Book contents
- Frontline Crisis Response
- Frontline Crisis Response
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Tables
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Operational Dilemmas in Frontline Crisis Response
- 2 Leadership
- 3 Sensemaking
- 4 Acting
- 5 Ethics
- 6 Emotions
- 7 Ties
- 8 Structures
- 9 Coordination
- 10 Civilians
- 11 Technology
- 12 Goals
- 13 Advancing Research on Frontline Crisis Response
- References
- Index
8 - Structures
Organizing versus Disorganizing
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 September 2023
- Frontline Crisis Response
- Frontline Crisis Response
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Tables
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Operational Dilemmas in Frontline Crisis Response
- 2 Leadership
- 3 Sensemaking
- 4 Acting
- 5 Ethics
- 6 Emotions
- 7 Ties
- 8 Structures
- 9 Coordination
- 10 Civilians
- 11 Technology
- 12 Goals
- 13 Advancing Research on Frontline Crisis Response
- References
- Index
Summary
Crisis research focuses primarily on how response structures should be organized. There are ongoing debates about the required degree of flexibility in the response structure and what role emergent groups should have. A shared assumption in this research is that organization and structure are synonymous with order in a crisis and enable a rapid, coordinated response. Disorganization, by extension, is criticized for crisis response failures. This view ignores the risk of over-organization and crisis response rigidity. In uncertain crises, disorganizing might produce a looser, less ordered structure that facilitates a novel, adaptive response. The dilemma for frontline responders revolves around the need for both organizing and disorganizing during crises. It is worthwhile noting that different types and phases of the crisis demand different forms of reorganizing. The reorganizing process, through disorganizing and organizing, needs to be ongoing throughout the duration of the crisis situation to ensure that crisis demands and organizational response structures evolve synchronously.
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- Frontline Crisis ResponseOperational Dilemmas in Emergency Services, Armed Forces, and Humanitarian Organizations, pp. 118 - 134Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023