Organizational Management and Communications in Disasters Discussion Organizational Management & Communication in Disasters Overview The topic of Organiz

Organizational Management and Communications in Disasters Discussion Organizational Management & Communication in Disasters

Overview

The topic of Organizational Management and Communications in Disasters is so broad that we could spend years just on these two areas of study. This course will provide the opportunity to explore different management, leadership, and communication styles to allow you to decide the best practices applied to pre-disaster, disaster, and post-disaster settings. You are expected to independently critically read several leadershiptheories in the early part of the course, and then build upon the practices that make the most sense to you as we move through the term. During this term, you will complete 5 FEMA IS courses that are part of the U.S. professional credentialing process. You will see where to submit the certificates in the weekly Topics of Study area, for each specific course certificate.

What is systems theory, and how does it apply to chaos, project management, and disaster management? There will be several readings from Ackoff and others in this area. Think about this model in disaster planning exercises.

Teamwork is crucial to managing the effects of a disaster: defined leadership, clear roles, the knowledge to accomplish the task, and communication, are all elemental aspects of optimal action in disaster or emergency. Likewise, leadership, followership, and “management” are all components essential to teamwork. Organizational culture will be explored using several readings from Edgar Schein and others to answer the questions: how do you become an intelligent follower, and as a manager, how do you interact with followers?

Readings

Teamwork, Chp 1-10. Focus on how teams work, what can go wrong and the roles you play on a team. How do you value these roles?

For those delayed getting textbooks here is a PDF of the first few chapters in Larson. Larson Part 1.pdf(Chap 1-3)

Group Dynamics Analysis

Choose a group you have been a part of in the past and perform a critical analysis of the group dynamics, utilizing the lessons learned from the class work.The first portion of the course focuses on the presence and use of groups in Organizational Management. Using the text Larson & La Fasto, (1989) Teamwork, what must go right/ what can go wrong as your foundation, write a critical analysis of the strengths and opportunities for improvement identified in your small group work.

Remember, in APA style, to lead with a brief abstract composed after your write the paper. State in the introduction succinctly your conclusions and key learning points. Build your content by answering the Critical Analysis components of Who, What, When, Where (descriptive); the Why, Why not, What If (analytical) ; and the So What, What Is Next (evaluative) components. Conclude with a restatement of the salient points to take away from your analysis. Following the grading process, several of these works will be posted for the class to review.

– Kindly, follow the instructions and use your critical thinking. 1
Toward Understanding Teams
and Teamwork
There are many objects of great
value to man which cannot be
attained by unconnected
individuals, but must be attained
if at ail, by association.
Daniel Webster
For several decades now social scientists have been urging us to confront a sad paradox in our collective evolution (e.g., Zimbardo &
Ebbeson, 1969, chap. 1). On the one hand, we possess the technical
competence, physical resources, and intellectual capacity to satisfy all
the basic needs of mankind. There is little question that we have the
wherewithal to provide food, clothing, and shelter for every individual on this planet. In fact, having spent more than three years studying teams and team achievement for this project, we now find it
difficult to identify any goal that the collective “we” would be incapable of achieving.
On the other hand, we seem to lack the essential ability to work
together effectively”to solve critical problems. In fact, the potential
for collective problem-solving is so often unrealized and the promise
of collective achievement so often unfulfilled, that we. exhibit what
seems to be a developmental disability in the area of social competence. The potential is there. The realization of that potential too
often is not.
Our lack of ability to collaborate successfully has been lamented
by Donald Straus, who after serving as a professional arbitrator and
president of the American Arbitration Association, was compelled to
13
14
Teamwork
write that the long-range consequences of our problem-solving efforts
will produce only “losers.”
As an example of our inability to work together, Straus cited the
issue of acid rain, an environmental phenomenon that can pollute
lakes, kill fish, and destroy vegetation. Straus observed that, sadly,
controversy and an emphasis on individual rather than a collective
agenda have impeded progress in solving this potentially tragic-hut
ultimately solvable-problem. Straus (1986) writes that the parties
involved in tlle disputes:
Consider the information available to them as weapons for seeking
victories rather than as tools for understanding the problems. They will
only share information that they believe to be helpful in the pursuit of
their current goals, and usually these goals will be narrowly focused
and (of) short-term. (p. 156)
Two years after Straus’s lament, consensus began to emerge
around another, perhaps even more serious problem-the so-called
greenhouse effect-a gradual warming of the planet caused by chemical changes in the atmosphere. A bipartisan coalition of
rs
issued a warning tllat catastrophe will inevitably follow inactio in
responding to the threat of global warming (“Wirth Maps,” 198 ).
Senator Tim Wirth of Colorado stated that the greenhouse effect
the most significant economic, political, environmental, and human
problem facing the twenty-first century. And Senator John Chaffee of
Rhode Island called global warming the single greatest threat facing
tbe world today.
Because this book was written in the fall of 1988, the eventual
outcomes related to these two problems, acid rain and the greenhouse effect, remain uncertain. What becomes increasingly clear is
the old paradox: Our ability to collaborate effectively in developing
and implementing concrete responses to these problems lags far behind our ability to detect the environmental damage and document
the increasing severity of the problems.
Clearly, if we are to solve the enormous problems facing our society, we need to learn how to collaborate more effectively. We need to
know how to set aside individual agendas so that a common understandillg of [i” problem has-iiii”opporfulllty to-“ocvefop. We needto
trnderstanclhowthatcommou”undefstaiidinggets trans1″ated into eon
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