Organizaing Chaos: Crisis Management in the Wake of Hurricane Katrina. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice

Rizzuto, T. E., & Maloney, L. K. (2008). Organizaing Chaos: Crisis Management in the Wake of Hurricane Katrina. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice , 77-85.

The article explores how the Louisiana Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals used the Hurricane Katrina disaster as an avenue to increase their organization communication.  It focuses on the psychology, communication and organizational crisis management.

Purpose and Audience:

The intended audience is anyone looking to understand what dynamics go into providing effective communication in the wake of a natural disaster. This could include psychology students and practitioners, technical communicators and business professionals that have a vested interest in providing successful communications.

Organization:

The article is broken into three parts. It begins with an overview, then a definition of a multidisciplinary perspective of crisis management success and it concludes with a lessons learned segment

·         Theoretical Considerations in Organizational Crisis Management:
Most of the research shares the belief that a crisis has a pre, during and post stage. The authors cite D. Smith as stating the first stage is the crisis of management phase, the second phase is the operations crisis, and the last stage is the crisis of legitimation (78).

·         The Case of LA/SPCA
The LA/SPCA was the only animal shelter in New Orleans during the hurricane.

o   The organization experienced all three stages of a crisis according to Smith.

§  Stage 1: The leadership had applied the lessons learned from Hurricane Betsy in 1965 to the Hurricane Katrina disaster.

§  Stage 2: The biggest initial challenges the organization dealt with were the lack of people due to evacuation, structure issues with their building being destroyed and fatigued personnel.

§  Stage 3: Following the disaster, the organization put objectives: animal placement, shelter construction, new work structure formulation, and crisis preparation (80).

·         Crisis Management Success-Failure Continuum

o   LA/SPCA endured many challenges following the disaster but the organization can be viewed as a success using Pearson and Clair’s (1988) success-failure continuum.

o   The importance of planning is well-documented as being a major reason for LA/SPCAs success. It was the care and consideration for each employee that helped the organization rebuild (82).

o   Person and Clair’s seven crisis conditions (82) are: signal detection, incident containment, business resumption, learning, reputation, resource availability, and decision making.

·         Implications for Theory and Practice

o   The case study finds evidence that suggests that government aid, previously thought to be beneficial, can add to the chaos following a disaster as it can “contribute to increased complexity during the operation crisis stage” (83).

o   Organizations are extremely vulnerable following a disaster. A crisis is more than an economic disaster, it is also psychological, sociopolitical, and technical (83).

·         Lessons for Prevention and Practice

o   A unique opportunity arose following the hurricane for LA/SPCA. They had challenges planning beyond their organization boundaries because of external factors.

o   The organization needs to be able to develop and exercise crisis contingencies that are flexible and practiced.

o   Leadership should be placed throughout the entire organization rather than concentrating all of the knowledge at the top.

o   The organization needs to build a culture that can readily accept and adapt change.

Conclusion:
The article offers a unique perspective into what can be done by an organization to rebuild after a natural disaster. The Pearson and Claire Crisis Management Success-Failure Continuum offers an excellent measurement tool that can be used to evaluate how well an organization responds. There might be possible options to expand this measurement tool to evaluate how communication works within an organization to both internal and external audiences.