Creativity and Improvisation in Response Operations
Response operations include actions or procedures typically undertaken in solution to an accident, and all of these interventions are emergencies. Thus, emergency response can be described as the action usually taken in response to a hazardous and unforeseen incident to minimize the effect it would otherwise have on a community or the world at large. Such emergency events vary; it may be attributed, among many other accidents, to transport events, terrorism, natural disasters such as hurricanes and earthquakes (Valaei & Rezaei, 2017). The services are given in emergency response circumstances often differ according to the type of emergency. Besides, the time taken to respond to an incident is also significant, that is how long it takes the respondents to respond to a call, which will also decide the behavior they will take.
Emergency management is also described by researchers and practitioners as both art and science, and the concept that extends to many careers where people communicate with the natural environment. In medicine, for example, a discipline that is often commonly defined as art and science, the situation is the highly localized body of a patient; in navigation and aviation, the setting is the natural one of ocean basins, the atmosphere, land types, weather, and climate. But in emergency management, the environment becomes much more complicated, consisting not just of the structures of the world, but also of the technological development of society and the distribution of people. They are dynamic social and economic mechanisms, mechanisms that are imperfectly understood even in regular times but whose effects reach into and produce the circumstances we colloquially call catastrophes. Don't use plagiarised sources.Get your custom essay just from $11/page
The earth and atmospheric sciences inform us about geological and climatic processes. The social sciences inform us about the perception and reaction of people to these processes and provide insight into the social mechanisms that lead to exposure to natural forces or lead to the mismanagement of our industrial systems resulting in system failure, dangerous releases and environmental degradation (Kendra & Wachtendorf, 2007). Yet more should be said about emergency management science. Although it includes integrating concepts from different disciplines, its practice is a specific kind of science that leaves its core disciplines behind traditional methods and well-defined protocols to become more grounded in interpretation, analysis, and uncertainty negotiation.
Singularities are the components of a catastrophe that are not expected beforehand. Reviewing the recent theory of management, it noted that, to some degree, management is improvisation. If that assumption is valid for commercial business organizations where decision-making situations that are often characterized as “dynamic” are weighty compared to time scales for crisis management, then indeed, improvisation will also seem to be important in emergency management. In light of this, we believe improvisation is a strong expression of the art of an emergency planner.
Usually, it is home protection that is dealing with these emergency responses, and they have had to develop over the years to be able to conduct operations efficiently. Homeland protection can be described as a crossroads between emerging threats and hazards. Going by this description, one can safely assume that homeland security, among many other fields, incorporates emergency management, law enforcement, civil protection, border control, and customs to determine the best course of action or command to an incident.
Those are also the features of emergencies where it is unclear the precise unfolding of circumstances. Like in many fields, in unusual circumstances, the art is in the application of experience, where we encounter the actual evolution of real events, not an idealized form. “In our experience, science deals with regularities; art deals with extra dimensions.”
Although often concerned with countering terrorism, it also tackles incidents such as natural disasters, border patrol problems, and other events, as described above (Lewis, 2019). Hence, to come up with the best solutions, homeland security can be defined as dynamic cooperation and collaborations across all levels of the government, private, and public sectors. In the last few years, Homeland Security has made use of both creativity and technology to establish effective ways of coping with emergencies.
Emergency responses are critical because they make it possible for both homeland security and other agencies that reply to accidents to be able to manage any incident appropriately. Beyond ensuring that activities are timely, they also help ensure there is minimal injury or loss of life and property. One may also claim they help to minimize the severity of the destruction and ensure that the typical atmosphere or community life is restored as soon as possible.
Disaster responses are usually based on a detailed schedule, as are other contingencies depending on the type of disaster (Cevik & Huang, 2018). The implementation of the plan usually includes administration from the command center, while a commander at the scene orchestrates the operations on the ground. The on-scene commander and his team on the ground are responsible for monitoring and analyzing the situation that is critical for good leadership in implementing the rebuttal plan.
Emergency plan activation is based on the evaluation of the possible risk involved in an incident and the sequence of measures taken to prevent it. As found in many situations, contingency measures in a response operation do not always go as expected. Events like traffic congestion and unanticipated bad weather will adversely affect the emergency response as the on-scene manager is now facing a challenge in executing the plan. Of this purpose, emergency services need to be flexible to accommodate anything that can happen in the procedure to reduce the extent of the mitigating effect.
Although organizational risk management philosophies are structured to take into account the complexity of incidents in response operations, in some instances, may not be appropriate or feasible for all expected sensitive activities (Anwar, Mohamad, Zolkipli, Inayat, Khan, Anthony & Chang, 2017). It could result in a full revision of the program. Often such situations involve a combination of various proposals from different organizations that may not operate as smoothly because of discrepancies in workability and resource allocations within the organization.
