Information Sharing in Emergency Response

摘要

Groups are typically assembled to respond to extreme events or emergencies, such as might be precipitated by natural or man-made disasters. These events are characterized by complexities and dynamism (Skertchly & Skertchly, 2001; Weick, 1993, 1995) that require group members to share and utilize their unique knowledge and expertise in order to better control and manage them. Prior studies that have investigated information sharing and use in groups however, report that groups tend not to share their unique information, leading to poor decisions. This phenomenon is called biased information sharing. For example, in the recent Haiti earthquake, accounts were documented about resources that were mismanaged and distributed inefficiently as a result of poor communication among relief agencies on ground. Although these agencies show cooperative tendencies by exchanging daily updates of activities, important information that is needed to better route resources were not communicated adequately. This suggests that information sharing and use may be influenced by the importance of information itself, leading to better decisions made in a group setting. This paper reports on study-in-progress that investigates information sharing strategies at a managerial level by analyzing after-action reports of the earthquake in Haiti.