Andrea Graff
Reference: Isbell, M., Goldstein, R. (2006). Communicating crisis: inter-organizational collaboration among disaster relief agencies. International Communication Association. (p. 1-17).
Theme: Know your key players and communicate before disasters occur.
Summary:
Research was done to "review and investigate where the communicative differences may lie between internal and external crisis communication". Three main themes developed from the results of interviews which are: 1. planning 2. structure 3. collaboration continuum. I'm going to focus on the first, planning. There are three sub-themes to this theme:
Application to the lesson topic:
Knowing the key players and establishing regular communication needs to be a main focus. Practicing for disasters and going over drills and exercises will help everyone to know their roles and be better prepared for the event of a disaster.
Application to emergency services:
As emergency services managers we can plan exercises and drills to make sure not only our staff but all key players will know what to do in the event of a disaster and hopefully work out the kinks beforehand.
Reference: Isbell, M., Goldstein, R. (2006). Communicating crisis: inter-organizational collaboration among disaster relief agencies. International Communication Association. (p. 1-17).
Theme: Know your key players and communicate before disasters occur.
Summary:
Research was done to "review and investigate where the communicative differences may lie between internal and external crisis communication". Three main themes developed from the results of interviews which are: 1. planning 2. structure 3. collaboration continuum. I'm going to focus on the first, planning. There are three sub-themes to this theme:
- Pre-agreement: Know all of the players and build relationships with each of them. Trust needs to be built way before a crisis occurs and this comes from performance and experience.
- Sharing resources: Working together is key. Knowing who has what and who is bringing what to the table due to prior communication will keep costs lower and help everyone to work together.
- Outliers: Those who are part of the in-group, meaning they had pre-planned and gone to exercises were given larger responsibility during crisis events. Out-group members, or agencies that didn't participate were treated secondary. All help was welcomed, but the in-group had preferential treatment.
Application to the lesson topic:
Knowing the key players and establishing regular communication needs to be a main focus. Practicing for disasters and going over drills and exercises will help everyone to know their roles and be better prepared for the event of a disaster.
Application to emergency services:
As emergency services managers we can plan exercises and drills to make sure not only our staff but all key players will know what to do in the event of a disaster and hopefully work out the kinks beforehand.