That said, ingenuity and improvisation in emergency response operations are critical to active service. By engaging in improvisation and imagination in responses, there is a lack of the versatility needed in the emergency response, which in turn reduces the likelihood of success. Reaction team preparedness significantly improves the ability to improvise and be innovative when facing changing circumstances.
Creativity and improvisation can be better said than done during an active emergency response. According to Weick in his study “The Mann Gulch Fire,” imagination is the last thing that is required under actual life-threatening circumstances and strain. It has been recognized in the past that teams in emergency management decision-making situations have made their decisions by comparing the present to previous conditions. Weick’s research has also shown that on-the-grounded response teams match their interpretation of the current emergency into one they know how to manage.
Kreps described improvisation as “organization during an event,” while pre-event planning is organization. In addition to the plan, improvisation is another reason for an effective emergency response process. In the past, however, preparedness was seen as more advantageous relative to improvisation. Some scholars see comprehensive preparation as a way of growing the area’s need for improvising. Like preparation that includes “what should be done,” however, improvisation incorporates “what needs to be done” and therefore gives it its distinct emergency response capability.
There are several instances in which improvisation was seen as saving the day, where the defeat would have been disastrous without it. The waterborne evacuation of Lower Manhattan is one clear example of these situations. In this case, thousands of people were evacuated to safety in dispersed fleets of assorted vessels. Operating together with the sailors and other citizens, they rescued almost half a million people who were uniquely stranded in Lower Manhattan.
While the coast guard helped to organize the evacuation using some of their expertise, this excellent job was accomplished, given the fact that there was no contingency plan for the event of that magnitude. Evacuation participants relied on their information and experience, as well as on the radio transmissions (Lewis, 2019). While the coastguard has an emergency plan, this was much broader in scope, for this case, the only improvisation would work, and it did.
Improvisation, however, may bring its problems when it comes to execution, the primary one being the breakdown of the company during virtuosity due to chaos, which may involve breaking of procedures such as the Emergency Command System. Because of the challenge, developers seem to fear orchestration in particular. In the absence of a transition plan, it is easy to picture a scenario where team members disagree on the best course of action to take in circumstances of extreme pressure.
Nevertheless, the Incident Command System has been seen to be perhaps best used in typical scenarios, and may not match specific situations, and may not be as effective in new circumstances. Nonetheless, this should be an indicator that there is something that is not inclusive of all elements in the architecture of ICS, and that it has less scope for operations. Notwithstanding this, ICS was found not to be intrinsic in its architecture but also to be informed by the company and the team of respondents. In some instances, representatives of an Incident Command System improvise some aspects and do not rely exclusively on system design (Cevik & Huang, 2018). This versatility among ICS leaders will help prevent the organization’s anarchical breakdown while providing space for imagination and improvisation in productive activity.
Although orchestration has been settled for being necessary for emergency operations, it can not be taught through a script or a checklist. On the other side, the values can be explained by realistic workouts. Improvisation is hinged on imagination. Those exercises will encourage innovation among team members. Improvisation may also be improved by eliminating impediments to creative thought (Valaei & Rezaei, 2017). Inviting representatives of other organizations to meet and engage in regular activities will also help create relationships and establish interaction norms that will improve organizational improvisation ability.
In conclusion, I do not advocate discarding the preparation in favor of orchestration. Nor should less time be devoted to the development, but plans should be taken as guidelines that would encourage improvisation later when the opportunity arises itself. Creativity is also improving improvisation. It is only through ingenuity that organizations can handle particular unexpected accidents. Much should be devoted to promoting innovation among the members in their various roles.
References
Valaei, N., & Rezaei, S. (2017). Does Web 2.0 utilization lead to knowledge quality, improvisational creativity, compositional creativity, and innovation in small and medium-sized enterprises? A sense-making perspective. Technology Analysis & Strategic Management, 29(4), 381-394.
Kendra, J., & Wachtendorf, T. (2007). Improvisation, creativity, and the art of emergency management. Understanding and responding to terrorism, 19, 324-335.
Lewis, T. G. (2019). Critical infrastructure protection in homeland security: defending a networked nation. John Wiley & Sons.
Cevik, M. S., & Huang, G. (2018). How to Manage the Fiscal Costs of Natural Disasters. International Monetary Fund.
Anwar, S., Mohamad Zain, J., Zolkipli, M. F., Inayat, Z., Khan, S., Anthony, B., & Chang, V. (2017). From intrusion detection to an intrusion response system: fundamentals, requirements, and future directions. Algorithms, 10(2), 39.