VOST: A case study in voluntary digital participation for collaborative emergency management

Fathi, Ramian; Thom, Dennis; Koch, Steffen; Ertl, Thomas; Fiedrich, Frank

doi:10.1016/j.ipm.2019.102174

Cited by 47 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…The results may be interpreted to display an overall positive picture of motivation as generally high, as shown in the previous question. This corresponds to the results in 2013 and to other studies on first responders or volunteers [12,14]. However, the relatively high number of people who saw no change could already point to some underlying issues or needs for further research as to whether these stakeholder groups actually would need more motivation.…”

Section: The Effect On the Personal Motivation To Helpsupporting

confidence: 87%

“…The topic of voluntary helpers is an international research topic regarding motivation and composition concerning age and values [12]. It became a topic of research in Germany, especially after the floods in 2013 [13,14]. However, the perspective of needs and motivations of official emergency personnel has hardly been addressed by empirical studies in Germany so far.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Motivation, Satisfaction, and Risks of Operational Forces and Helpers Regarding the 2021 and 2013 Flood Operations in Germany

Fekete

2021

Sustainability

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Pluvial floods claimed more than 180 lives in Germany in July 2021, when a large and slow-moving storm system affected Germany and many neighbouring countries. The death tolls and damages were the highest since 1962 in Germany, and soon after, the crisis management was under public critique. This study has undertaken an online survey to understand crisis management better and identify lessons to learn. It has received a positive interest among operational relief forces and other helpers (n = 2264). The findings reveal an overall satisfaction with the operation in general as well as personal lessons learned. It also reveals shortcomings in many areas, ranging from information distribution, coordination, parallel ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, infrastructure resilience, and other factors. Just as well, areas for improvement of the crisis management system are suggested by the respondents. Cooperation and support by the affected population are perceived as positive. This helps to inform other areas of research that are necessary, such as studies on the perception by the affected people. The gaps in assessments of operational forces and some methodological constraints are discussed to advance future follow-up studies.

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Section: The Effect On the Personal Motivation To Helpsupporting

confidence: 87%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Motivation, Satisfaction, and Risks of Operational Forces and Helpers Regarding the 2021 and 2013 Flood Operations in Germany

Fekete

2021

Sustainability

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“…This contributes also to highlight the role of communication and coordination in overcoming the institutional gap created by decentralization ( Zulean and Prelipcean, 2013 ) and the unclear chains of command ( Araz and Jehn, 2013 ). The diffusion of such approach would also contribute to include numerous online communities of experts, known also as Virtual Operations Support Teams - VOSTs ( Fathi, Thom, Koch, Ertl & Fiedrich, 2019 ), to provide their knowledge and expertise for emergency planning, thus increasing the effective of the emergency response ( Turoff, 2002 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Managing the COVID-19 emergency: A coordination framework to enhance response practices and actions

Margherita

Elia

Klein

2021

Technological Forecasting and Social Change

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Highlights The COVID-19 is generating disrupting impact on economies and societies Sociotechnical research can contribute with new approaches to emergency management We define a framework for modeling coordination in epidemic management process We identify 25 resource types, 8 activities and 29 flow, fit, share dependencies We show an emergency management system of practices and response actions

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“…Twenty-four participants participated in the experiment, of which twenty-one were experienced in crisis management (eleven external analysts and ten decision-makers), and three were students. We added three students to create an element of reality to the group compositions as staff turnover is high in crisis response teams, with new and inexperienced staff needing to be integrated (St. Denis et al, 2012 ; Fathi et al, 2020 ). Based on the background and experience of the participants, they were given either the role as an external analyst or as a decision-maker.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the Interplay of Data and Cognitive Bias in Crisis Information Management

et al. 2022

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Humanitarian crises, such as the 2014 West Africa Ebola epidemic, challenge information management and thereby threaten the digital resilience of the responding organizations. Crisis information management (CIM) is characterised by the urgency to respond despite the uncertainty of the situation. Coupled with high stakes, limited resources and a high cognitive load, crises are prone to induce biases in the data and the cognitive processes of analysts and decision-makers. When biases remain undetected and untreated in CIM, they may lead to decisions based on biased information, increasing the risk of an inefficient response. Literature suggests that crisis response needs to address the initial uncertainty and possible biases by adapting to new and better information as it becomes available. However, we know little about whether adaptive approaches mitigate the interplay of data and cognitive biases. We investigated this question in an exploratory, three-stage experiment on epidemic response. Our participants were experienced practitioners in the fields of crisis decision-making and information analysis. We found that analysts fail to successfully debias data, even when biases are detected, and that this failure can be attributed to undervaluing debiasing efforts in favor of rapid results. This failure leads to the development of biased information products that are conveyed to decision-makers, who consequently make decisions based on biased information. Confirmation bias reinforces the reliance on conclusions reached with biased data, leading to a vicious cycle, in which biased assumptions remain uncorrected. We suggest mindful debiasing as a possible counter-strategy against these bias effects in CIM.

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VOST: A case study in voluntary digital participation for collaborative emergency management

Cited by 47 publications

References 17 publications

Motivation, Satisfaction, and Risks of Operational Forces and Helpers Regarding the 2021 and 2013 Flood Operations in Germany

Motivation, Satisfaction, and Risks of Operational Forces and Helpers Regarding the 2021 and 2013 Flood Operations in Germany

Managing the COVID-19 emergency: A coordination framework to enhance response practices and actions

On the Interplay of Data and Cognitive Bias in Crisis Information Management

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