| 1. |
- Lindbom, Hanna, et al.
(författare)
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Capability assessments - How to make them useful for decision-making
- 2018
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Ingår i: International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction. - : Elsevier BV. - 2212-4209. ; 31, s. 251-259
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Capability assessments are becoming increasingly common as part of risk management activities worldwide. Despite this, there is no consensus concerning how these assessments are best conducted and presented. Recent studies suggest that two factors may influence the usefulness of capability assessments for decision-making: namely, whether the assessment includes descriptions of the resources available to an actor, and how well this actor can accomplish specific tasks. The present study was carried out to investigate the importance of including information on these factors in capability assessments. The experimental study conducted involved four fictive versions of capability assessments, differing in whether they included information about resources and tasks. Over 200 risk management professionals rated how useful they perceived each version to be as the basis for decision-making. The results show that it is important to include specific information on resources and tasks in capability assessments, and that the assessments including both were most useful, from a decision-making perspective.
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| 2. |
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| 3. |
- Månsson, Peter, et al.
(författare)
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On common terms with shared risks - Studying the communication of risk between local, regional and national authorities in Sweden
- 2015
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Ingår i: International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction. - : Elsevier BV. - 2212-4209. ; 13:September 2015, s. 441-453
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Uncommon categorization, i.e. disparities in how similar terms and information is interpreted, coded and categorized, has been shown to impede inter-agency communication and collective sense-making. This study focuses on the presence and effects of uncommon categorizations in disaster risk management systems. We use the Swedish disaster risk management system as our case, and our empirical data consist of more than 120 reports from risk and vulnerability assessments, supplemented by 45 semi-qualitative interviews with officials who are involved in the realization of such assessments. Apart from investigating the causes and effects of uncommon categorization, we also map its extent and character, and its development between the years 2010 and 2014. The study shows that uncommon categorization is prevalent in the Swedish disaster risk management system. We argue that this has an extremely detrimental effect on the ability to integrate risk information, resulting in less useful bases for decisions and, thus, in a less efficient disaster risk management system. Nevertheless, we can also see signs of a reduction in uncommon categorization in recent years.
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| 4. |
- Pramanik, Roshni, et al.
(författare)
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Motivating factors towards willingness to contribute in collaborative tasks: A crisis cooperation perspective
- 2015
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Ingår i: Safety and Reliability of Complex Engineered Systems - Proceedings of the 25th European Safety and Reliability Conference, ESREL 2015. - : CRC Press/Balkema. - 9781138028791 ; , s. 237-243
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The interaction among various stakeholder organizations in modern crisis response is very similar to negotiation where each organization has its own goal in addition to a common goal. Decision makers in stakeholder organizations most often have to settle for win-win situations to attain higher joint benefit. In such cases willingness to contribute in joint tasks becomes a prerequisite. In our present study performed with 111 crisis management professionals from various stakeholder organizations in decision making roles, we study familiarity and expectation to future cooperation as constructs that can motivate decision makers to be more willing to contribute to joint tasks in crisis response.
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| 5. |
- Pramanik, Roshni, et al.
(författare)
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Organizational Adaptation in Multi-Stakeholder Crisis Response : An Experimental Study
- 2015
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Ingår i: Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management. - : Wiley. - 0966-0879 .- 1468-5973. ; 23:4, s. 234-245
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Modern day crises demand organizations to collaborate and adapt to new roles, functions and structures. In such situations, lack of collaborative behaviour and openness between organizations can result in reduced adaptive ability. Therefore, it is important to facilitate collaboration between organizations. We have studied the extent to which crisis managers are prepared to work with personnel and resources from organizations other than their own when responding to crises. An experiment was designed with four different organizations in Sweden, which involved decision making concerning whether the participants systematically favoured their own organization over others. Findings indicate that increasing familiarity and expectation of future cooperation with other organizations increased the likelihood that decision makers would be prepared to work with other organizations in joint crisis management.
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| 6. |
- Tehler, Henrik, et al.
(författare)
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Standardization of disaster risk management - Challenges and opportunities
- 2019
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Ingår i: Standardization and Risk Governance : A Multi-Disciplinary Approach - A Multi-Disciplinary Approach. - London : Routledge. - 9780429290817 ; , s. 61-78
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This chapter discusses the question of whether increasing the level of standardization in a disaster risk management system will increase its effectiveness. Based on the results from several studies conducted in the context of the Swedish disaster risk management system, the authors argue that there are both positive and negative effects of increased standardization. More precisely, studies based on experiments indicate that increasing the extent of standardization of risk descriptions will probably facilitate the work of combining several sources of information in a risk assessment. But a study based on interviews and document reviews indicates that increasing the level of standardization might also lead to a reduction of motivation to conduct risk assessments. Thus, although increasing the level of standardization in a disaster risk management context might be an opportunity to facilitate the work of assessing risk, it might also result in new challenges.
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| 7. |
- Antfolk, Christian, et al.
