Abstract
Organizing for safety and security has become increasingly complex. A multitude of actors is involved trying to respond collaboratively to problems varying from terrorist attacks to natural or man-made disasters. Interorganizational collaborative crisis and disaster management has become an essential tool to deal with multifaceted extreme events. Despite the popularity of collaboration in theory, case research has shown that it is difficult to achieve in practice. The different organizational cultures involved in interorganizational collaboration are perceived as a severe challenge to effective collaboration. This chapter asserts that a culture-as-problem approach is an unhelpful perspective. Cultural differences provide the leverage that is to be gained from collaboration and, if managed, enhance the value of collaborative activities in the field of crisis and disaster management. Increased awareness of organizational culture as an important factor in interorganizational collaboration and a focus on culture as an asset could break an important barrier to effective interorganizational collaboration during crisis or disaster.
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Notes
- 1.
Quarantelli 1998 and Perry and Quarantelli 2005 illustrate the existence of many definitions and understandings of disaster. This chapter follows the definition of Von Brainich Felth 2004. He perceives a crisis as a situation in which a vital interest is threatened and normal measures are inadequate to respond to the threat. In this understanding, a disaster is a crisis only on the terrain of the public or physical safety. This entails that disaster management is a part of crisis management, Scholtens 2008, p. 17.
- 2.
Wisner et al. 2012.
- 3.
- 4.
Kapucu et al. 2010.
- 5.
Van Twist 2000 uses this term to describe a word that has become so popular in policy debates that the use of it can count on uncritical acceptance among managers.
- 6.
Scholtens 2007.
- 7.
Scholtens 2008.
- 8.
Thomson et al. 2009, p. 25.
- 9.
- 10.
Thomson et al. 2009, p. 23.
- 11.
Thomson and Perry 2006, p. 21.
- 12.
The extensive literature on collaboration is without agreement on terms but there seems to be agreement that collaboration requires collective action on a higher level than cooperation or coordination (Thomson and Perry 2006; Alexander 1995) Most scholars agree that cooperation and collaboration are different in terms of their depth of interaction, integration, commitment, and complexity. In research and practice, coordination and collaboration have been used interchangeably.
- 13.
Thomson and Perry 2006.
- 14.
- 15.
Schein 2004.
- 16.
Ibid, p. 26.
- 17.
Barney 1986.
- 18.
Granot 1999.
- 19.
Huxham 1996, p. 4.
- 20.
Huxham 1996, p. 4.
- 21.
Huxham 1996, p. 4.
- 22.
Long et al. 2013.
- 23.
- 24.
Jackson 1996.
- 25.
- 26.
Kapucu et al. 2010, p. 19.
- 27.
Eide et al. 2012.
- 28.
Huxham 1996.
- 29.
- 30.
Scholtens 2008.
- 31.
Scholtens, p. 200.
- 32.
Scholtens 2008 for an overview of evaluations.
- 33.
Scholtens 2008.
- 34.
Scholtens, p. 202.
- 35.
Groenendaal et al. 2013.
- 36.
Meyerson et al. 1996.
- 37.
- 38.
- 39.
Wolbers and Boersma 2013.
- 40.
Wolbers and Boersma 2013.
- 41.
Wolbers and Boersma 2013 refer to this process as ‘collective sensemaking’.
- 42.
Thomson and Perry 2006.
- 43.
Scholtens 2008.
- 44.
Scholtens 2007.
- 45.
Boersma et al. 2009.
- 46.
Dutch Safety Regions Act 2010.
- 47.
Dutch Safety Regions Act 2010.
- 48.
- 49.
Dutch Safety Regions Act 2010.
- 50.
Dutch Safety Regions Act 2010, p. 37.
- 51.
- 52.
Groenendaal et al. 2013.
- 53.
Scholtens 2008.
- 54.
Groenendaal et al. 2013.
- 55.
Scholtens 2008.
- 56.
Helsloot 2015.
- 57.
Thomson and Perry 2006.
- 58.
Scholtens 2015.
- 59.
Wolbers and Boersma 2013.
- 60.
Wolbers et al. 2012.
- 61.
Scholtens 2008.
- 62.
- 63.
Thomson and Perry 2006.
- 64.
- 65.
- 66.
Huxham 1996.
- 67.
Scholtens 2007.
- 68.
- 69.
- 70.
- 71.
Thomson and Perry 2006.
- 72.
Treurniet et al. 2012.
- 73.
Thomson et al. 2008.
- 74.
Thomson and Perry 2006, p. 27.
- 75.
Edmunds 2006.
- 76.
Thomson and Perry 2006.
- 77.
- 78.
Huxham and Vangen 2005.
- 79.
Ansell and Gash 2008.
- 80.
Moynihan 2008.
- 81.
Schein 2004.
- 82.
Scholtens 2015.
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de Jong, H. (2016). Interorganizational Collaboration in Crisis and Disaster Management: The Valuable Asset of Organizational Culture. In: Beeres, R., Bakx, G., de Waard, E., Rietjens, S. (eds) NL ARMS Netherlands Annual Review of Military Studies 2016. NL ARMS. T.M.C. Asser Press, The Hague. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6265-135-7_11
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