Steven Curnin

Role Clarity, Swift Trust and Multi‐Agency Coordination

The purpose of this paper was to further the understanding of swift trust in temporary organizations by examining the role swift trust plays in emergency management coordination and how role clarity acts as an enabler within temporary organizational configurations. A qualitative interview study was conducted with 32 liaison officers working in three strategic-level emergency operations centres in Australia. Role clarity was identified as an important factor in the successful formation of emergency management temporary organizations by emergency services and critical infrastructure liaison officers working in multi-agency arrangements. By providing role clarity, liaison officers may enable collaborative working practices among organizations involved in emergency management and thus facilitate multi-agency coordination. The function of role clarity in the context of swift trust is largely overlooked in emergency management. Therefore, this study has contributed to the knowledge of swift trust by empirically verifying the impact of role clarity by liaison officers working in the research setting.

A theoretical framework for negotiating the path of emergency management multi-agency coordination.

Multi-agency coordination represents a significant challenge in emergency management. The need for liaison officers working in strategic level emergency operations centres to play organizational boundary spanning roles within multi-agency coordination arrangements that are enacted in complex and dynamic emergency response scenarios creates significant research and practical challenges. The aim of the paper is to address a gap in the literature regarding the concept of multi-agency coordination from a human-environment interaction perspective. We present a theoretical framework for facilitating multi-agency coordination in emergency management that is grounded in human factors and ergonomics using the methodology of core-task analysis. As a result we believe the framework will enable liaison officers to cope more efficiently within the work domain. In addition, we provide suggestions for extending the theory of core-task analysis to an alternate high reliability environment.

Spanning Organizational Boundaries in Emergency Management

Multiagency emergency management coordination requires stakeholders to span organizational boundaries and facilitate collaboration among other agencies within temporary supraorganizations. Multiagency coordination is important in emergency management as disasters often require the collaboration of multiple agencies into temporary supraorganizations. However, little is known about the boundary spanning activities that influence this collaboration. Based on 39 semistructured interviews with senior emergency management practitioners spanning organizational boundaries, this paper proposes a typology of boundary spanning activities for emergency management. Embracing these activities may address some of the challenges associated with the collaboration of multiple agencies in a disaster.

Managing the constraints of boundary spanning in emergency management

Stakeholders tasked with boundary spanning in emergency management are fundamental in facilitating multi-agency coordination. However, there is a scarcity of research investigating the characteristics of emergency management boundary spanners and how they achieve this function in the complex environment of emergency operation centres. An exploratory case study approach was adopted and applied in a strategic-level emergency operations centre. The study used three very different but interrelated qualitative research techniques based upon the Core-Task Analysis framework to categorize the work of stakeholders fulfilling a boundary spanning role in this setting. The data identified that stakeholders performing boundary spanning activities in a strategic-level emergency operations centre face a number of constraints. These can include unfamiliarity with the work domain, its personnel, and structure which can lead to temporal, cultural and information challenges. In order to manage these constraints, boundary spanners working in a strategic-level emergency operations centre need to adopt certain characteristics in order to accomplish their activities. A significant outcome from the data was the necessity to engage in these important undertakings in the pre-response phase in an effort to facilitate successful multi-agency coordination in an actual emergency event.

Obtaining information in emergency management: a case study from an Australian emergency operations centre

Stakeholders involved in emergency management multi-agency coordination require information to inform their situation awareness to plan and coordinate their response and mitigation strategies. This study investigates the perceived information requirements of senior strategic level emergency management personnel and how they obtain this information. The results are based on empirical data from two sources: an organisational survey and observational study during an emergency event. The findings indicate that the most influential cognitive artefacts used to obtain information are in person communication and use of specialised application software. However, challenges associated with using the latter can result in an increased use of in person communication which can limit the exchange of information throughout the system of actors. Understanding the strengths and limitations of how these stakeholders obtain information in this Australian emergency operations centre to inform their situation awareness is essential in facilitating multi-agency coordination in this environment.

Large Civilian Air Medical Jets: Implications for Australian Disaster Health

Disasters involving multiple foreign nationals overseas will invariably necessitate an air medical response to repatriate the casualties to their respective home countries. Depending on the location of the incident and the number of casualties, foreign governments may need to perform a large-scale air medical response. This may involve using large civilian jet aircraft (LCJ) as an air medical platform. This paper provides a review of the current understanding when converting LCJs for air medical capability. This review concludes that LCJ configured for air medical capability can be used successfully in disasters. The findings indicate that standard civilian jets can be reconfigured for transporting multiple casualties. The use of these aircraft can be considered in disaster planning to complement existing military arrangements or as an alternative option. This strategy can be an inexpensive and effective option and should be considered by Australian disaster health agencies.

Values and Complexities in Assessing Strategic‐Level Emergency Management Effectiveness

Emergency managers working at a strategic level play a pivotal role in managing operational needs as well the needs of political elites engaged in crisis management and meaning‐making. Evaluating emergency performance has been widely regarded as problematic, in part because of various stakeholder interests and because it is so subjective. This paper explores the values of personnel working in emergency management at a strategic level as well as the conditions that limit their effectiveness as they attempt to align the needs of different stakeholders. The surveys and interviews conducted suggest that what constitutes success is both subjective and contested by different stakeholders. There is a need to establish a broader perspective on what constitutes success when evaluating emergency response.

Human error during the multilevel responses to three Australian bushfire disasters

The scale and complexity associated with the coordinated response to natural disasters inevitably produce human errors. However, little is known about the frequency and distribution of human error at different levels of coordination during disasters. The purpose of this research was to explore this phenomenon for selected catastrophic bushfires in Australia. To accomplish this, we used the Human Factors Analysis and Classification System that has been widely applied to accidents but is untested with respect to the complexity and temporality of disasters. The results identified that decision errors made during these disasters differed depending upon the level of coordination but were associated with information uncertainty, fatigue, coordination complexities, procedural violations, and degraded personal interactions.

Enhancing learning in emergency services organisational work

The paper aims to assist emergency services organisations to learn how to learn so that managers better understand how to embed effective learning practices and systems into their organisation’s culture. Learning in emergency services organisations occurs in a range of contexts. These include after-action reviews, externally led inquiries, and practice-led research projects. The paper outlines key themes from the work-related learning literature and introduces a modified experiential learning framework to ground real-world experiences. Interviews were conducted with 18 emergency services practitioners. The findings provide examples of the broad challenges that agencies need to manage to enhance and sustain learning. These include shifting value from action post an event, to reflection, focusing on the bigger picture and allowing enough time to effectively embed new practices after an emergency. No organisation can forgo learning. All experiences provide opportunities for learning to occur. A key insight for agencies interested in facilitating improvements in learning is to locate potential weak links in the learning cycle and to develop a better understanding of how to learn.