Interagency Babble: Institutional logics and information flow in catastrophic disasters

Abstract

Recent catastrophic disasters have highlighted the enormous human, economic, and material costs of information flow breakdown. This study explores how significant information flow problems in catastrophic disaster response arise from fundamental, but critical, differences in institutional logics among the collection of organizations that are involved. Documents will be analyzed using qualitative methodology to identify salient features of two of the institutional logics seen in disaster response and develop a framework relating the outcomes of the first responders' actions to the logic employed. This study identified the existing gaps in the publically-available accessible information about previous disaster response efforts and considers how this information can potentially be used to better understand the problems the United States faces in terms of effective disaster response. This study has the potential to inform policy makers and organizations within disaster response in crafting better ways of utilizing information to minimize loss of life and property.