Health crisis and the EU’s HERA: amplifying partial organizing with resourcing for stability, agility, and evolvability

Abstract

What design recommendations can be made for European Union (EU) organizing its health crisis preparedness and emergency response? The EU has recently established the Health Emergency Response and Health Authority (HERA) for coping with crises. However, as an international organization that lacks a legal means of extending its mandate over EU member states, HERA can potentially fail in its mission. To help prevent this potential failure, we make design recommendations that draw on resourcing theory to complement the limited—or partial—organizing capabilities of HERA. The design recommendations are tailored to three schemas that the analysis of the stakeholder feedback suggests: stability, agility, and evolvability. We outline HERA’s current actions and deliverables as mandated in its founding and suggest additional examples of ways to amplify crisis preparedness and emergency response. These recommendations stem from the proposed resourcing perspective within the constraints of an international, partial organization. We conclude with implications for future research and practice, focusing on how stability, agility and evolvability can amplify the HERA’s ability to meet its expectations.