Emergency Management and Organizational Continuity

Gerald Lewis, Ph.D. is an adjunct assistant professor and serves as the Faculty Coordinator of Boston University's graduate on line program in Emergency Management and Business Continuity.

For a more up to date and detailed description please go to www.bu.edu/emoc.

Gerald Lewis is an international consultant who has worked with a wide range of organizations helping them to develop their organizational crisis management plan. Whether it be a government agency, private high tech company, financial institution, educational or healthcare facility... all must develop crisis plans.

While most organizations do have a document that describes their plans, often times it is focused on security and operations, and does little to include the "human factor."

Dr. Lewis' book "Organizational Crisis Management: The Human Factor" will be published in March 2006. The following is a brief "blurb" that describes the book as well as the focus of his consultation.

This book is intended to provide both theoretical background as well as practical strategies for responding to workplace crises. While many professionals are quite competent when dealing with operational aspects of organizational continuity, often the “human factor” does not receive adequate attention. This book provides a comprehensive understanding of the ubiquitous yet complex reactions of the workforce to a wide array of organizational disruptions.

The focus of chapters one and two is on understanding the rapid historical changes that have recently taken place and the current state of the workplace milieu. The reader will be introduced to the necessity of understanding the workplace culture, the industry specific dynamics of different work settings, the fragility of employee motivation and morale, and the toxicity that occurs in any employment setting and the dramatic impact of crises on all of the aforementioned variables.

While most contingency plans focus on operations, Chapter 3 provides a methodology to assess the potential impact of different categories of crises on the workforce. In addition, this chapter begins to delve into some pre-incident mitigation strategies.

Chapters 4 and 5 explore the psychological reactions of individuals as well as groups who have experienced a wide range of personal and/or professional crises. The content also describes the stages and phases through which individuals, families, communities and workgroups traverse, often taking up to two to three years to reach a stable resolution. Once again, efforts are made to impart pre-incident policies and plans as well as post incident services and interventions.

Chapter 6 investigates the impact of the “5 Rs:” Remaining at home; Retaining at work (sheltering in place); Releasing to home or a shelter; Relocating to a new facility, Returning to a previous workplace. Be it natural disasters, power outages, downsizing or terrorism, an organization may be forced to displace workers which results in a major disruption. This chapter describes some pre and post transition strategies.

Chapter 7 looks at the legal and security aspects of workplace disruption. Events ranging from workplace violence to sexual harassment, from layoffs to litigation are discussed from a legal and security perspective.

Chapter 8 details specific services, programs and interventions that should be in place prior to any event. In addition, guidelines are set forth for working with the media, emergency management agencies and behavioral health services.

The Workbook Appendix is the capstone of the book. It provides a nuts and bolts application to a number of different scenarios. It is designed to replicate a table top exercise or simulation, allowing the reader or a team to walk though an evaluation process, assess the human factor impact and then derive strategies and services to implement. The second part of the Workbook asks the reader to do an assessment of his/her work organization culture as well as their Organizational Continuity Team and plan(s).