Designing for Disaster: Applying Structural Contingency Theory to Government Risk Mitigation and Consequence Management Organizational Structures

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic served as the latest prominent example in a long history of emergency management, homeland security, resilience, and other government agencies perpetuating long-standing fragmentation, overlaps, and duplication of effort. This thesis investigated how a governmental jurisdictions mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery activities can leverage organizational design scholarship to improve effectiveness and efficiency. A structural contingency analytical framework by Richard Daft was adapted for risk mitigation and consequence management organizations. The adapted analytical framework was tested using a case study of Somerville, Massachusetts. The thesis concludes with organizational design recommendations for government risk mitigation and consequence management functions.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 01, 2023
Accession Number
AD1224704

Entities

People

  • Justin T. Kates

Organizations

  • Naval Postgraduate School

Tags

Readers

  • Critical Infrastructure Protection in CBRN and WMD Threats.
  • Organizational Process Management (OPM).
  • Political Violence and Terrorism Studies.