Observability of Inter-Organizational Crisis Management Capability

Abstract

Effective responses to severe strains and large-scale disasters demand efficient crisis management, i.e., capabilities that depend on inter-organizational collaborations. Inter-organizational exercises are performed to maintain and develop the inter-organizational crisis management (ICM) capability. In a previous review of scientific literature, we identified nine themes (i.e., aspects) of ICM capability (ICMC): interaction, coordination/C2, decision making, relationships, situation awareness (SA), resilience, preparedness, system performance, and information infrastructure. This paper presents empirical testing of the nine ICMC aspects, by observational studies in two ICM exercises. The ICMC aspects were implemented in a structured observation protocol, which allowed observations based on classification of single utterances and actions. All ICMC aspects except system performance were observed. Actions related to SA, interaction, and coordination/C2 were frequently observed, while relations, resilience, and preparedness were observed to a lesser extent. In addition, exercise evaluators rated the relevance of all nine ICMC aspects as high.