Skip to main content

Behavioural Insights, Organizational Resilience, and Disaster Preparedness

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
International Handbook of Disaster Research
  • 57 Accesses

Abstract

Massive and unpredictable business disruptions caused by waves of conflict, crises, and disasters reinforce the need for businesses to take on a proactive approach to disaster preparedness. Failure to do so will result in a loss of market share and customer goodwill, damaged reputation, and regulatory and legal liabilities. Considering that high-stake and difficult business decision-making often relies on mental shortcuts or heuristics, behavioral approaches to enable businesses to prepare for disasters are required. Behavioural Insights’ use of behavioral science to explain and alter patterns of behavior can be an important tool in business disaster preparedness. In the business context, the use of Behavioural Insights has been found to increase employment rate, retirement savings, emergency agency response effectiveness, workplace flow, and acts of prosociality. In this chapter, we focus on how BI can help businesses build greater organizational resilience through interventions and nudges before, during, and after a disaster. We conclude by calling for the need to consider the types of business (e.g., SMEs versus MNCs) when planning BI interventions for disaster preparedness.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • AgoguĂ©, M., & Parguel, B. (2020). Nudging individuals’ creativity using social labeling. PLoS One, 15(2), e0228961.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Azadegan, A., Syed, T. A., Blome, C., & Tajeddini, K. (2020). Supply chain involvement in business continuity management: Effects on reputational and operational damage containment from supply chain disruptions. Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, 25(6), 747–772.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Banerjee, A., Chandrasekhar, A. G., Dalpath, S., Duflo, E., Floretta, J., Jackson, M. O., Kannan, H., Loza, F., Sankar, A., Schrimpf, A. & Shrestha, M. (2021). Selecting the most effective nudge: Evidence from a large-scale experiment on immunization (No. w28726). National Bureau of Economic Research.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blair, C. S., & Mumford, M. D. (2007). Errors in idea evaluation: Preference for the unoriginal? The Journal of Creative Behavior, 41(3), 197–222.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carter, W. N. (2008). Disaster Management: A Disaster Manager’s Handbook. Asian Development Bank.

    Google Scholar 

  • Castillo, C. (2004). Disaster preparedness and business continuity planning at Boeing: An integrated model. Journal of Facilities Management, 3(1), 8–26.

    Google Scholar 

  • Catalan, C., & Robert, B. (2011, June). Evaluation of organizational resilience: Application in Quebec. In Proceedings of the fourth resilience engineering symposium France (pp. 50–58).

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Chabris, C. F., Laibson, D. I., & Schuldt, J. P. (2010). Intertemporal choice. In Behavioural and experimental economics (pp. 168–177). Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chancellor, J., Margolis, S., Jacobs Bao, K., & Lyubomirsky, S. (2018). Everyday prosociality in the workplace: The reinforcing benefits of giving, getting, and glimpsing. Emotion, 18(4), 507.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Corrales-Estrada, A. M., GĂłmez-Santos, L. L., Bernal-Torres, C. A., & Rodriguez-LĂłpez, J. E. (2021). Sustainability and resilience organizational capabilities to enhance business continuity management: A literature review. Sustainability, 13(15), 8196.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cropley, D. H., & Cropley, A. J. (2020). Creativity as a driver of innovation: measuring the impact of human capital in organisations. In V. Dörfler & M. Stierand (Eds.), Handbook of Research Methods on Creativity (pp. 275–289). Edward Elgar Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dahlhamer, J. M., & D’Souza, M. J. (1997). Determinants of business-disaster preparedness in two U.S. metropolitan areas. International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters, 15(2), 265–281.

    Google Scholar 

  • de Ridder, D. T. D., Feitsma, J., Van den Hoven, M., Kroese, F. M., Schillemans, T., Venema, T. A. G., Vugts, A., & De Vet, E. (2020). Simple nudges that are not so easy. Behavioural Public Policy, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1017/bpp.2020.36

  • Duchek, S. (2020). Organizational resilience: A capability-based conceptualization. Business Research, 13(1), 215–246.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ebert, P., & Freibichler, W. (2017). Nudge management: Applying behavioural science to increase knowledge worker productivity. Journal of Organization Design, 6(1), 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41469-017-0014-1

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gosnell, G. K., List, J. A., & Metcalfe, R. (2016). A new approach to an age-old problem: Solving externalities by incenting workers directly (No. w22316). National Bureau of Economic Research. https://doi.org/10.3386/w22316.

