How to assess the operational crisis
management of the Dutch National Police
Master Crisis and Security ManagementLeiden University September 2016 cohort
Master Thesis – Publication version Thesis supervisor: Dr. E. Devroe Second reader: Dr. S.I. Kuipers Ramon Luiten S1802976 June 8th, 2017 Page count: 258 Including appendixes 154 excluding appendixes Word count: 83.928 including appendixes 52.802 excluding appendixes
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The secret of crisis management is not good vs. bad; it’s preventing
the bad from getting worse.
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Abstract
Using the strategic crisis management evaluation framework by Boin, Kuipers and Overdijk, security network theory and the building blocks of (organisational) resilience, this thesis builds an operational crisis management assessment framework for the Dutch National Police. The Dutch National Police has had, thus far, no applicable operational crisis management assessment framework, making structural improvement of crisis management hard, if not impossible. Improvement is however always striven for, as better crisis management means less societal damage.
Through a specially designed research structure, academic knowledge and empirical data from expert interviews and field research, a trichotomy describing operational crisis management is found. This trichotomy – focusing on individual qualities, networking qualities and the supporting (organisational) structure – is used to draft 10 performance criteria for each part of the trichotomy with an additional 31st performance criterion regarding safety. These 31 performance criteria make up the operational crisis management assessment framework, the final product of this thesis.
Key words: Operational crisis management, Security Networks, Crisis management performance criteria, Crisis management assessment.
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Lectori Salutem
Firstly, I would like to express that I am profoundly grateful to Dr. Elke Devroe, my thesis supervisor. Dr. Elke Devroe continuously offered me – and all other students she supervised – her unreserved, constructive and wholehearted guidance through the master thesis process. As an expert in Police studies and with her deep methodological knowledge – but also because of her extraordinary commitment and character – Dr. Elke Devroe was the ideal thesis
supervisor for me.
Secondly, I wish to express that my research would not have been possible without the following experts. These experts were willing to share not only their knowledge, experience and expertise but also their time with me. With that, these experts provided the empirical data this thesis is build on and could not be complete without. In alphabetical order:
Claire Bakker Fabian Kamphorst Marian Knollema Bas Lippe Joost Louwe Theodorus Niemeijer Klaas-Pieter Postma Rein Spek Fred Vorenkamp
Rob van de Wal Roy Yohannink
And a number of participants that chose to – and will – remain anonymous
For reading and reviewing as the second reader, my sincere thanks go out to Dr. Sanneke Kuipers, an expert in crisis management and with that knowledge, the ideal second reader.
Furthermore, I wish to thanks my family, my friends and my wonderful girlfriend for their support throughout the research process. I am lucky to have them in my life.
Finally I would like to thank Leiden University, but mainly Dr. Jelle van Buuren for the support he provided us, the students of the master Crisis and Security Management at Leiden University. He finds he just does ‘his job’, I find that he does so brilliantly.
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Table of content - brief
Abstract ... 3
Lectori Salutem ... 4
Table of content - brief ... 5
Table of content - extended ... 6
Chapter 1. Introduction ... 10
Chapter 2. Theoretical Framework... 17
Chapter 3. Methodology ... 25
Chapter 4. Analysis research part 1 ... 46
Chapter 5. Analysis research part 2 ... 58
Chapter 6. Analysis research part 3 ... 85
Chapter 7. The framework usable ... 123
Chapter 8. Concluding the research ... 141
Bibliography ... 148
Appendix 1; Confidential. Interview conversion table ... 155
Appendix 2; Confidential. The empirical data ... 156
Appendix 3; Confidential. The first coding of empirical data ... 157
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Table of content - extended
Abstract ... 3
Lectori Salutem ... 4
Table of content - brief ... 5
Table of content - extended ... 6
Chapter 1. Introduction ... 10
1.1 Research topic ... 10
1.2 Central research question ... 12
1.3 Relevance of the study ... 13
1.3.1 Academic relevance... 13
1.3.2 Societal relevance ... 15
1.3.3 Relevance for the Dutch National Police ... 15
Chapter 2. Theoretical Framework... 17
2.1 Disasters, crisis management and crisis evaluation ... 17
2.2 The strategic crisis leadership evaluation framework ... 18
2.3 Definition of key concepts ... 20
2.4 Problem statement ... 22
2.5 Critical remarks ... 24
Chapter 3. Methodology ... 25
3.1 Research design ... 25
3.1.1 Unit of analysis, units of observation ... 27
3.1.1.1 Unit of analysis ... 28
3.1.1.2 The units of observation ... 29
3.1.1.3 Sampling techniques and respondent recruitment ... 29
3.2 Research structure ... 30
3.2.1 A three-part research structure ... 30
Part 1: How can the crisis management domain of the OvD-P of the Unit The Hague of the Dutch National police, the OvD-P, be described and, if possible, visualised? ... 30
Part 2: Which sections of Boin et al.‘s (2013) strategic crisis leader evaluation framework need adjustments and what do these adjustments entail? ... 31
Part 3: Which sections for a final framework are missing – given the analysis of part 1 and 2? ... 31
3.3 Methods of research, data gathering and data exploitation ... 33
