Information and Expertise Sharing in Inter-Organizational Crisis Management
- 1.8k Downloads
- 20 Citations
Abstract
Emergency or crisis management, as is well-attested, is a complex management problem. A variety of agencies need to collaborate and coordinate in real-time and with an urgency that is not always present in other domains. It follows that accurate information of varying kinds (e.g. geographical and weather conditions; available skills and expertises; state-of-play; current dispositions and deployments) needs to be made available in a timely fashion to the organizations and individuals who need it. By definition, this information will come from a number of sources both within and across organizations. Large-scale events in particular necessitate collaboration with other organizations. Of course, plans and processes exist to deal with such events but the number of dynamically changing factors as well as the high number of heterogeneous organizations and the high degree of interdependency involved make it impossible to plan for all contingencies. A degree of ongoing improvisation, which typically occurs by means of a variety of information and expertise sharing practices, therefore becomes necessary. This, however, faces many challenges, such as different organizational cultures, distinct individual and coordinative work practices and discrete information systems. Our work entails an examination of the practices of information and expertise sharing, and the obstacles to it, in inter-organizational crisis management. We conceive of this as a design case study, such that we examine a problem area and its scope; conduct detailed enquiries into practice in that area, and provide design recommendations for implementation and evaluation. First, we will present the results of an empirical study of collaboration practices between organizations and public authorities with security responsibilities such as the police, fire departments, public administration and electricity network operators, mainly in scenarios of medium to large power outages in Germany. Based on these results, we will describe a concept, which was designed, implemented and evaluated as a system prototype, in two iterations. While the first iteration focuses on situation assessment, the second iteration also includes inter-organizational collaboration functionalities. Based on the findings of our evaluations with practitioners, we will discuss how to support collaboration with a particular focus on information and expertise sharing.
Key words
Information management Expertise sharing Collaboration Design case study Inter-organizational crisis management CSCWNotes
Acknowledgments
The project ‘InfoStrom’ was funded by a grant of the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (No. 13N10712).
References
- Ackerman, M.S., Dachtera, J., Pipek, V. and Wulf, V. (2013). Sharing Knowledge and Expertise: The CSCW View of Knowledge Management. Computer Supported Cooperative Work: The Journal of Collaborative Computing (JCSCW), vol. 22, no. 4, pp. 531–573.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- Ackerman, M.S., Pipek, V. and Wulf, V. (2003). Sharing expertise: Beyond knowledge management. Cambridge MA, USA: MIT-Press.Google Scholar
- Bannon, L. and Schmidt, K. (1989). CSCW: Four Characters in Search of a Context. Proceedings of the European Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work (ECSCW). Gatwick, London, Great Britain, pp. 358–372.Google Scholar
- Bharosa, N., Lee, J. and Janssen, M. (2010). Challenges and obstacles in sharing and coordinating information during multi-agency disaster response: Propositions from field exercises. Information Systems Frontiers, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 49–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- Cai, G. (2005). Extending Distributed GIS to Support Geo-Collaborative Crisis Management. Geographic Information Science, vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 4–14.Google Scholar
- Chang, Z. and Li, S. (2007). Collaboration enabled GIS Tools for Emergency Operation Centre. In Li, J., Zlatanova, S. and Fabbri, A. (eds): Geomatics Solutions for Disaster Management. Lecture Notes in Geoinformation and Cartography, Berlin Heidelberg, Germany: Springer, pp. 305–320.Google Scholar
