What's the Problem? Local Officials' Conceptions of Weaknesses in their Municipalities' Crisis Management Capabilities

Abstract

It is becoming increasingly common for local‐government officials (civil servants and political appointees) to take part in vulnerability analyses to assess their municipality's capacity to withstand various crises. The question of how such groups conceive of problems concerning their municipality's crisis management capabilities (CMC) is largely unexplored. The aim of this study is to analyse the conceptions that groups of civil servants and political appointees engaged in vulnerability analyses have of weaknesses in their organizations' CMC. The attempt is to identify themes in how problems are described, as well as to compare how often the problems may be associated with different elements that constitute an organization and the different crisis management processes an organization needs to be involved in to manage crises. Ten vulnerability analyses, conducted in seven municipalities, and in one case at a county level, are analysed. The results are discussed in terms of what they indicate concerning the understanding these officials had of the organizations' CMC.