The Achilles’ Heel of crisis management in the norwegian police

Abstract

ABSTRACT When a major, acute crisis happens, preparedness agencies will strengthen their command and control structure. From an organisational point of view, the present paper, taking the case of the Norwegian police, sheds light on the appropriateness of changing the organisational structure in response to the crisis. Based on research interviews with crisis managers, it investigates how they experience the change of command structure and, subsequently, the effect on the management of the crisis. The analysis generated four findings. First, activities in the control room increase at the same time as the crisis organisation is reorganising. Second, the change leads to uncertainties between the crisis managers in terms of roles and responsibilities which can potentially impede the crisis management. Third, human factors affect the information flow between the managers. Lastly, the control room operators feel themselves to be the outsiders of the crisis management. The dynamics of the findings are further discussed by applying structural-instrumental and institutional perspectives. The study is relevant in respect of understanding the interaction between the formal and informal organisational aspects within crisis management.