The study focuses on organized activities within communities experiencing disaster. It is initiated by a description of the nature of disaster involvement on the part of various community organizations. A discussion follows of the different meanings of the term 'disaster' and of the social implications created by differential characteristics of disaster agents. It is suggested that the primary disruption of the social structure is revealed in unplanned changes in interorganizational relationships. Four types of organized behavior are isolated, derived from a cross-classification of the nature of the disaster tasks and the post-impact structure. Using these four types, problems of mobilization and recruitment are discussed as well as the specific operational problems these groups experience functioning under disaster conditions. A final chapter deals with the implications of disaster research in dealing with the organizational consequences of a nuclear catastrophe.

"Human action is guided by social structure, but there are also many situations in which behavior is improvised, emergent, and outside conventional normative constraints. This book focuses on these types of occasions, which include panics, crowds, social movements, and organized behavior following disasters. Social scientists in the fields of collective behavior, social movements, and disaster research study these topics. E. L. Quarantelli, cofounder and longtime director of the Disaster Research Center (DRC), is one of those scholars; indeed, he has devoted his career to understanding them. Quarantelli's impact on the fields of disaster research and collective behavior is traced in the foreword to this volume."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Chaos Organization and Disaster Management offers a scholarly survey of disaster response behavior and management in the face of natural and manmade catastrophe. The author provides a methodological and empirical platform from which to initiate a critical analysis of disaster management. Sparked by a unique field study of the Israeli experience dur

Organizational Crisis Management: The Human Factor offers theoretical background and practical strategies for responding to workplace crises. Responding to a paradigm that focuses on the operational aspects of continuity to the detriment of human factors, this volume provides a comprehensive understanding of the unavoidable yet often complex reacti

The report summarizes the research undertaken from 1964 through 1967 as well as indicating the direction of new investigations that have been initiated. Chapter I describes the general research originally projected, the initial theoretical model set forth, and the physical facilities of the laboratory being used. The pilot study, using ad hoc small groups, is reported on in the next chapter. The major laboratory research conducted during the four years is discussed in Chapter III. This involved a realistic simulation of an actual police dispatching room. Chapter IV describes an experimental effort to test quantitatively in the laboratory some hypotheses drawn from a refined version of the original theoretical model used. The following chapter depicts an 'analogue' study conducted as a result of questions generated by the two major laboratory simulations. The last two chapters of the report discuss the cross-cultural studies of communication initiated in an attempt to focus on interactional aspects of groups under stress, and the range of laboratory, experimental and field work projected for the future. (Author).