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Table 18.2 Differences between routine emergencies and disasters
Routine emergencies
Interaction with familiar faces
Familiar tasks and procedures
Intra-organizational co-ordination needed
Roads, telephones, facilities intact
Communications frequencies adequate for radio
traffic
Communication intra-organizational
Use of familiar terminology in communicating
Need to deal mainly with local press
Management structure adequate to co-ordinate
the number of resources involved
Disasters
Interaction with unfamiliar faces
Unfamiliar tasks and procedures
Intra- and inter-organizational co-ordination needed
Roads blocked or jammed, telephones jammed or nonfunctional,
facilities damaged
Radio frequencies often overloaded
Need for inter-organizational information sharing
Communication with persons who use different
terminology or speak another language
Hordes of national and international reporters
Resources often exceed management capacity
Source: Auf der Heide (1989)
Table 18.3 International terrorism incidents,
1968–79
Number %
Type
Explosive bombings 1,588 48
Incendiary bombings 456 14
Kidnappings 263 8
Assassinations 246 7
Armed attacks 188 6
Letter bombings 186 6
Hijackings 100 3
Theft/break-ins 78 2
Barricade and hostage 73 2
Snipings 71 2
Other 87 3
Target
Business executives/facilities 487 36
Diplomatic officials/property 273 20
Other government officials 217 16
Military officials/property 204 15
Private citizens 166 12
Source: US Department of Defense and Central Intelligence
Agency in Regester (1989) Crisis Management
Rigidity is the degree of inflexibility built
into a particular action or process. This is
important in terms of interaction and successful
outcome because it recognizes that individuals
will view problems during any crisis in
different ways; through different perceptions
people select different options from those
available and the consequences will determine
the quality of the outcome. Control on
the other hand is viewed as ‘the degree of
influence that organisational members have at
their disposal. Control is often elusive because
it has to do with individual perception especially
when the influence is indirect in nature,’
Olaniran and Williams quote the case of
ATAT’s crisis episode in which ‘a software
glitch caused a power outage that disrupted its
nationwide services for nine hours in January
1990’, causing ‘an inter-dependent effect on
other organizations’. The authors suggest that
the anticipatory model of management can
be likened to the law of probability indicating
that the less frequent the occurrence of
© 2004 Sandra Oliver for editorial matter and selection;
individual chapters, the contributors