  • Grant, A. M., Berg, J. M., & Cable, D. M. (2014). Job titles as identity badges: How self-reflective titles can reduce emotional exhaustion. Academy of Management Journal, 57(4), 1201–1225.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ha, S., Childs, M., Kim, Y. K., & Fairhurst, A. (2022). After the fire: An assessment of small business preparedness and recovery in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. International Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Administration, 23(2), 216–241.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Han, Z., & Nigg, J. (2011). The influences of business and decision makers’ characteristics on disaster preparedness—A study on the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. International Journal of Disaster Risk Science, 2(4), 22–31.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hansen, P. G. (2019). Tools and ethics for applied behavioural insights: The BASIC toolkit. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, OECD.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hoffmann, R., & Muttarak, R. (2017). Learn from the past, prepare for the future: Impacts of education and experience on disaster preparedness in the Philippines and Thailand. World Development, 96, 32–51.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Howe, P. D. (2011). Hurricane preparedness as anticipatory adaptation: A case study of community businesses. Global Environmental Change, 21(2), 711–720.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hummel, D., & Maedche, A. (2019). How effective is nudging? A quantitative review on the effect sizes and limits of empirical nudging studies. Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics, 80, 47–58. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socec.2019.03.005

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kohn, S., Eaton, J. L., Feroz, S., Bainbridge, A. A., Hoolachan, J., & Barnett, D. J. (2012). Personal disaster preparedness: An integrative review of the literature. Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness, 6(3), 217–231. https://doi.org/10.1001/dmp.2012.47

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lampel, J., Bhalla, A., & Jha, P. P. (2014). Does governance confer organisational resilience? Evidence from UK employee owned businesses. European Management Journal, 32(1), 66–72.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leong, C., & Howlett, M. (2022). Theorizing the behavioral state: Resolving the theory-practice paradox of policy sciences. Public Policy and Administration, 37(2), 203–225.

    Google Scholar 

  • Linnemayr, S., O’Hanlon, C., Uscher-Pines, L., Van Abel, K., & Nelson, C. (2016). Using insights from behavioral economics to strengthen disaster preparedness and response. Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness, 10(5), 768–774. https://doi.org/10.1017/dmp.2016.29

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Loewenstein, G., Asch, D. A., & Volpp, K. G. (2013). Behavioral economics holds potential to deliver better results for patients, insurers, and employers. Health Affairs, 32(7), 1244–1250.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marchiori, D. R., Adriaanse, M. A., & De Ridder, D. T. (2017). Unresolved questions in nudging research: Putting the psychology back in nudging. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 11(1), e12297.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Morrish, S. C., & Jones, R. (2020). Post-disaster business recovery: An entrepreneurial marketing perspective. Journal of Business Research, 113, 83–92.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Newhouse, D., & Getz-Kikuchi, R. (2017, December 12). Whisper courses: On-the-job microlearning with email. Google. https://rework.withgoogle.com/blog/whisper-courses/

  • OECD. (2017). Financing preparedness. OECD.

