IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v13y2021i11p6418-d569094.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Securing Operational Capability for Exceptional Circumstances: How Do Professional First Responders Respond to the Unexpected?

Author

Listed:
  • Ossi Heino

    (Research, Development and Innovation, Police University College, P.O. Box 123, FI-33721 Tampere, Finland)

  • Joanna Kalalahti

    (Research, Development and Innovation, Police University College, P.O. Box 123, FI-33721 Tampere, Finland)

Abstract

Complexity and uncertainty are framing the modern world, whilst also affecting issues on security and sustainability. There is a need to prepare for known threats and identified risks, but also to improve the ability to cope in situations that are difficult to recognize or describe beforehand. What is at stake—both at the organizational and individual level—is the ability to make sense of uncertain and ambiguous situations. Analyzing two empirical cases, this study aims to shed light on the abilities of experts, who have acted in very challenging situations, in which deviating from established procedures and abandoning politeness have been necessary to respond effectively. The first case deals with a threat of serious violence faced by a police officer. The second case focuses on the actions of an executive fire officer during a rescue operation after an explosion at a shopping mall. This paper concludes by arguing that pre-established procedures require experts to reflect on their usability in exceptional situations as relying on them could also have detrimental effects.

Suggested Citation

  • Ossi Heino & Joanna Kalalahti, 2021. "Securing Operational Capability for Exceptional Circumstances: How Do Professional First Responders Respond to the Unexpected?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-15, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:11:p:6418-:d:569094
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/11/6418/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/11/6418/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ali Farazmand, 2009. "Hurricane Katrina, the Crisis of Leadership, and Chaos Management: Time for Trying the ‘Surprise Management Theory in Action’," Public Organization Review, Springer, vol. 9(4), pages 399-412, December.
    2. Sanjeev Khagram & William Clark & Dana Firas Raad, 2003. "From the Environment and Human Security to Sustainable Security and Development," Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 4(2), pages 289-313.
    3. Jennifer Robinson & Marta Sinclair & Jutta Tobias & Ellen Choi, 2017. "More Dynamic Than You Think: Hidden Aspects of Decision-Making," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 7(3), pages 1-29, July.
    4. Dirk Helbing, 2013. "Globally networked risks and how to respond," Nature, Nature, vol. 497(7447), pages 51-59, May.
    5. Christophe Roux-Dufort, 2007. "Is Crisis Management (only) a Management of exceptions?," Post-Print hal-02311783, HAL.
    6. Gary Klein, 1999. "Sources of Power: How People Make Decisions," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262611465, December.
    7. Ossi Heino & Annina Takala & Pirjo Jukarainen & Joanna Kalalahti & Tuula Kekki & Pekka Verho, 2019. "Critical Infrastructures: The Operational Environment in Cases of Severe Disruption," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-18, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Byoungjik Park & Yangkyun Kim & Jin Ouk Park & Ohk Kun Lim, 2023. "Jet Flame Risk Analysis for Safe Response to Hydrogen Vehicle Accidents," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-13, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Olga Bucovetchi & Alexandru Georgescu & Dorel Badea & Radu D. Stanciu, 2019. "Agent-Based Modeling (ABM): Support for Emphasizing the Air Transport Infrastructure Dependence of Space Systems," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(19), pages 1-18, September.
    2. Hassan Danaeefard & Ali Farazmand & Akram Dastyari, 2023. "The Iranian Coronavirus Pandemic (COVID-9) Crisismanship: Understanding the Contributions of National Culture, Media, Technology and Economic System," Public Organization Review, Springer, vol. 23(4), pages 1661-1682, December.
    3. Igor Linkov & Benjamin Trump & Greg Kiker, 2022. "Diversity and inclusiveness are necessary components of resilient international teams," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(1), pages 1-5, December.
    4. Tim Rakow & Charles Vincent & Kate Bull & Nigel Harvey, 2005. "Assessing the Likelihood of an Important Clinical Outcome: New Insights from a Comparison of Clinical and Actuarial Judgment," Medical Decision Making, , vol. 25(3), pages 262-282, May.
    5. Mohammad Chehabeddine & Manuela Tvaronavičienė, 2020. "Securing regional development," Post-Print hal-02569328, HAL.
    6. Balint, T. & Lamperti, F. & Mandel, A. & Napoletano, M. & Roventini, A. & Sapio, A., 2017. "Complexity and the Economics of Climate Change: A Survey and a Look Forward," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 252-265.
    7. Man Li & Tao Ye & Peijun Shi & Jian Fang, 2015. "Impacts of the global economic crisis and Tohoku earthquake on Sino–Japan trade: a comparative perspective," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 75(1), pages 541-556, January.
    8. Laura M. Canevari‐Luzardo & Frans Berkhout & Mark Pelling, 2020. "A relational view of climate adaptation in the private sector: How do value chain interactions shape business perceptions of climate risk and adaptive behaviours?," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(2), pages 432-444, February.
    9. Ellinas, Christos & Allan, Neil & Johansson, Anders, 2016. "Project systemic risk: Application examples of a network model," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 182(C), pages 50-62.
    10. Augusto Felício, J. & Rodrigues, Ricardo & Patino-Alonso, Carmen & Felício, Teresa, 2022. "Allostasis and organizational excellence," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 107-114.
    11. Takayuki Mizuno & Takaaki Ohnishi & Tsutomu Watanabe, 2015. "Structure of global buyer-supplier networks and its implications for conflict minerals regulations," Papers 1505.02274, arXiv.org.
    12. George Van Voorn & Geerten Hengeveld & Jan Verhagen, 2020. "An agent based model representation to assess resilience and efficiency of food supply chains," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(11), pages 1-27, November.
    13. Betsch, Tilmann & Haberstroh, Susanne & Molter, Beate & Glockner, Andreas, 2004. "Oops, I did it again--relapse errors in routinized decision making," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 93(1), pages 62-74, January.
    14. Arnaud Mignan & Ziqi Wang, 2020. "Exploring the Space of Possibilities in Cascading Disasters with Catastrophe Dynamics," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(19), pages 1-21, October.
    15. Shima Beigi, 2020. "How do the Covid-19 Prevention Measures Interact with Sustainable Development Goals?," Papers 2011.02290, arXiv.org.
    16. Tom Christensen & Liang Ma, 2020. "Coordination Structures and Mechanisms for Crisis Management in China: Challenges of Complexity," Public Organization Review, Springer, vol. 20(1), pages 19-36, March.
    17. Xing, Kai & Yang, Xiaoguang, 2020. "Predicting default rates by capturing critical transitions in the macroeconomic system," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 32(C).
    18. Magnus Benzie & Åsa Persson, 2019. "Governing borderless climate risks: moving beyond the territorial framing of adaptation," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 369-393, October.
    19. Gianluca Pescaroli & David Alexander, 2018. "Understanding Compound, Interconnected, Interacting, and Cascading Risks: A Holistic Framework," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 38(11), pages 2245-2257, November.
    20. Paulo Ferreira & Éder J. A. L. Pereira & Hernane B. B. Pereira, 2020. "The Exposure of European Union Productive Sectors to Oil Price Changes," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-16, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:11:p:6418-:d:569094. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.