Abstract
Fast-response organizations excel in mounting swift and coordinated responses to unexpected events. There are a multitude of conflicting explanations why these organizations excel. These range from acknowledging the strengths of centralized command and control structures, towards stressing the importance of decentralized, improvised action. Though this dichotomy is derived from studies offering either structure or action-based explanations, we were able to reconcile these insights by looking into the process of how fast-responders organize themselves during an unfolding crisis. We analyzed 15 high-speed police pursuits crossing multiple administrative units and jurisdictions, and interviewed and observed officers at work in multiple operations centers, police cars, and helicopters. Our analysis uncovered that fast-responders regularly transition between designed, frontline, and partitioned modes of organizing, each characterized by practices that shape command, allocation, and information sharing. Success and failure are rooted in the ability of the responders to adapt their mode of organizing by tacking back and forth between these practices. Based on our findings, we constructed a process model that provides a deeper understanding of fast-response organizing that informs future studies on organizing in extreme contexts.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 405-436 |
| Number of pages | 32 |
| Journal | Human Relations |
| Volume | 74 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| Early online date | 19 Dec 2019 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Mar 2021 |
Funding
Schakel Jan Kees VU University Amsterdam, the Netherlands, [email protected] https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3296-4130 Wolbers Jeroen Leiden University, the Netherlands, [email protected] Jeroen Wolbers, Leiden University, Turfmarkt 99, The Hague, 2511DP, the Netherlands. Email: [email protected] 12 2019 0018726719893450 © The Author(s) 2019 2019 The Tavistock Institute This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License ( http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ ) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages ( https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage ). Fast-response organizations excel in mounting swift and coordinated responses to unexpected events. There are a multitude of conflicting explanations why these organizations excel. These range from acknowledging the strengths of centralized command and control structures, towards stressing the importance of decentralized, improvised action. Though this dichotomy is derived from studies offering either structure or action-based explanations, we were able to reconcile these insights by looking into the process of how fast-responders organize themselves during an unfolding crisis. We analyzed 15 high-speed police pursuits crossing multiple administrative units and jurisdictions, and interviewed and observed officers at work in multiple operations centers, police cars, and helicopters. Our analysis uncovered that fast-responders regularly transition between designed, frontline, and partitioned modes of organizing, each characterized by practices that shape command, allocation, and information sharing. Success and failure are rooted in the ability of the responders to adapt their mode of organizing by tacking back and forth between these practices. Based on our findings, we constructed a process model that provides a deeper understanding of fast-response organizing that informs future studies on organizing in extreme contexts. Command and control coordination crisis management fast-response organizing situational awareness Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek https://doi.org/10.13039/501100003246 Smart Disaster Governance: 409-14-003 Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek https://doi.org/10.13039/501100003246 Veni scheme / 016.Veni.195.121 edited-state corrected-proof typesetter ts1 We would like to thank our three anonymous reviewers for an inspiring and supportive review process. In addition, we are grateful to our respondents at the National Police for their openness and willingness to reflect upon the dilemmas they face in their important work. Funding The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by the Dutch Research Council (NWO) (Smart Disaster Governance 409-14-003, Veni Scheme 016.Veni.195.121). ORCID iD Jeroen Wolbers https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3296-4130
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Dutch Research Council | |
| Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology Centre | 016 |
| Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek | 409-14-003 |
Keywords
- Command and control
- coordination
- crisis management
- fast-response organizing
- situational awareness
