The historical embeddedness of organizational paradoxes: Risk-related rituals and realities in emergency management

Paradoxes are historically embedded in institutions and organizations. Latent paradoxes pose danger if they become salient; sociological analyses can identify historically embedded latent paradoxes. The emergency management paradox, in which the state invests vast resources, establishing formidable organizational arrangements that rely on knowledge to respond to unanticipated events in advance of their occurrence, even though such events can only ever be known after they occur, is a paradox of this kind. Deploying methodological ‘dual integrity’ we trace through historical description and sociological conceptualization the institutional and organizational history of the emergency management paradox in Australia, where uncontrollable bushfires are becoming increasingly common, before drawing more general conclusions about how a response to grand challenges, such as climate change, demands an interdisciplinary understanding of the rituals and realities of paradoxes that emerge historically from our collective attempts to handle uncertainty via risk. Our research serves as a warning of the grave consequences that can result from ignoring a paradox’s history, whether intentionally or unwittingly

Sustainable Emergencies: The Paradox of Community Management of Acute Malnutrition Programs

SUSTAINABLE EMERGENCIES: THE PARADOX OF COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT OF ACUTE MALNUTRITION PROGRAMS Kelly Delaney, RN, MS, PHD Alison Buttenheim, PHD, MBA In 2008, the World Health Organization (WHO) formally endorsed the community management of acute malnutrition protocol as the preferred method of treatment for the approximately 13 million acutely malnourished children in the world (Collins, 2007; WHO, 2008). This protocol reflected a change in treatment strategies from the hospital to the community. Health care providers who respond to nutrition emergencies (referred to as emergency nutrition workers for the purpose of this study) were tasked with understanding the complex nature of a community\u27s structure and culture, in addition to providing medical treatment for acutely malnourished children. To implement the WHO protocols successfully, emergency nutrition workers must be able to translate international standards into a culturally and contextually appropriate emergency nutrition program. This qualitative descriptive study describes the experience of emergency nutrition workers regarding community participation in program assessment, design, and implementation following declaration of a nutrition emergency. There is a lack of understanding concerning what personal and professional beliefs and structures influence how emergency nutrition workers interpret their environment and define the community structure they are working within when developing assessment and implementation strategies. Bronfrenbrenner\u27s (1977) social ecology theoretical framework was utilized to guide a review of literature concerning environmental influences that may affect community participation during emergency nutrition programs. In the study, a cross-sectional qualitative descriptive design was utilized in a deterritorialized setting. English speaking emergency nutrition workers who responded to a nutrition emergency as an employee of an international non-governmental organization in the previous twelve months were recruited through a maximum variation, purposeful sampling technique. Participants were recruited through professional networks, NGO headquarters, and an online professional forum until saturation is reached. Semi-structured interviews conducted by the researcher were the primary form of data collection for this study. Interviews were conducted over the Internet using voice over Internet protocol (VOIP) technology. Directed content analysis was utilized for data analysis. The study results included an identification of five themes that influence the ways in which an emergency nutrition worker engages with local communities during Community Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) programs: (1) Dimensions of Community in CMAM; (2) Learning Through Field Experience; (3) Partnerships for Success; (4) Disconnects in Funding Priorities; and (5) Sustainability in Emergencies

When organisational effectiveness fails: business continuity management and the paradox of performance

Purpose: The aim of the paper is to consider the nature of the business continuity management (BCM) process and to frame it within wider literature on the performance of socio-technical systems. Despite the growth in BCM activities in organisations, some questions remain as to whether academic research has helped to drive this process. The paper seeks to stimulate discussion within this journal of the interplay between organisational performance and BCM and to frame it within the context of the potential tensions between effectiveness and efficiency. Design/methodology/approach: The paper considers how BCM is defined within the professional and academic communities that work in the area. It deconstructs these definitions in order to and set out the key elements of BCM that emerge from the definitions and considers how the various elements of BCM can interact with each other in the context of organisational performance. Findings: The relationships between academic research in the area of crisis management and the practice-based approaches to business continuity remain somewhat disjointed. In addition, recent work in the safety management literature on the relationships between success and failure can be seen to offer some interesting challenges for the practice of business continuity. Practical implications: The paper draws on some of the practice-based definitions of BCM and highlights the limitations and challenges associated with the construct. The paper sets out challenges for BCM based upon theoretical challenges arising in cognate areas of research. The aim is to ensure that BCM is integrated with emerging concepts in other aspects of the management of uncertainty and to do so in a strategic context. Originality/value: Academic research on performance reflects both the variety and the multi-disciplinary nature of the issues around measuring and managing performance. Failures in organisational performance have also invariably attracted considerable attention due to the nature of a range of disruptive events. The paper reveals some of the inherent paradoxes that sit at the core of the BCM process and its relationships with organisational performance

