Managing the coordination paradox: Introducing a fragmentation perspective in crisis management

In organization and management theory coordination is primarily characterized by integration. A tautology is concealed in this approach: coordination is simultaneously the diagnosis of the problem and the way forward to resolve it. Yet, already for several decades empirical studies in crisis management showed that fragmentation is a prevailing phenomenon. Fragmentation emerges because ambiguous demands lead to a complexity of relationships and multiplicity of interpretations. Crisis management studies have shown that dealing with fragmentation is not only inevitable; it is a key characteristic of managing crisis situations. Therefore, we zoom in on how crisis managers from fire department, medical services, and police deal with ambiguity in field exercises, and will show that integration and fragmentation have a paradoxical relationship. By showing how fragmentation is not a deficiency of integration, but has features in itself that are necessary for coordination in fast- paced environments, our work generates a more complete understanding of the process of coordinating, in both the practice of crisis management, and for organizational theory in a broader sense.