- 7 - 3.3.1.1 Literature review ... 33 3.3.1.2 Document analysis ... 34 3.3.1.3 Data gathering ... 34 3.3.1.4 Data exploitation ... 34 3.3.2 Field research ... 35 3.3.2.1 Data gathering ... 35 3.3.2.2 Data exploitation ... 36 3.3.2.3 Ethical remarks ... 36 3.3.3 Expert interviewing ... 36 3.3.3.1 Data gathering ... 37
3.3.3.2 Brief interview guide ... 38
3.3.3.3 Data exploitation ... 42
3.3.1.4 Ethical remarks ... 43
3.3.1.5 Critical remarks ... 43
3.4 Operationalization scheme ... 45
Chapter 4. Analysis research part 1 ... 46
4.1 Analysis of the empirical data ... 46
4.2 Theoretical implications ... 50
4.2.1 Security network theory ... 52
4.2.1.1 Defining the network ... 53
4.2.1.2 Characteristics of the network ... 55
4.2.1.2.1 Network form ... 55
4.2.1.2.2 Network inception ... 55
4.2.1.2.3 Developmental stage of the network ... 55
4.3 Methodological implications of the research findings ... 56
4.3.1 Data collection implication ... 56
4.3.2 Data coding ... 57
Chapter 5. Analysis research part 2 ... 58
5.1 Boin et al.’s strategic crisis leadership evaluation framework revised ... 58
5.1.1 Early recognition ... 58
5.1.2 Sense making ... 59
5.1.3 Making critical decisions ... 60
5.1.4 Orchestrating vertical and horizontal coordination ... 60
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5.1.6 Meaning making ... 61
5.1.7 Communication ... 62
5.1.8 Rendering accountability ... 62
5.1.9 Learning ... 63
5.2 Analysis of the empirical data and drafting criteria ... 64
5.2.1 Early recognition in the empirical data ... 64
5.2.2 Sense making in the empirical data... 66
5.2.3 Critical decision making in the empirical data ... 68
5.2.4 Orchestrating vertical coordination in the empirical data ... 71
5.2.5 Coupling and decoupling in the empirical data ... 73
5.2.6 Rendering accountability in the empirical data ... 75
5.2.7 Learning in the empirical data ... 76
5.2.8 Knowing the discipline’s processes, responsibilities and inner workings ... 78
5.2.9 Resource mobilisation ... 79
5.2.10 Safety ... 81
5.2.11 Prioritizing and flexibility ... 82
5.3 concluding the chapter ... 83
Chapter 6. Analysis research part 3 ... 85
6.1 Analysis of the empirical data on OvD-P Network level ... 85
6.1.1 Information sharing ... 87
6.1.2 Orchestrating horizontal coordination ... 89
6.1.3 Meaning making ... 90
6.1.4 Communication ... 92
6.1.5 Learning ... 92
6.1.6 Awareness of partner processes ... 94
6.1.7 Process prioritization among actors ... 95
6.1.8 Process interconnection ... 97
6.1.9 Scaling up in structure and resources ... 98
6.1.10 Network flexibility ... 100
6.1.11 Multi capability ... 102
6.2 Analysis of the empirical data on OvD-P Supporting structure level ... 104
6.2.1 Early recognition facilitation ... 105
6.2.2 Communication ... 107
- 9 - 6.2.4 Learning culture ... 110 6.2.5 Role facilitation ... 111 6.2.6 Resource availability ... 113 6.2.7 Training ... 114 6.2.8 Continuity ... 115
6.2.9 Full crisis education and ambassadorship ... 117
6.2.10 Unambiguous and structured crisis assessment ... 119
6.3 Conclusion of the chapter ... 121
Chapter 7. The framework usable ... 123
Chapter 8. Concluding the research ... 141
8.1 A brief answer to the central research question ... 141
8.2 The classic conclusion ... 142
8.3 Critical remarks ... 146
Bibliography ... 148
Academic sources ... 148
Non-academic sources ... 153
Appendix 1; Confidential. Interview conversion table ... 155
Appendix 2; Confidential. The empirical data ... 156
Appendix 3; Confidential. The first coding of empirical data ... 157
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Chapter 1. Introduction
A major gas leak, an incident on a highway, the evacuation of a school or even the actions of a terrorist, all these incidents can unfold to be crises. When any of the aforementioned or any of the vast number of other possible incidents occurs, the government has to deal with the – potential – crisis and thus employ a kind of crisis management. The Dutch government has tasked its emergency services with the initial crisis management on the incident site (Devroe et al., 2015, p.20). This at or close by the incident site managing of the operational actions at incident location is what referred to as operational crisis management in the thesis.
1.1 Research topic
It is this operational crisis management that is the research topic for this thesis. This research will result in an operational crisis management assessment framework for the operational crisis management organisation of the Dutch National Police. Within the Dutch National Police, the role of operational crisis manager is carried out by the OvD-Ps (the Officer on Duty of the Police, de Officier van Dienst - Politie). The OvD-P is the operational leader of all the police activities on the incident location. A more elaborate definition of crisis
management and the operational crisis management on the incident location is given in section 2.3 Definition of key concepts.
Being an OvD-P is a role within the Dutch National Police and not a full-time function. This means that a police officer can be the chief of a police team and that that officer is assigned to do – for instance – 4 OvD-P shifts a month. When a police officer has the role of OvD-P, he is the OvD-P assigned to a
geographical area. This area lies within one of the 10 Police Units. This way The Netherlands is fully covered.
A map of the Police Units is shown at the right side. Source: Politie.nl
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Because operational crisis management by the Dutch National Police is led by the OvD-Ps, the thesis focuses on these Officers on Duty of the Police. Thus while the execution of tasks in a crisis is done by many different police officers with different roles and ranks, the research focuses specifically on those police officers whom have the official operational management role in the crisis: the OvD-Ps.
