Organizational resilience and the relationship with six major crisis types for Dutch safety regions

John Van Trijp, Kees Boersma, Suzanne Van Trijp, Peter Groenewegen

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

An emergency response organization is resilient when it learns from and is well equipped to handle (potential) risks and hazards. In this paper, we will address the organizational resilience fit for Dutch emergency response organizations (safety regions) in relation to various types of crisis. The approach presented in this paper is based on a quantitative organizational resilience model. We validated the model by means of a survey conducted among the employees of Dutch safety regions. In this survey, we queried how the employees perceive the different attributes related to a set of crisis types. We used the results to calculate the quantitative representation of organizational resilience. We found that the presence of a Quality Management system or a Safety Management system does not significantly influence the organizational resilience of the organization. However, a statistically significant difference for organizational resilience was found in the type of staff assignment: volunteer, professional, or volunteer and professional. The volunteers rated the organizational resilience lower. We recommend to increase a safety region’s organizational resilience by enhancing communication and organizational engagement of volunteers, stop pursuing a Quality/Safety Management program and perform further research on (international) emergency response organizations.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)360-381
Number of pages22
JournalRisk, hazards & crisis in public policy
Volume10
Issue number3
Early online date14 Jun 2019
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Sept 2019

Keywords

  • crisis type
  • emergency response organization
  • organizational resilience
  • quality management system
  • safety management system
  • safety region
  • survey

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