Abstract
A survey of U.S. local government officials (n = 307) investigates how to improve local governments’ crisis resilience. The results indicate that internal resources (i.e., time, money, and staff) were deemed important to local governments’ crisis management; however, there was a significant decrease in their perceived availability. Moreover, our results suggest that neither community size nor form of government predicted the availability of internal resources. Finally, internal resources were significant predictors of local government officials’ evaluations of a crisis; however, internal resources did not predict the officials’ evaluations of the strength of their crisis management. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed here.
Highlights
According to Somers [2] and Wildavsky [3], crisis resilience manifests after a crisis occurs, proactive measures can minimize possible crisis damage and maximize an organization’s resilience
Many scholars have for years noted the importance of studies on crisis preparedness, research on crisis preparedness has been mainly conducted in the corporate sector [6] or in the non-profit sector [7]; we extend the literature with this paper by exploring crisis preparedness in local governments
This study extends research on the adaptive capacity dimension of resilience [38], how internal resources affect it
Summary
Crisis resilience includes planning, training, education, and networking [1]. An organization’s crisis resilience can be increased by developing solid crisis plans, training and educating employees, and building good internal (e.g., cooperation with other departments in the organization) and external (e.g., information sharing with other organizations) relationships [1]. According to Somers [2] and Wildavsky [3], crisis resilience manifests after a crisis occurs, proactive measures (e.g., having a high level of crisis preparedness) can minimize possible crisis damage and maximize an organization’s resilience. Somers [2] notes that “(crisis) resilience is more than mere survival; it involves identifying potential risks and taking proactive steps to ensure that an organization thrives in the face of adversity. The objective is to build resilience by maximizing the capacity of the organization to adapt to complex situations” Exploring the measures that can bolster an organization’s crisis management capacity (i.e., crisis preparedness) is critical
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