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Learning from failures in emergency response: a series of empirical studies

Dekker, Sidney LU ; Jonsén, Magnus ; Bergström, Johan LU orcid and Dahlström, Nicklas LU (2008) In Journal of Emergency Management 6(5). p.64-70
Abstract
Recent high-visibility disasters have fueled public and political awareness of the importance of managing and mitigating their consequences effectively. In response, various countries have enacted legislation that demands the evaluation of emergency responses so that lessons for improvement can be learned. A series of field and experimental studies were conducted from 2005 to 2007 to assess the ability of first responder organizations (eg, fire departments) to learn from failures that occurred during their emergency responses. The departments studied often lacked basic organizational requisites for effectively learning from failure (eg, mutual trust, participation, knowledge of possible learning mechanisms). Further, neither first... (More)
Recent high-visibility disasters have fueled public and political awareness of the importance of managing and mitigating their consequences effectively. In response, various countries have enacted legislation that demands the evaluation of emergency responses so that lessons for improvement can be learned. A series of field and experimental studies were conducted from 2005 to 2007 to assess the ability of first responder organizations (eg, fire departments) to learn from failures that occurred during their emergency responses. The departments studied often lacked basic organizational requisites for effectively learning from failure (eg, mutual trust, participation, knowledge of possible learning mechanisms). Further, neither first responder training, nor daily practice, seems supported by knowledge of generic competencies necessary for effective crisis management. This not only hampers coordination during a response, but also keeps its evaluation from using a language that could help organizations learn and improve. Key words: learning, failure, emergency response, safety culture (Less)
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author
; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Journal of Emergency Management
volume
6
issue
5
pages
64 - 70
publisher
Weston Medical Publishing
ISSN
1543-5865
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
96782ac4-aec7-41ca-a15a-65d794da7dc3 (old id 1981923)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 14:00:13
date last changed
2018-11-21 20:22:09
@article{96782ac4-aec7-41ca-a15a-65d794da7dc3,
  abstract     = {{Recent high-visibility disasters have fueled public and political awareness of the importance of managing and mitigating their consequences effectively. In response, various countries have enacted legislation that demands the evaluation of emergency responses so that lessons for improvement can be learned. A series of field and experimental studies were conducted from 2005 to 2007 to assess the ability of first responder organizations (eg, fire departments) to learn from failures that occurred during their emergency responses. The departments studied often lacked basic organizational requisites for effectively learning from failure (eg, mutual trust, participation, knowledge of possible learning mechanisms). Further, neither first responder training, nor daily practice, seems supported by knowledge of generic competencies necessary for effective crisis management. This not only hampers coordination during a response, but also keeps its evaluation from using a language that could help organizations learn and improve. Key words: learning, failure, emergency response, safety culture}},
  author       = {{Dekker, Sidney and Jonsén, Magnus and Bergström, Johan and Dahlström, Nicklas}},
  issn         = {{1543-5865}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{5}},
  pages        = {{64--70}},
  publisher    = {{Weston Medical Publishing}},
  series       = {{Journal of Emergency Management}},
  title        = {{Learning from failures in emergency response: a series of empirical studies}},
  volume       = {{6}},
  year         = {{2008}},
}