Integrating Organizational Action in Emergency Management; Strategies for Change

Abstract

Creating effective organizational response under the complex, uncertain operating conditions of a major disaster poses a sobering challenge to public service agencies which bear the primary responsibility for emergency management. The emergency response process, initially designed in standard, hierarchical organizational format for reactive agency operations, demands careful reconsideration in the rapidly changing, increasingly interdependent social environment of the 1980s. The perceived responsibilities of national, state, and local agencies in disaster vary with political and economic conditions. Finding the optimal mix of shared responsibilities within the specific limitations of time, resources, and professional skills available in any given emergency, constitutes a continuing task for emergency service personnel. This article examines the role of information search processes within and between organizations as a means of integrating multiple agency and/or jurisdictional operations into effective emer-