Assessing Interorganizational Crisis Management Capability: A Systematic Literature Review

Background

Disasters, emergencies or crises - three interrelated terms referring to events that are sudden, unexpected, extraordinary, unpredictable, and affect societal functions (Al-Dahash, Thayaparan, & Kulatunga, 2016). Such events mostly demand immediate action, suspension of ordinary procedures, decision-making based on uncertain information, and coordinated action (Scholl & Carnes, 2016). Crisis management organizations need to respond to a range of different needs during the acute phase and coordinate available resources (Bergström, Uhr, & Frykmer, 2016). Coordination is needed to make use of the actors’ capabilities (Ekman & Uhr, 2015). Without coordination, resources are more likely to hinder than support each other. Crisis management systems are based on both private and public organizations that work on local, regional and national levels. Interorganizational collaboration during a crisis is demanding due to the mix of different organizational cultures, structures, methods, ambitions and communication technologies.