- Chen, R., Sharman, R., Rao, H.R. and Upadhyaya, S.J. (2008). Coordination in Emergency Response Management. Communications of the ACM, vol. 51, no. 5, pp. 66–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- Ciborra, C. (1996). Improvisation and Information Technology in Organizations. Proceedings of the International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS). Cleveland, USA, pp. 369–380Google Scholar
- Convertino, G., Mentis, H.M., Slavkovic, A., Rosson, M.B. and Carroll, J.M. (2011). Supporting common ground and awareness in emergency management planning. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI), vol. 18, no. 4, pp. 1–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- Doherty, G., Karamanis, N. and Luz, S. (2012). Collaboration in Translation: The Impact of Increased Reach on Cross-organisational Work. Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW): The Journal of Collaborative Computing, vol. 21, no. 6, pp. 525–554.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- Endsley, M.R. (1995). Toward a theory of situation awareness in dynamic systems. Human Factors, vol. 37, no. 1, pp. 32–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- Geertz, C. (1973). The Interpretation of Cultures. New York, USA: Basic BooksGoogle Scholar
- Harrald, J.R. (2006). Agility and Discipline: Critical Success Factors for Disaster Response. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, vol. 604, no. 1, pp. 256–272.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- Heath, C. and Luff, P. (1992). Collaboration and Control: Crisis Management and Multimedia Technology in London Underground Line Control Rooms. Journal of Computer Supported Cooperative Work, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 24–48.Google Scholar
- Hertzum, M., Bansler, J.P., Havn, E.C. and Simonsen, J. (2012). Pilot Implementation : Learning from Field Tests in IS Development. Communications of the AIS, vol. 30, no. 1, pp. 313–328.Google Scholar
- Hiltz, S.R. and Turoff, M. (1985). Structuring computer-mediated communication systems to avoid information overload. Communications of the ACM, vol. 28, no. 7, pp. 680–689.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- Hiltz, S.R., van de Walle, B. and Turoff, M. (2011). The Domain of Emergency Management Information. In Van De Walle, B., Turoff, M. and Hiltz, S.R. (eds): Information Systems for Emergency Management. New York, USA; London, Great Britain: M.E. Sharpe,, pp. 3–20.Google Scholar
- Hobson, S., Anand, R., Yang, J. and Lee, J. (2011). Towards interoperability in municipal government: a study of information sharing practices. In Campos, P., Graham, N., Jorge, J., Nunes, N., Palanque, P. and Winckler, M. (eds): Human-Computer Interaction – INTERACT 2011. Springer, pp. 233–247.Google Scholar
- Kendra, J.M. and Wachtendorf, T. (2003). Elements of Resilience After the World Trade Center Disaster: Reconstituting New York City’s Emergency Operations Centre. Disasters, vol. 27, no. 1, pp. 37–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- Kerr, A. (2002). A qualitative study of shift handover practice and function from a sociotechnical perspective. Journal of Advanced Nursing, vol. 37, no. 2, pp. 125–134.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- Klosterman, R. (1999). The what if? Collaborative planning support system. Environment and Planning B, vol. 26, pp. 393–408CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- Kraut, R., Gergle, D. and Fussell, S. (2002). The use of visual information in shared visual spaces: Informing the development of virtual co-presence. Proceedings of the Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW). pp. 268–277.Google Scholar
- Ley, B., Pipek, V., Reuter, C. and Wiedenhoefer, T. (2012). Supporting Improvisation Work in Inter-Organizational Crisis Management. Proceedings of the Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI). Austin, USA: ACM Press, pp. 1529–1538.Google Scholar
- Li, J. and O’Hara, K. (2009). Understanding Distributed Collaboration in Emergency Animal Disease Response. Proceedings of the Conference of the Australian Computer-Human Interaction Special Interest Group (OZ CHI). Melbourne, Australia: ACM-Press, pp. 65–72.Google Scholar
- Liu, S.B. and Palen, L. (2010). The New Cartographers: Crisis Map Mashups and the Emergence of Neogeographic Practice. Cartography and Geographic Information Science, vol. 37, no. 1, pp. 69–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- Ludwig, T., Reuter, C. and Pipek, V. (2013). What You See Is What I Need: Mobile Reporting Practices in Emergencies. In Bertelsen, O.W., Ciolfi, L., Grasso, A. and Papadopoulos, G.A. (eds): Proceedings of the European Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work (ECSCW). Paphos, Cyprus: Springer, pp. 181–206.Google Scholar
- Martin, D., O’Neill, J., Randall, D. and Rouncefield, M. (2007). How Can I Help You? Call Centres, Classification Work and Coordination. Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW): The Journal of Collaborative Computing, vol. 16, no. 3, pp. 231–264.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- Mendonça, D. (2007). Decision support for improvisation in response to extreme events: Learning from the response to the 2001 World Trade Center attack. Decision Support Systems, vol. 43, no. 3, pp. 952–967.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- Mendonça, D. and Wallace, W. (2007). A Cognitive Model of Improvisation in Emergency Management. IEEE Transactions on Systems Man and Cybernetics Part A Systems and Humans, vol. 37, no. 4, pp. 547–561.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- Monares, Á., Ochoa, S.F., Pino, J.A., Herskovic, V., Rodriguez-Covili, J. and Neyem, A. (2011). Mobile computing in urban emergency situations: Improving the support to firefighters in the field. Expert Systems with Applications, vol. 38, no. 2, pp. 1255–1267.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- Moorman, C. and Miner, A.S. (1998). Organizational improvisation and organizational memory. Academy of Management Review, vol. 23, no. 4, pp. 698–723.Google Scholar
- Nielsen, J. (1993). Usability Engineering. San Francisco, USA: Morgan Kaufmann.zbMATHGoogle Scholar
- Nonaka, I., Toyama, R. and Konno, N. (2000). SECI, Ba and Leadership: a Unified Model of Dynamic Knowledge Creation. Long range planning, vol. 33, pp. 5–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- Normark, M. and Randall, D. (2005). Local Expertise at an Emergency Call Centre. In Gellersen, H., Schmidt, K., Beaudouin-Lafon, M. and Mackay, W. (eds): Proceedings of the European Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work (ECSCW). Paris, France: Springer, pp. 347–366.Google Scholar
- Okolloh, O. (2009). Ushahidi, or ‘testimony’: Web 2.0 tools for crowdsourcing crisis information. Participatory Learning and Action, vol. 59, no. 1, pp. 65–70.Google Scholar
- Palen, L. and Liu, S.B. (2007). Citizen communications in crisis: anticipating a future of ICT-supported public participation. Proceedings of the Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI). San Jose, USA: ACM Press, pp. 727–736.Google Scholar
- Paul, S.A. and Reddy, M.C. (2010). Understanding Together: Sensemaking in Collaborative Information Seeking. Proceedings of the Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW). ACM, pp. 321–330.Google Scholar
- Perry, L.T. (1991). Strategic improvising: How to formulate and implement competitive strategies in concert. Organization Dynamics, vol. 19, no. 4, pp. 51–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- Pettersson, M., Randall, D. and Helgeson, B.O. (2004). Ambiguities, Awareness and Economy : A Study of Emergency Service Work. Computer Supported Cooperative Work: The Journal of Collaborative Computing (JCSCW), vol. 13, no. 20, pp. 125–154.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- Pina e Cunha, M., Vieira da Cunha, J. and Kamoche, K. (1999). Organizational Improvisation: What, When, How and Why. International Journal of Management Reviews, vol. 1, no. 3, pp. 299–341CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- Quarantelli, E.L. (1988). Disaster Crisis Management: A summary of research findings. Journal of Management Studies, vol. 25, no. 4, pp. 373–385.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- Rabinow, P. and Marcus, G. (2008). Designs for an Anthropology of the Contemporary. Durham, USA: Duke University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- Randall, D., Harper, R.H.R. and Rouncefield, M. (2007). Fieldwork for Design: Theory and Practice. London, Great Britain: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- Rankin, A., Dahlbäck, N. and Lundberg, J. (2011). A case study of factor influencing role improvisation in crisis response teams. Cognition, Technology & Work, vol. 15, no. 1, pp. 79–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- Reuter, C., Heger, O. and Pipek, V. (2013). Combining Real and Virtual Volunteers through Social Media. In Comes, T., Fiedrich, F., Fortier, S., Geldermann, J. and Müller, T. (eds): Proceedings of the Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (ISCRAM). Baden-Baden, Germany, pp. 780–790.Google Scholar
- Reuter, C., Ludwig, T. and Pipek, V. (2014). Ad Hoc Participation in Situation Assessment: Supporting Mobile Collaboration in Emergencies. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI) vol. 21, no. 4, ACM.Google Scholar
- Reuter, C., Marx, A. and Pipek, V. (2012). Crisis Management 2.0: Towards a Systematization of Social Software Use in Crisis Situations. International Journal of Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (IJISCRAM), vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 1–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- Reuter, C., Pipek, V., Wiedenhoefer, T. and Ley, B. (2012). Dealing with terminologies in collaborative systems for crisis management. In Rothkrantz, L., Ristvey, J. and Franco, Z. (eds): Proceedings of the Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (ISCRAM). Vancouver, Canada, pp. 1–5.Google Scholar
- Reuter, C. and Ritzkatis, M. (2013). Unterstützung mobiler Geo-Kollaboration zur Lageeinschätzung von Feuerwehr und Polizei. In Alt, R. and Franczyk, B. (eds): Proceedings of the International Conference on Wirtschaftsinformatik. Leipzig, Germany, pp. 1877–1891.Google Scholar
- Schafer, W., Ganoe, C.H. and Carroll, J.M. (2007). Supporting Community Emergency Management Planning through a Geocollaboration Software Architecture. Computer Supported Cooperative Work: The Journal of Collaborative Computing (JCSCW), vol. 16, no. 4–5, pp. 501–537.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- Schmidt, C. (2004). The Analysis of Semi-Structured Interviews. In Flick, U., v. Kardorff, E. and Steinke, I. (eds): A Companion to Qualitative Research. London, Great Britain: Sage, pp. 253–258.Google Scholar
- Schraagen, J.M., Huis in’t veld, M. and de Koning, L. (2010). Information Sharing During Crisis Management. Journal of Contingencies and Crisis management, vol. 18, no. 2, pp. 117–127.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- Turoff, M., Chumer, M., van de Walle, B. and Yao, X. (2004). The design of a dynamic emergency response management information system (DERMIS). The Journal of Information Technology Theory and Application (JITTA), vol. 5, no. 4, pp. 1–35.Google Scholar
- Turoff, M., van de Walle, B. and Hiltz, S.R. (2010). Emergency Response Information Systems. Information Systems for Emergency Management, Armonk, USA: M.E. Sharpe, pp. 369–387.Google Scholar
- US Department of Defense (2010). Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms. available at: http://www.dtic.mil/doctrine/new_pubs/jp1_02.pdf.
- Weick, K.E. (1993). The collapse of sensemaking in organizations: The Mann Gulch disaster. Administrative Science Quarterly, vol. 38, no. 4, pp. 628–652.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- Weick, K.E. (1996). Drop your tools: An allegory for organizational studies. Administrative Science Quarterly, vol. 41, no. 2, pp. 301–313.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- Wenger, D., Quarantelli, E.L. and Dynes, R.R. (1989). Disaster Analysis: Police and Fire Departments. University of Delaware, Disaster Research Center, available at: http://udspace.udel.edu/handle/19716/1141Google Scholar
- Wu, A., Convertino, G., Ganoe, C.H., Carroll, J.M. and Zhang, X.L. (2013). Supporting collaborative sense-making in emergency management through geo-visualization. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies (IJHCS), Elsevier, vol. 71, no. 1, pp. 4–23.Google Scholar
- Wulf, V., Rohde, M., Pipek, V. and Stevens, G. (2011). Engaging with Practices: Design Case Studies as a Research Framework in CSCW. Proceedings of the Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW). Hangzhou, China: ACM-Press, pp. 505–512.Google Scholar