"Crisis managers would benefit from a more flexible approach"

A new study shows that crisis managers often evaluate the effectiveness of their interventions by how well they followed predetermined procedures and protocols.
"These results are paradoxical because crises are, by definition, processes beyond our control. We argue that they would instead benefit from emphasising flexibility and acceptance that unwanted events cannot be avoided during the crisis management process," says Edward Deverell.

In a scientific article published in the International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, Edward Deverell, associate professor of political science at the Swedish Defence University, and Adrian Ganic, former research assistant, examine how individuals working in crisis management assess whether their crisis management has been successful. The results indicate that they largely judge the effectiveness of crisis management based on how well they have followed predetermined rules, procedures, and protocols.

Crises are characterized by uncertainty

"These results are paradoxical because crises are, by definition, processes beyond our control. They are characterized by threats to fundamental values, time pressure, and uncertainty – factors that tend to render predetermined plans insufficient or, in the worst case, unusable," says Edward Deverell, associate professor of political science at the Swedish Defence University.

"Therefore, we argue that professionals should evaluate crisis management based on methods that emphasize flexibility and innovation, and an acceptance that unwanted events cannot be avoided, instead of current work models and evaluation tools which often build on the notion that a crisis is predictable and manageable solely through plans, guidelines, and routines," he continues.

Indicators of successful crisis management

The study is based on interviews with 21 emergency management officials and 19 crisis communicators about the factors they believe contribute to successful crisis management.

"Based on a content analysis of the responses, we then created a model of the most common indicators that the officials thought pointed to successful crisis management," explains Edward Deverell.

The work resulted in eleven different indicators, all of which could be categorized under themes emphasizing the importance of rationalization, control, and following routines and plans.

"In our analysis, we contrast this outcome with a more flexible perspective and discuss the challenges that crisis managers' perceptions of the crisis and its management can lead to. We believe that crisis managers would benefit from insights into human limitations and that crises involve unclear and unexpected events. Then they could more easily act beyond routines and plans, and also have more meaningful indicators to be evaluated against," says Edward Deverell.

Josefin Svensson