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Frontline crisis response is challenging. Emergency responders, soldiers, and humanitarian aid workers all operate at the frontlines of threatening, uncertain crisis situations on a daily basis. Under intense pressure, they need to make a range of difficult decisions: to follow preexisting plans or improvise; to abide by top-down instructions or take discretionary actions; to get emotionally involved or keep a rational distance? These dilemmas define their work but, until now, have not been subjected to systematic investigation. This book conducts in-depth studies of eleven such dilemmas by integrating a wide array of research findings on crisis response operations. The comprehensive overview of crisis response research shows how frontline responders deal with these dilemmas amidst the chaos of crises and forms the basis for the formulation of a theory of frontline crisis response. As such, this book will undoubtedly help to understand, evaluate, and advance crisis response operations.
List of contents
1. Dilemmas in frontline crisis response; 2. Leadership: command and control versus decentralization; 3. Sensemaking: creating clarity versus embracing uncertainty; 4. Acting: planned routines versus spontaneous improvisation; 5. Ethics: organizational norms versus individual convictions; 6. Emotions: involvement versus detachment; 7. Ties: cohesion versus contestation; 8. Structures: organizing versus disorganizing; 9. Coordination: integration versus fragmentation; 10. Civilians: inclusion versus exclusion; 11. Technology: early adoption versus skepticism; 12. Goals: restoring order versus social transformation; 13. Advancing research on frontline crisis response.
About the author
Jori P. Kalkman is Associate Professor in the Faculty of Military Sciences at the Netherlands Defence Academy and was a visiting researcher at the Swedish Defence University. His work focuses on frontline crisis operations and has been published in various management journals as well as in specialized emergency response, military, and humanitarian outlets.
Summary
Jori Pascal Kalkman discusses the complex dilemmas that emergency responders, soldiers, and humanitarians face during crisis response operations. Based on the latest research, this book offers readers a comprehensive overview of how crisis professionals organize and implement their operational activities amidst the chaos of crisis situations.
Foreword
Examines the complex dilemmas faced by emergency responders, soldiers, and humanitarians during crisis response operations.