Recounting food banking: a paradox of counterproductive growth

The meteoric rise of food bank use in times of prosperity leads us to argue that food banks are institutionalised within New Zealand society with texts reflecting civic, market and domestic discourses. Abstract The meteoric rise of food bank use in times of prosperity leads us to argue that food banks are institutionalised within New Zealand society with texts reflecting civic, market and domestic discourses. In the current approach to food distribution to those in need, money and resources increasingly go into a food bank system that may increase dependency or codependency and do not lead to increased food security for the vulnerable and hungry. Contemplating the changing fortunes of food banks overseas, we suggest the embedding of food banks and other similar food assistance programs must be seriously re-examined. Nowhere have we heard for voices of the vulnerable and hungry calling for more food banks! Yet we recognise that these responses to inequality are at the same time putting food into homes that regularly go without. We posit that the place for food banks in a socially-just Aotearoa must be one of emergency food assistance only. We advocate for the need to increase incomes through appropriate means – be that through well-paid jobs that match the circumstances of the employee or benefits that assure a life of dignity – not the size and scope of food banks

Maintaining places of social inclusion : Ebola and the emergency department

We introduce the concept of places of social inclusion—institutions endowed by a society or a community with material resources, meaning, and values at geographic sites where citizens can access services for specific needs—as taken-for-granted, essential, and inherently precarious. Based on our study of an emergency department that was disrupted by the threat of the Ebola virus in 2014, we develop a process model to explain how a place of social inclusion can be maintained by custodians. We show how these custodians—in our fieldsite, doctors and nurses—experience and engage in institutional work to manage different levels of tension between the value of inclusion and the reality of finite resources, as well as tension between inclusion and the desire for safety. We also demonstrate how the interplay of custodians’ emotions is integral to maintaining the place of social inclusion. The primary contribution of our study is to shine light on places of social inclusion as important institutions in democratic society. We also reveal the theoretical and practical importance of places as institutions, deepen understanding of custodians and custodianship as a form of institutional work, and offer new insight into the dynamic processes that connect emotions and institutional work

At Taxpayers\u27 Expense

Planning and managing growth are fundamental responsibilities of any local government. It should be recognized that sprawling development can actually be more costly in the long run, not only to a particular municipality but also to those around it that may be affected by its decisions. Inter-municipal collaboration could curb costs and prevent actions that are detrimental to neighboring communities. These are complex issues, and sprawl is just one of several components involved; however, the role it plays must be examined and evaluated

A Survey of Residual Cancer Risks Permitted by Health, Safety and Environmental Policy

The authors describe permitted U.S. residual cancer risks, focusing on numerical levels specifically and implicitly authorized by statute or regulation. They also discuss potential changes

Reflections on the triple-helix as a vehicle to stimulate innovation in technology and security : a Belgian case study

In this contribution the main argument is that a triple helix collaboration between industry, government and knowledge institutes can be a vehicle to stimulate innovation and technology in the field of safety and security. To underpin this argument the significance of the evolution from a state model to a triple-helix model is described as well as the paradigm of open innovation that is a necessary condition for the triple-helix model. Relying on experiences since 2014 with the Belgian Innovation Centre for Security reflections are made on the dynamics of the triple-helix collaboration taking into account its creation, objectives, ambition, methodology, partners and funding. Some of the (perceived) barriers encountered and logics used by government, as one of the ‘hesitating’ participants in the triple-helix collaboration, are further discussed