is suggested. Moreover, literature findings suggesting individual qualities facilitating collaboration are presented. Three leadership archetypes are used to problematize intra‐organizational ideals in inter‐organizational settings. It is suggested that more attention must be paid to qualities enabling individuals to operate simultaneously in different, and partly conflicting, management contexts.

In disaster management, some crises receive more attention than others. In this article we try to unpack what specific factors make one crisis more interesting than another, by focusing on the experiences of crisis management professionals. In the article, we use a broad set of data including participant observations, interviews and workshops, working with the metaphor of a "festival" to illustrate this phenomenon. We find that the festival metaphor works well to capture distinctive features of this specific kind of crisis, that in turn affects the response. Our results indicate that the festival spirit enables a clarity, where managers feel that they can prioritize the proper response and need not include a range of different perspectives. At the same time, they are aware that positive feelings, in the sense of getting things done, are not to be publicly expressed. We conclude with a discussion on the implications for crisis response and the possibility of working with metaphors.

Guided by complexity theory, in this article, we argue that a complex understanding of disaster response management can be achieved by making multiple, transparent and modest interpretations. We suggest an analytical framework in which multiple system interpretations are constructed, all based on explicit analytical choices according to three aspects: (1) system dimension, (2) system scope and (3) system resolution. We apply the framework to a major Swedish forest fire and conclude that direction and coordination as system properties, emerging at a macro level, are the result of interplay between various patterns of influences. These patterns, we argue, can be constructed and analysed through a complexity framework allowing for the construction, and contrasting, of multiple system interpretations.

We suggest a method that can be used for analysing an emergency response system. Both the literature and empirical findings indicate that response operations sometimes diverge from existing plans when adapting to an event and its consequences. The method, which aims at achieving a better understanding of emergency response management, adopts a systems perspective using various relationships that exist or develop between personnel belonging to those organizations that are part of the emergency response operation. Results of a study of such an emergency response system are presented and discussed in order to demonstrate how the method can be employed.