Discussion Board Question.(Organizational Management & Communication in Disasters)

* First Discussion Board:

– Give us an idea of your personal strengths and aspirations related the content of this course. Tell us how you have previously functioned in a group activity!

Complete this introduction with your opinion, based on the meaningful reflection of your readings, how each manner of thinking applies to disaster management.

– APA Style

– Kindly answer all question clearly and completely.

* Course Overview:

The topic of Organizational Management and Communications in Disasters is so broad that we could spend years just on these two areas of study. This course will provide the opportunity to explore different management, leadership, and communication styles to allow you to decide the best practices applied to pre-disaster, disaster, and post-disaster settings. You are expected to independently critically read several leadershiptheories in the early part of the course, and then build upon the practices that make the most sense to you as we move through the term. During this term, you will complete 5 FEMA IS courses that are part of the U.S. professional credentialing process (IS 240b, IS 241b, IS 242b, IS 244b, IS 42).

What is systems theory, and how does it apply to chaos, project management, and disaster management? There will be several readings from Ackoff and others in this area. Think about this model in disaster planning exercises.

Teamwork is crucial to managing the effects of a disaster: defined leadership, clear roles, the knowledge to accomplish the task, and communication, are all elemental aspects of optimal action in disaster or emergency. Likewise, leadership, followership, and “management” are all components essential to teamwork. Organizational culture will be explored using several readings from Edgar Schein and others to answer the questions: how do you become an intelligent follower, and as a manager, how do you interact with followers?

We will explore communications from a minimum of two perspectives: the technical requirements of transmission and reception, and message formulation and decoding in crisis communications. A large part of this topic will be focused on interoperability – we can achieve the ability to talk to each other, but why don’t we actually communicate? IS242 (complete the course at the www.fema.gov site) will launch you on this investigation of resistance factors related to communication efficiency amongst disciplines.

We will examine the use of broadcast and social media for risk communications and public information and warning. There is a great project on risk communication that you will do this term.

All of these factors play a role; Public Information and Warning is a key “mission area” of the (U.S., model) National Preparedness Goal. These programs require a funding stream. Thus a short exposure to writing grants will occur.