The research seeks to create an operational crisis management assessment framework for the operational crisis management organisation of the Dutch National Police. This is reached through answering a single research question. The research question will be addressed in the following section. After the section on the research question, the full relevance for conducting this research and creating such an operational crisis management assessment framework is clarified.
In short however, there is no operational crisis management assessment framework that is applicable to the crisis management done by the OvDs of the Police. Therefore it is hard – if not impossible – to examine where things go right, were done right, go wrong or went wrong. When flaws in crisis management cannot structurally be found – before they have impacted crisis management, they are not addressed. This means that suboptimal or bad crisis
management is not improved. Resulting in that when a major incident is not a training scenario but a full crisis, bad crisis management is still being employed, potentially costing lives. The full examination of the relevance concludes the first chapter.
In the theoretical chapter – the second chapter – the theoretical starting point of this thesis is elucidated. In this theoretical chapter, Boin et al.’s (2013) strategic crisis leadership
evaluation framework is thoroughly examined. Boin et al.’s framework theoretically bears the closest resemblance to what the final product of this thesis may look like. As no empirical research has yet been carried out, theoretically bearing closest resemblance is arguably the best choice. The consequence of this is that after the first empirical research is done and analysed, some theoretical base might need to be added to the existing theoretical framework. Thus, Boin et al.’s (2013) strategic crisis leadership evaluation framework is the theoretical starting point which may be complemented by additional theoretical knowledge after the first empirical research. The theoretical chapter will also contain the definition of key concepts.
After the theoretical chapter, the methodological chapter for the thesis follows. In this third chapter, the research design and the research structure are addressed. The data collection methods, unit of analysis and units of observation are also addressed in this chapter. After the
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theoretical chapter and methodological chapter, the empirical research is carried out. The analysis of this empirical research will constitute chapter 4, chapter 5 and chapter 6. The three aforementioned chapters revolve around the analysis of empirical data and make it possible to answer the central research question in chapter 8. This chapter also contains the classic conclusion and a section of critical remarks on the research. Chapter 8 follows after the seventh chapter which is dedicated to the product of this thesis: the operational crisis
management assessment framework. The bibliography and – depending on if you as a reader are allowed to read the confidential appendixes – the appendixes will cover the final pages of this thesis.
1.2 Central research question
The thesis topic is – as stated before – operational crisis management. For the sake of feasibility, the organisation where this topic is researched with and on is crisis management organisation of the Dutch National Police. This organisation is chosen for two reasons.
Firstly, the choice for this organisation is made because the Dutch National Police encounters unique incidents more frequently than most other organisations. The Dutch National Police is an organisation which is – often – a ‘first responder’ in potential (public) crisis situations. First responders are predominantly the police, the fire department and the emergency medical services but sometimes also the municipality, civilian responders or organisations such as rescue brigades (See also Devroe et al., 2015, p.19-20 and p.26).
The Dutch National Police is tasked, by law, with the enforcement of the legal system, maintaining public order and providing (emergency) assistance to whomever requires this (Art. 3, Art. 12 and Art. 13 Politiewet 2012 (Police law)). The obligation to maintain public order and provide (emergency) assistance to whomever this requires, is why the Dutch National Police is an important actor in crisis management.
The second reason to study the Dutch National Police is that the researcher has access to the organisation which is fundamental for the feasibility of the thesis.
The central research question is:
How can Boin et al.’s (2013) strategic crisis leadership evaluation framework be used to assess operational crisis management within the Dutch National Police?
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Because the strategic crisis leadership evaluation framework by Boin et al. is build to evaluate strategic crisis leadership, it is not directly applicable to the operational field of crisis
management. As will be argued for in the theoretical chapter, the crisis leadership evaluation framework by Boin et al. is still valid as a starting point as it is. Albeit about strategic
leadership and not about operational leadership, but about crisis leadership nonetheless. The thesis – and thus the research question as well – therefore revolves around the ‘transfer’ or adaption of the insights from this strategic crisis leadership evaluation framework to an operational crisis management assessment framework, thus creating a new piece of theory.
The thesis is specifically structured to make this theory building possible. The research structure divides the central research question into three parts. First, an answer is needed to the question ‘How can the crisis management domain of the OvD-P of the Unit The Hague of the Dutch National police, the OvD-P, be described and, if possible, visualised?
Secondly, the strategic crisis leadership evaluation framework by Boin et al. is analysed to uncover which parts are already operationally applicable, which parts need adjustments and which parts need to be taken out. Finally, the missing fields of focus can be added to make the creation of the final framework possible. Further explanation of the aforementioned research structure can be found in section 3.2 Research structure.
1.3 Relevance of the study
In the preceding section on the central research question, the strategic crisis leadership
evaluation framework by Boin et al. (2013) was touched upon. The theoretical background of this framework will be addressed in the next – theoretical – chapter. This section focuses on the question why it is important to the academic world, to the Dutch society and to the Dutch National Police that this thesis is carried out.
1.3.1 Academic relevance
Crisis leaders can make a crisis worse (Boin et al., 2013, p.80 using Boin and ‘t Hart, 2010). It is therefore important that it is known how crises should be managed. This question of how crises should be managed has been researched into by scholars such as Boin, Comfort,
Kuipers, Cutter and many others. The studies by Boin and his colleagues have resulted in the strategic crisis leadership evaluation framework that was already mentioned (2013). In this research and in a significant number of other academic crisis management studies done over the last 10 to 15 years, a new concept has risen: the concept of resilience.
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Generally – there are numerous interpretations of resilience – it is argued that resilient organisations are needed to effectively manage crises (Comfort, 2010, p.20). This notion can be seen in the very title of an article by Boin and McConnell from 2007: Preparing for Critical Infrastructure Breakdowns: The Limits of Crisis Management and the Need for Resilience.
So, in order to effectively manage crises, an organisation needs to be resilient. This means that an organisation that can effectively manage crises is – at least adequately – resilient. As the final product of this thesis is an operational crisis management assessment framework for the Dutch National Police, a good assessment for the operational crisis management
organisation would imply that the organisation was – at least for the assessed crisis – resilient enough to effectively manage it.
Comfort (2010) stated that it is yet unknown how resilient organisations are created (p.20). Furthermore, Cutter argued in 2010 that the science of resilience is still in its infancy (p.17) and that “to date there is no single set of established indicators or frameworks for quantifying disaster resilience” (p.6).
Altogether, it can be concluded that the academic relevance for doing research into operational crisis management using resilience comes firstly from this academic gap in knowledge about how to create organisations that are resilient. Secondly, as resilience is a relatively new concept in crisis management, organisational crisis management research using the concept of resilience is uncharted ground. This is strengthened by the fact that there is less known about organisational resilience than about individual or community resilience (Norris et al, 2008, p.144-146). Finally, there is the problem that there is no established framework for assessing organisational disaster resilience – at least none that is accepted by the academic world according to Cutter (2010, p.6).
Building the theory using resilience will not entail (re)inventing the wheel as a new ‘vehicle’ is now created. This was promoted by Norris, stating “Scholars and practitioners in the realm of organizational resilience don’t have to start from scratch; they can build upon progress in the realms of individual and community resilience (AND vice versa)” (2008, p.13 on Norris et al., 2008).
Not having to start ‘from scratch’ is another justification for using Boin et al.’s (2013) strategic crisis leadership evaluation framework as a starting point for the research. See Chapter 2; theoretical framework for further information on resilience and it is used in Boin et al.’s strategic crisis leadership evaluation framework (2013).
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1.3.2 Societal relevance
The societal relevance for the thesis comes from the fact that organisations with a high level of resilience to crisis situations cope better with crises than low-resilience organisations (Lockwood, 2005, p.2). Additionally, the absence of an operational crisis management assessment framework is actually potentially harmful for the Dutch society. This is stressed once more as bad – instead of good – crisis management leads to more personal and/or
material damage that societies will have to bear (Kash, 1998, p.179-180). Therefore, the thesis is not only relevant but its aimed outcome of an operational crisis management assessment framework also has true added value for both the Dutch National Police and the Dutch society.
1.3.3 Relevance for the Dutch National Police
The relevance for conducting the research done in this thesis is also seen by the Dutch
National Police. In in-depth pre-research conversations this came forward, supporting the then proposed research. The academic proof for this statement was found in the interviews with the internal crisis experts and the internal OvD experts. The OvDs of the Police note that they miss an evaluation framework that is applicable to their complex tasks, and that they can use to improve their crisis management skills (internal OvD expert 1, 19; internal OvD expert 2, 21; internal OvD expert 3, 3; internal crisis expert 1, 10, 21, 22, 25-27). This organisational relevance is further supported as external crisis experts and external OvD experts state the need for an assessment framework (External crisis expert 3, 5, 14, 22; External OvD expert 2, 14, 15).
Additionally, the Police needs an operational crisis management assessment framework because the police needs to be able to assess all incidents – also those that have been managed well, ergo preventing them from becoming crisis situations. This is stressed by the argument of Boin: “Evidence of organizational failure is plentiful, whether in loss of life, depletion of resources, contamination of the environment, or damage to organizational reputation. These outcomes are measurable, newsworthy, and visible to academics, the press, and the
community; conversely, full success at crisis management is, by definition, invisible” (2008, p. 12). Therefore, thus, the police needs to be able to assess all incidents managed by their crisis managers, not only the incidents that have unfolded into a crisis.
Lastly, structurally using a transparent and fair assessment framework can be used to defend crisis managers of the Police from unguided public scrutiny. This form of Meaning Making (see Boin et al., 2013, p.84-85) of a crisis is needed as “when a traumatic event occurs,
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individuals’ assumptions often are shattered” ... “Whereas a group or organization, prior to a triggering event, may have had a shared sense of meaning, it now may experience disillusion or a void of meaning. Victims may seek revision to or full revamping of the social order, and dissatisfaction with existing roles or leadership may occur” (Boin, 2008, p.16, using Janoff-Bulman, 1992, Parry, 1990 and Habermas, 1975). Providing the public with a transparent assessment of a crisis can thus shape the public’s perception of the crisis, which is relevant for the Dutch National Police – and any other police force or institution.
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Chapter 2. Theoretical Framework
This second chapter addresses the theoretical underpinning of the thesis. The framework used as a starting point for the thesis is the strategic crisis leadership evaluation framework drafted by Boin et al. (2013). Before the framework by Boin et al. is elucidated on, disasters, crisis management and crisis evaluation are briefly addressed. This chapter also contains the definition of key concepts, the problem statement and a section on critical remarks.
2.1 Disasters, crisis management and crisis evaluation
According to Turner, ‘disasters are not created overnight – excluding disasters due to natural forces’ (1976, p.395). This implies that disasters are not fixed ontological things, but that their impact can vary depending for instance on if the incident is properly prepared for. Wildavsky sees two complementary strategies to prepare for incidents. Anticipation; aiming to predict and prevent potential incidents, and resilience; the capacity to cope with unanticipated incidents once they have occurred (1988, p.77 and p.224).
Comfort saw the strategy of resilience too, arguing effective crisis management is best done by organisations able to absorb blows and recover quickly. Comfort additionally notes that it is crucial for organisations to be flexible and to adapt rapidly when an incident occurs (2010, p.7-9). This notion can be traced back to Clarke. Clarke generally stressed the impossibility to prepare for every theoretically possible incident (1999). However, every theoretically possible incident can happen and can – thus – be assessed.
To assess crisis management, a validated framework is needed. If no validated framework is used “any assessment of crisis management performance amounts to little more than a ‘just so’ story” (Boin, 2011, p. 1). The theoretical framework chosen as the theoretical starting point for creating the operational crisis management assessment framework was constructed in order to evaluate strategic crisis leadership after a crisis. This framework was created by Boin, Kuipers and Overdijk and is elaborated upon in their article from 2013.
This framework is chosen because – as already disclosed in the previous chapter – there is no – acceptable or academically accepted – framework for assessing the operational crisis management organisation of the Dutch National Police available at this time. Additionally, frameworks from individual or community resilience studies are aimed at other levels of resilience, making them – while useful – not suitable as a theoretical starting point.
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2.2 The strategic crisis leadership evaluation framework
The framework by Boin et al. revolves around how an inquiry committee can be given guidelines for evaluating strategic crisis leaders after crisis situations, beyond symbolic performance (2013, p.79). Boin et al. compiled ten executive tasks that the strategic crisis leaders should have performed and – thus – should be evaluated on. These ten tasks are “culled from extensive studies of crisis management in a variety of settings” and identify “the critical functions of crisis management” (Boin et al., 2013, p.82 and p.81). Boin et al. created this framework because “given the increasing importance attached to crisis management, an evaluation of leadership driven by politicization and media dynamics is simply unacceptable” (2013, p.87).
The framework provided by Boin et al. is aimed at crisis managers working at the strategic level of crisis management and can be applied to both crisis managers of states or large public organisations and to the larger private organisations (2013, p.79-80).
Because Boin et al.’s framework is aimed at after-action inquiry and not directly applicable to the operational crisis management of the Dutch National Police, some adaptations will have to be made. Which parts of the framework will have to be adjusted and in what way is part of the research as was previously stated in 1.2 Central research question. However, a literature scan and conversations with public and private (field) experts have already shown to the researcher that Boin’s framework does need adjustments to be operationally applicable.
Nonetheless, by adapting Boin’s framework and bringing it forward in time from strategic crisis evaluation to direct operational crisis management assessment, it can be adopted in organisational crisis management. How this is to be done is dealt with in the following chapter; Chapter 3; Methodology. In table 2.1, the ten tasks put forward by Boin are shown including the main questions that are to be asked by an inquiry committee (2013, p82-87).
Table 2.2.1 The strategic crisis leadership assessment framework (Boin et al., 2013, p82-87).
Task Central inquiry question(s)
1 Early Recognition Did leaders create conditions that facilitate early recognition?
2 Sense making Did leaders create, facilitate, and rehearse a sense making method?
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3 Making Critical Decisions Did leaders carefully deliberate which decisions they should make, and did they make the decision after some form of due process?
4 Orchestrating Vertical & Horizontal Coordination
Did crisis leaders monitor and assess forms of vertical and horizontal cooperation? Did they facilitate effective cooperation and intervene where cooperation was lacking or dysfunctional?
5 Coupling and Decoupling Did crisis leaders actively monitor the state of critical (life
sustaining) systems and the connections between them? Did they access expertise with regard to these critical systems?
6 Meaning Making Did crisis leaders offer a clear interpretation of the crisis and explain how they intended to lead their community out of it?
7 Communication Did crisis leaders actively cooperate with their communications professionals to ensure they had timely and correct information for dissemination to the public?
8 Rendering Accountability Did leaders make an effort to present a transparent and constructive account of their (in)actions before and during the crisis?
9 Learning Did leaders allow for reflection on the effects of chosen courses of action, did they encourage and tolerate negative feedback, and did they record crisis management proceedings to facilitate learning by outsiders?
10 Enhancing Resilience Did leaders actively involve themselves in crisis preparations?
In the article by Boin et al. (2013), resilience is already touched upon in task #10. In the section on the tenth task, it is also noted that it is unknown how resilient organisations can be created (p.78). This implies that while the need for resilience is clear, what is should precisely entail is not yet known.
This tenth task may seem strange as it has been shown before that in order to have effective crisis management by an organisation, that organisation needs to be resilient. The strategic leaders assessed in Boin et al.’s framework must be from an organisation that is involved in the crisis management. This is the case as these leaders would not be the strategic crisis leaders if their organisations would not have been involved in the crisis.
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Therefore, the framework by Boin et al. – or at least the first 9 tasks – measures pieces of what altogether would lead to either the strategic leader being individually resilient or the organisation of the strategic leader being resilient. The tenth leadership task however then still evaluates resilience by asking: Did leaders actively involve themselves in crisis preparations? This seems contradictory.
Because of this, in this research, improving the level of resilience can possibly be an outcome of using the final assessment framework, but being resilient as a stand-alone crisis leadership capacity or task will not be part of the final assessment framework.
The question then is, what is resilience? The definition of resilience that is used in this thesis is “a process linking a set of adaptive capacities to a positive trajectory of functioning and adaptation after a disturbance” (Norris, 2008, p.2 on Norris et al. 2008).
Norris (2008) clarifies the advantage of this definition versus other definitions as it
emphasises process, patterns of change and adaptability. Additionally, this definitions works across all levels of resilience (from individual to organisational to societal) because it is ‘content free’ (p.2). A content free definition is needed because less is known about organisational resilience than other levels of resilience (Norris et al, 2008, p.144-146).
2.3 Definition of key concepts
The following table gives an overview of the key concepts, their definition in this thesis and the source for this definition. Definitions that are already elaborately addressed in their respective sections, are not repeated in this table.
Table 2.3. Defining key concepts
Concept Definition Source
Crisis
management
Crisis management is understood as the management of any incident that causes or can cause adverse effects to societies, like serious disturbance of public safety, serious threat to human lives and/or serious threat to important material interests, and where the
coordination of various disciplines is required to remove the threat or limit the harmful effects.
Devroe et al., 2015, p.30
Translated from Dutch
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(crisis
management)
The strategic level is understood as the organisational level where the more global issues such as the
organisation’s general policies, the direction of the organisation, the values and general goals are decided upon.
Loosemore et
al., 2003, p.241
Incident location The incident location is understood as the location where an incident is unfolding and the surroundings of that location where the incident can have a direct effect upon.
IFV, 2016
Operational level (crisis
management)
The operational level is understood as the
organisational level where the smaller in-the-field-decisions are made. Ideally, in-the-field-decisions made on the operational level comply with and reflect the operation’s global strategic decisions.
Loosemore et
al., 2003, p.241
Strategic leaders in Boin et al. (2013)
High ranking officials of organisations, often with a public function, whom are ultimately responsible for an organisation’s functioning.
Boin et al., 2013, p.81-82
Safety region (Veiligheidsregio)
The mayor and councillors of the municipalities that belong to a specified region (referred to in Article 8, Wet veiligheidsregio’s) adopt common rules,
establishing a public body called: the security region.
Wet veilig-heidsregio’s (Law on the safety regions) 2010
Assessing Assessing is understood as scoring how well a person or organisation, that is considered responsible for taking certain action or a set of actions, carried out that certain action or set of actions, or had it/them carried out.
Boin et al., 2013, p.81-82
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(regarding the interviews)
As experts are understood those who are believed to have expert knowledge in a particular area of interest. With expert knowledge in a particular area of interest, knowledge through extensive academic research and / or extensive experience is meant.
Gubrium and Holstein, 2002, p. 332
Thick description Qualitative data in which a researcher attempts to
capture all details of a social setting in an extremely detailed description and convey an intimate feeling for the setting and the inner lives of people in it.
Neuman, 2013, p.436
Gatekeepers A person in an official or unofficial role who controls access to a setting.
Neuman, 2013, p.439
2.4 Problem statement
With the Office of Resilience within the National Security Council in the U.S. White House, “the policy community has adopted resilience as one of the guiding principles for making the nation safer” (Cutter, 2010, p.1). This would suggest that this principle of resilience is
thoroughly sought out and that its added value is evident. An official Office of Resilience might even imply that it is known how resilience is created on such an organisational level.
A literature scan shows that the academic world contests this. Resilience within crisis management has in both recent and slightly older research been called ‘fuzzy’ (Mykhnenko, 2016, p.177), ‘inappropriate’, ‘imprecise’ or ‘glittery’ (Norris, 2008, p.128 referring to Bodin, 2004; Carpenter, 2001; Cowen, 2001; Klein, 2003). These negative terms refer to resilience being defined and used in many different ways, used as a fashionable buzzword and
potentially being applicable to everything and everybody (Comfort, 2010, p.1).
Despite the critiques, as seen in section 1.3.1 on the academic relevance, resilient
organisations are needed to effectively manage crises (Comfort, 2010, p.20). This refers to both effective crisis management on the operational leadership and on the strategic leadership level.
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In this research the academic critiques on resilience will be taken into account. Resilience, thus, needs to be clearly defined and unambiguously measured for the academic world to fully accept it. At the same time, societies need the resilient organisations for effective crisis
management. However the problem was already stated that there is no established framework for assessing crisis resilience (Cutter, 2010, p.6). While in recent years the academic
knowledge of individual and community resilience has seriously increased, this is less so for organisational resilience (Norris, 2008, p.144-146).
This means that the Dutch National Police – an organisation that by law has to deal with crises on both the strategic and operational level – cannot yet rely on an operational crisis management assessment framework. This was already stressed in the section on the relevance for the Dutch National Police, examining the problems of the absence of a crisis management assessment framework – and thus the relevance of this thesis.
In short, there is a societal need for good crisis management and thus, for this thesis, crisis resilience in the crisis management organisation of the Dutch National Police. At the same time, the academic community cannot yet provide a framework for clear and unambiguous measurement of operational crisis management by a Police force. And although on the individual and community level the academic knowledge about resilience and measuring resilience is expanding, the organisational level is lagging behind. This means that it remains hard – if not impossible – to scientifically and objectively measure if an organisation – such as the crisis management organisation of the Dutch National Police – was resilient enough to handle the crisis it faced.
This thesis seeks improve crisis management by dealing with the problem of the
unavailability of an operational crisis management assessment framework, as the final product will be such an assessment framework. Which methods are used in what way to ensure that the final product is grounded in theory and true to the reality of operational crisis
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As any qualitative research, this research develops during the process of researching
(Neuman, 2013, p.20-23). The given theoretical framework may for instance prove to be too broad or lack a specific section of theory. Therefore, after the first empirical research step is taken and the analysis is made, a review of the theoretical framework will follow. This review will clarify if additional theoretical basis is required to further advance the research. Such a review will contain the theoretical information needed in support of the in this chapter given theoretical starting point.
Implied in the section above, use is made of the grounded theory idea (See Glaser and Strauss, 1967). ‘Discovered’ by Glaser and Strauss, the grounded theory approach to research
revolves around a continuous cycle of theory impacting the research data and the research data impacting the theory. Via the grounded theory idea, the theoretical framework of the research is advanced throughout research progress. With the advanced theoretical framework, better – more valid, more accurate, deeper etcetera – data can be found. Because of the use of the grounded theory approach, and as explained in the previous paragraph, an additional theoretical section will follow after the first empirical data is found and analysed.
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Chapter 3. Methodology
This chapter addresses the methodology that is used throughout the thesis. Firstly the research design is presented, explaining why this thesis is a embedded single case study design –which can be seen as both a rare case and as a representative case – and why this is the most
appropriate research design for the thesis. This section also contains the unit of analysis and units of observation. Secondly, the research structure – previously touched upon with the central research question – will be explained. The third section of this methodological chapter addresses the methods of research, the triangulation of methods, the data gathering and the data exploitation. The chapter is concluded with an operationalization scheme. The goal of this chapter is to make sure that other researchers can replicate this research (Yin, 2003).
3.1 Research design
Firstly, this thesis is a qualitative study. It is a non-numerical research that measures the social reality of crisis management (Neuman, 2013, p.16-17 and p.20-22). It focuses on interactive processes and events in which the values, perceptions and critical opinions of the units of observation are essential pieces of data. (Neuman, 2013, p.16-17).
Within the general population of all institutions and/or organisations whom can be confronted with a crisis and therefore have to deal with operational crisis management, the Dutch
National Police is chosen as the single studied case. More specifically, the crisis management organisation of Unit The Hague of the Dutch National Police is chosen as the single case. A single case study is “an intensive study of a single unit for the purpose of understanding a larger class of (similar) units” (Gerring, 2004, p.342). It is a research strategy that helps build knowledge of “individual, group, organisational, social, political and related phenomena” (Yin, 2004, p.1). Case studies typically rely on two sources of evidence. These are direct observations of events and interviews with persons involved in those events (Lang, 2016, p.35 using Yin, 2004, p.3-8). Which sources of evidence are used in this thesis is addressed in section 3.3 Methods of research, data gathering and data exploitation.
The single case study design can be characterised further as an embedded case study. The case study is an embedded case study as there will be multiple units of observation for the single case, in contrast with the holistic case study (based on Yin, 2003).
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A final characteristic of the embedded single case study is whether it is for instance representative, prototypical, deviant or crucial. There are, however, even more types.
When considering the full universe of organisations, institutions and other groups that might get to deal with crisis management in an organized manner, the specific case of Unit The Hague of the Dutch National Police can arguably be considered a rare case (Crowe, 2011, p.5). A rare or extreme case often “corresponds to a case that is considered prototypical or paradigmatic of some phenomena of interest. This is because concepts are often defined by their extremes, that is, their ideal types” (Gerring, 2006, p.101-102). The crisis management organisation of Unit The Hague can arguably be seen as such an extreme case as this
organisation is tasked by law to act in crisis situations, making the organisation involved in almost every crisis situation and potential crisis situation in its service area. This makes that unlike almost any other organisation, institution or group, the police encounters crisis
situations on a daily basis. Additionally, separating the police from other emergency services which may – like the police – encounter potential crisis situations on a daily basis, the police have the monopoly on violence.
The value of doing research on rare cases comes from that such “a "deviant" or "atypical" case may ... prove even more informative, potentially enabling the researcher to identify causal processes, generate hypotheses and develop theory” (Crowe, 2011, p.5).
This value of rare case studying can amplify the strength of single case studies. As “ there are various advantages to both idiographic and nomothetic single case study analyses – notably the empirically-rich, context-specific, holistic accounts that they have to offer, and their contribution to theory-building and, to a lesser extent, that of theory-testing (Willis, 2014, p.5).
However, while take cognizance of the aforementioned, the case can also be reflected against a universe solely made up of the Dutch National Police Units. When reflecting against this universe, the Unit The Hague case is – seemingly contradictory – not a rare or deviant case, but a representative case. When (geographically) comparing Unit The Hague with the other Police Units, The Unit The Hague shares core characteristics with almost every other Dutch Police Unit.
Before the characteristics of the different units can be compared, it needs to be clear why the Netherlands is chosen to conduct this research within. The Netherlands is chosen to conduct
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this research within as The Netherlands has a single nation-wide crisis management structure via the ‘Wet veiligheidsregio’s’, the Law on the safety regions. Furthermore, the researcher has accessibility to interview respondents and field research locations in The Netherlands.
As seen in the research introduction, The Netherlands is geographically covered by 10 police units. Unit The Hague is one of those 10 police units. Serving the exact same geographical area as Unit The Hague of the Police, are the safety regions of ‘Hollands-Midden’ and ‘Haaglanden’. This is important because the crisis management organisation of Unit The Hague thus has to work with both these safety regions when an incident or crisis unfolds.
The geographical location of Unit The Hague – and thus also of the safety regions ‘Hollands-Midden’ and ‘Haaglanden’ – is chosen as the political and international relations’ capitol of The Netherlands – The Hague – is in this region. Furthermore, it has both densely populated areas with the cities of The Hague and Leiden, suburban areas such as Alphen aan den Rijn and Katwijk and rural areas like Kaag en Braassem and the Krimpenerwaard. This diversity of population density and – with all respect – political, societal and economical area importance, makes some generalisation of the research findings from Unit The Hague to all other Police Units in The Netherlands possible. This is why the Unit The Hague, as the chosen case, can be seen as a representative case as well. This means that the research findings are to at least some extent applicable in both the densely populated Units Amsterdam and Rotterdam and in the much larger rural Units Noord-Nederland (North Netherlands) and Oost-Nederland (East Netherlands).
