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Radburn, M, Stott, CJT, Bryant, R, Morgan, B, Tallent, D and Dayidson, L (2022) Group processes and interoperability: A longitudinal case study analysis of the UK's civil contingency response to Covid-19. Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management. ISSN 0966-0879
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Abstract
Our case study explored a Local Resilience Forum's (LRF) civil contingency response to COVID-19 in the United Kingdom. We undertook 19 semistructured ethnographic longitudinal interviews, between March 25, 2020 and February 17, 2021, with a Director of a Civil Contingencies Unit and a Chief Fire Officer who both played key roles within their LRF. Within these interviews, we focused on their strategic level decision-making and how their relationship with national government impacted on local processes and outcomes. Using a form of grounded theory, our data describe the chronological evolution of an increasingly effective localized approach toward outbreak control and a growing resilience in dealing with concurrent emergency incidents. However, we also highlight how national government organizations imposed central control on aspects of the response in ways that undermined or misaligned with local preparedness. Thus, during emergencies, central governments can undermine the principle of subsidiarity and damage the ways in which LRFs can help scaffold local resilience. Our work contributes to the theoretical understanding of the social psychological factors that can shape the behaviour of responder agencies during a prolonged crisis. In particular, the implications of our analysis for advancing our conceptual understanding of strategic decision-making during emergencies are discussed.
Item Type: | Article |
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Additional Information: | This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.© 2022 The Authors. Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. |
Uncontrolled Keywords: | civil contingency response; COVID-19; emergency management; group processes; intergroup relations; Interoperability; social identity; strategic decision-making |
Subjects: | B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General) |
Divisions: | Faculty of Natural Sciences > School of Psychology |
Related URLs: | |
Depositing User: | Symplectic |
Date Deposited: | 25 Aug 2022 12:30 |
Last Modified: | 13 Oct 2022 14:11 |
URI: | https://eprints.keele.ac.uk/id/eprint/11349 |