    Google Scholar 

  • Park, K., Min, H., & Min, S. (2016). Inter-relationship among risk taking propensity, supply chain security practices, and supply chain disruption occurrence. Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management, 22(2), 120–130.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Paton, D. (2003). Disaster preparedness: A social-cognitive perspective. Disaster Prevention and Management, 12(3), 210–216.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • PwC. (2021). Global crisis survey 2021 Singapore report: Building resilience for the future. PwC.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reiter-Palmon, R., & Paulus, P. B. (2019). Cognitive and social processes in team creativity. In Creativity and innovation in organizations (pp. 161–190). Routledge.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Ruggeri, K., Berkessel, J. B., Bujold, P. M., Friedemann, M., Jarke, H., Steinnes, K. K., Maclenannan, M., Quail, S. K., Tavera, F. L., Verra, S., Naru, F., Cavassini, F., & Hardy, E. (2021). A brief history of behavioral and decision sciences. In Psychology and Behavioral Economics (pp. 18–35). Routledge.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Sahebjamnia, N., Torabi, S. A., & Mansouri, S. A. (2015). Integrated business continuity and disaster recovery planning: Towards organizational resilience. European Journal of Operational Research, 242(1), 261–273.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sullivan-Taylor, B., & Branicki, L. (2011). Creating resilient SMEs: Why one size might not fit all. International Journal of Production Research, 49(18), 5565–5579.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sunstein, C. R. (2014). Nudging: A very short guide. Business Economics, 54(2), 127–129. https://doi.org/10.1057/s11369-018-00104-5

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sunstein, C. R., Reisch, L. A., & Rauber, J. (2018). A worldwide consensus on nudging? Not quite, but almost. Regulation & Governance, 12(1), 3–22.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tawse, A., Patrick, V. M., & Vera, D. (2019). Crossing the chasm: Leadership nudges to help transition from strategy formulation to strategy implementation. Business Horizons, 62(2), 249–257.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thaler, R. H., & Sunstein, C. R. (2008). Nudge: Improving decisions about health, wealth, and happiness. Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thun, J. H., DrĂĽke, M., & Hoenig, D. (2011). Managing uncertainty–an empirical analysis of supply chain risk management in small and medium-sized enterprises. International Journal of Production Research, 49(18), 5511–5525.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Torani, S., Majd, P. M., Maroufi, S. S., Dowlati, M., & Sheikhi, R. A. (2019). The importance of education on disasters and emergencies: A review article. Journal of Education and Health Promotion, 8, 85. https://doi.org/10.4103/jehp.jehp_262_18

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Trope, Y., & Liberman, N. (2003). Temporal construal. Psychological Review, 110(3), 403.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tversky, A., & Kahneman, D. (1974). Judgment under uncertainty: Heuristics and biases: Biases in judgments reveal some heuristics of thinking under uncertainty. Science, 185(4157), 1124–1131.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • UNDP (2013). Crisis prevention and recovery. UDNP.

    Google Scholar 

  • US Chamber of Commerce Foundation. (n.d.). Small business preparedness expanded guide. Retrieved from https://www.uschamberfoundation.org/node/43155

  • Weick, K. E. (1993). The collapse of sensemaking in organizations: The Mann Gulch disaster. Administrative Science Quarterly, 628–652.

    Google Scholar 

  • World Bank (2020). Using behavioral insights to improve disaster preparedness, early warning and response mechanisms in Haiti. World Bank. https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/Using-Behavioral-Insights-to-Improve-Disaster-Preparedness-Early-Warning-and-Response-Mechanisms-in-Haiti.pdf

  • Worley, C. G., & Jules, C. (2020). COVID-19’s uncomfortable revelations about agile and sustainable organizations in a VUCA world. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 56(3), 279–283.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wu, S. J., & Paluck, E. L. (2021). Designing nudges for the context: Golden coin decals nudge workplace behavior in China. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 163, 43–50. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2018.10.002

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhao, M., & John, R. (2021). Building community resilience using gain-loss framing to nudge homeowner mitigation and insurance decision-making [Paper presentation]. Proceedings of the 54th Hawaii international conference on system sciences, Hawaii, USA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zimmermann, V., & Renaud, K. (2021). The nudge puzzle: Matching nudge interventions to cybersecurity decisions. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI), 28(1), 1–45. https://doi.org/10.1145/3429888

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yuan Zhi Seah .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Section Editor information

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2022 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Seah, Y.Z., Ha, H. (2022). Behavioural Insights, Organizational Resilience, and Disaster Preparedness. In: Singh, A. (eds) International Handbook of Disaster Research. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-8800-3_201-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-8800-3_201-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore

  • Print ISBN: 978-981-16-8800-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-16-8800-3

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Business and ManagementReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics