Assessing roles of people, technology and structure in emergency management systems: a public sector perspective

Abstract

Emergency management systems are a critical factor in successful mitigation of natural and man-made disasters, facilitating responder decision making in complex situations. Based on socio-technical systems, have which four components (people, technology, structure and task), this study develops a research framework of factors affecting effective emergency management. People factors include psychological factors such as responders' self-efficacy, support from family, peers and community, and training. Technology factors are task technology and information sharing. The structure factors are leadership, labour and logistics. Finally, the task factor refers to effective emergency management. This study empirically tests this framework by collecting surveys from emergency responders who participated in the 2006 Buffalo October Storm. The research results demonstrate that training and support positively affect emergency management self-efficacy which, in turn, has a positive significant relationship with effective emergency management. Task technology and information sharing also have a positive impact on effective emergency management. However, findings suggest that the structure factors do not show a significant relationship with effective emergency management. This research presents that human factors in emergency management are essential to conduct effective operations. More importantly, investing in technology to assist responders in performing their jobs during the emergency is crucial during the emergency operations.

Keywords:

• socio-technical systems
• responders
• emergency management systems
• self-efficacy
• support
• training
• task technology
• information sharing
• leadership
• labour
• logistics

Acknowledgements

This research is supported by NSF Grant SGER 0705292.