Strategies used by emergency managers to maintain organizational integrity.

Reprinted from Environmental Auditor; 1989; Vol. 1, no. 3; p. 139-152

How do societies cope with environmental disasters? This question sets the context for an analysis of local emergency management agencies whose directors typically focus their organizational mission on disaster preparedness and response. The analysis provides a bridging mechanism that permits potential integration of the mix of specialists who collectively represent differing components of highly fragmented societal systems of hazard management. Guided by a stress-strain theoretical perspective, several important structural sources of strain are identified. These shape the major patterns of interagency and community conflict that directors of these agencies confront. Interview data are used to illustrate five key strategies used by directors of local emergency management agencies to maintain the integrity of their organizations within these structures of strain. These strategies have widespread applicability to managers located within other sectors of the hazard management system