(författare)
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Exploring the conditions for PhD-students to develop abilities to independently formulate research questions
- 2015
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Rapport (populärvet., debatt m.m.)abstract
- Developing an ability to independently formulate research questions is an important goal in doctoral education. During a seminar in the “Docent course”, accredited by Genombrottet at Lund University, the authors behind this paper ended up in a discussion on the actual conditions for developing such ability. During the discussions, the authors, based on their own experiences, identified several conditions that could hamper the PhD-students’ abilities to develop the skills required to independently formulate research questions. Examples of such conditions were: involvement in projects where objectives and deliverables already were stated by a funder, a lack of discussions with supervisors early in the PhD-process, and/or a lack of proper training. The authors also discussed if working with a compilation thesis automatically lead to contrived overall research questions, which resulted primarily as an afterthought at a very late stage in the process.
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| 8. |
- Arvidsson, Björn, et al.
(författare)
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Investigation method for cascading effects between critical infrastructures
- 2015
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Ingår i: Safety and Reliability of Complex Engineered Systems - Proceedings of the 25th European Safety and Reliability Conference, ESREL 2015. - 9781138028791 ; , s. 3399-3407
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper presents an investigation method for studying cascading effects in incidents, which is to some extent lacking in the scientific literature. Several incident investigation methods are reviewed and used to influence the presented method. The usefulness of the method is demonstrated in a case study for a recent event in Sweden, a severe flooding event in the city of Malmö in south of Sweden 31st of August 2014. The case study revealed that the method enables the gathering and structuring of information about cascading effects and conditions that affect the outcome of cascading effects. An advantage of the method is that it also captures aggravating or mitigating conditions as well as potential cascading effects, enabling the study of near misses and alternative scenario developments. Concluding that the method has proven its practical value and it fills a current gap when it comes to investigation methods focused on cascading effects.
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| 9. |
- Cedergren, Alexander, et al.
(författare)
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Challenges to critical infrastructure resilience in an institutionally fragmented setting
- 2018
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Ingår i: Safety Science. - : Elsevier BV. - 0925-7535. ; 110, s. 51-58
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Under the influence of neo-liberal ideals such as New Public Management, the ownership, operation, and maintenance of many Critical Infrastructures have been divided among an increasing number of public as well as private actors. Limited research has investigated the role of this institutional fragmentation for shaping resilience of Critical Infrastructures, especially in relation to recovery after infrastructure failures. The aim of this paper is to empirically explore inter-organisational challenges to response and recovery operations in the increasingly multi-actor setting characterising many contemporary Critical Infrastructures. Using the Swedish railway system as a case, the paper explores response and recovery operations following two frequent types of events. The findings show that once disruptions occur, response and recovery operations are often complicated and time-consuming. Multiple actors with diverse roles and mandates are involved in the operations, which prompts a need for communication and coordination. The case study also illustrates the important role of contractual arrangements for shaping resilience of deregulated Critical Infrastructures. The contracts incentivise actors to certain behaviours, but they also give rise to unintended side-effects. While individual actors typically make adaptations and goal trade-offs with regards to their individual tasks and actions in a way that is both locally rational and efficient, interconnections and interdependencies among the different actors give rise to cross-scale challenges to stimulating resilient operations of the infrastructure system as a whole.
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| 10. |
- Cedergren, Alexander, et al.
(författare)
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Local Success, Global Failure: Challenges Facing the Recovery Operations of Critical Infrastructure Breakdowns
- 2015
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Ingår i: Safety and Reliability of Complex Engineered Systems - Proceedings of the 25th European Safety and Reliability Conference, ESREL 2015. - 9781138028791 ; , s. 4343-4348
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Many of society’s critical infrastructures, such as power supply, telecommunications, and transportation, have become increasingly interconnected. While this gives rise to increased efficiency, tighter connections also invites increased vulnerability and the risks of cascading failures. Moreover, at the same time as many of these vital systems have become increasingly dependent on one another, they have also faced a substantial institutional fragmentation. These trends are clearly visible in the Swedish railway system. As a result of substantial deregulations of the Swedish railway market during the last decades, responsibility for different activities has become dispersed among a variety of stakeholders. What used to be a state-owned sector has become an institutionally fragmented arena. While previous research has shown that many critical infrastructures, despite significant institutional fragmentation , operate at a remarkable high reliability, this paper highlights the negative effects of increased institutional fragmentation once these types of critical infrastructures do break down. More specifically, the paper shows that the strive towards increased efficiency and cost-effectiveness within each organisation involved in the recovery operations following infrastructure breakdowns in the Swedish railway system also creates an overall more complex and time-consuming recovery of the functioning of the system. Interdependencies between the different tasks carried out by the multiplicity of organisations involved in the recovery operations create challenges of restoring the functioning of the system, since this is not a primary goal of any of the individual actors. In this sense, each organisation achieves local success in terms of increased efficiency, but also contributes to global failure in the terms of problems of sustaining and quickly restoring railway operations. The empirical basis for this paper is collected from an analysis of two rather frequently occurring types of accidents and disturbances in the Swedish railway system; breakdown of traction power lines and unauthorised persons on railway premises. In both types of events, a number of stakeholders are involved in the response and recovery operations. Data collection has been conducted by semi-structured interviews with a total of 8 persons representing the Transport Administration, three of the main passenger train operators, one rescue service, one maintenance contractor, and the regional public transport provider.
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