Now that the final characteristics of the rare and representative embedded single case are explained. The unit of analysis and the units of observation can be covered.
3.1.1 Unit of analysis, units of observation
This section addresses the unit of analysis and the units of observation. A diagram is made to visualise the coherence between the unit of analysis and the units of observation. This
diagram is given in advance to clarify the position of the unit of analysis within the geographical explanation given in the previous section.
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Diagram 3.1.1 Visualisation of the unit of analysis and units of observation.
3.1.1.1 Unit of analysis
The circle within the larger circles of The Netherlands and the geographical location of Unit The Hague and the safety regions, represents the population of professionals involved in crisis management. These are all the people that work for an organisation that can act as a first responder in crisis situations and all those who have (or had) a function in which they are (or were) involved in crisis management. Note that these are the professionals with leading (management) tasks when a crisis occurs. A distinction can made between operational level crisis managers and strategic level crisis managers. For the exact definition, see the definition of key concepts.
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Within the population of professionals that work as crisis managers – both operational and strategic, different first responders are distinguished. Four categories are defined in the diagram with the Police, the Fire Department, the Emergency Medical Services and the other first responders. These other first responders can range from Coast Guard to Rescue brigades to the Army.
The unit of analysis in this thesis is the operational crisis management organisation of the Unit The Hague of the Dutch National Police, the small blue circle in the diagram. The OvD-P (de Officier van Dienst – Politie, the Officer on duty of the Police) is part of the unit of analysis as he/she is the operational crisis manager of the Police on an incident location. From the data gained and analysed from the units of observation, a conclusion can be drawn on the unit of analysis.
3.1.1.2 The units of observation
There are multiple units of observation in this both rare and representative embedded single case study. The prime unit of observation is the OvD-P. The OvD-P is the prime unit of observation because of the operational crisis management role the OvD-P has at the incident location. The OvD-P is the unit of observation in the field research and in most interviews. Other units of observations are interviewed and observed experts who are not OvD-Ps with the Dutch National Police. These are experts such as OvDs from the Fire department (the OvD-B), the Emergency Medical Services (the OvD-G) or (operational) crisis experts from the army or municipality.
3.1.1.3 Sampling techniques and respondent recruitment
The experts for the expert interviews and the field research are sampled from the general population of professionals that get to deal with crises and have a leading role. This is the centre circle of (operational) crisis management experts in Diagram 3.1.1. From this population, OvD-Ps and other internal crisis management experts are sampled. The term internal expert refers to experts from within the Dutch National Police. Aside these internal experts, external operational crisis experts are sampled. These experts work for the Fire Department, the Emergency Medical Services or the other first responders.
The above means that the experts needed for this research must first be filtered out of the general population of professionals involved in crisis management. The experts are first sampled through a stratified purposive sampling. The sampling is stratified so the four categories (the Dutch National Police, the Fire Department, the Emergency Medical Services
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and the other first responders) are all represented. The sampling is then done purposively to select crisis managers based on (further) specific characteristics that can partake in the in-depth interviews. The experts that come out of the stratified purposive sampling will be recruited by directly contacting or visiting the work locations of these experts within the given geographical location of Unit The Hague.
These experts – the ones willing to be interviewed – will be asked to refer the researcher to other crisis managers that may contribute to the thesis. This final form of sampling is a snowball sampling technique and is simultaneously how new respondents will be recruited.
3.2 Research structure
The thesis is specifically structured to answer the central research question. The research question is: How can Boin et al.’s (2013) strategic crisis leadership evaluation framework be used to assess operational crisis management within the Dutch National Police?
The research structure is meant to offer a step-by-step approach to divide the central research question into three interconnected parts. This structured was previously briefly addressed in the section 1.2 Central research question.
3.2.1 A three-part research structure
The structure is used to create a necessary chronological development of research steps within the thesis. This order is required as the second or third part of the research cannot be
conducted thoroughly and faithfully to the operational field of crisis management, without the first part being addressed first. The three parts of the research are nonetheless deeply
intertwined in content and in how they can be researched into. This has as a consequence that it would not have been true to the reality of operational crisis management to separate these three parts of the research into separate sub questions. The three parts are therefore
subsequently developed in this thesis.
Part 1: How can the crisis management domain of the OvD-P of the Unit The Hague of the Dutch National police, the OvD-P, be described and, if possible, visualised?
The research will first analyse, describe and – if possible – visualise what the crisis
management domain of the OvD-P is. This first of the three structured parts will give insight in the full domain or fields of focus of the operational crisis management organisation of Unit The Hague of the Dutch National Police. This is needed as the final operational crisis
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management assessment framework needs to assess the whole of the operational crisis organisation of Unit The Hague of the Dutch National Police.
This part will be concluded with if the findings of this part have implications on the theoretical basis of the research. If it is concluded in part 1 that another piece of theory is needed to complement the theoretical starting point, this will be addressed.
Part 2: Which sections of Boin et al.‘s (2013) strategic crisis leader evaluation framework need adjustments and what do these adjustments entail?
The second of the three structured parts seeks to analyse and answer which parts of the strategic crisis leadership evaluation framework by Boin et al. (2013) are already
operationally applicable, which parts need adjustments and which parts need to be taken out.
As the framework drafted by Boin et al. is aimed at evaluating strategic leaders, adjustments to the framework will have to be made in order to make it applicable to operational crisis management. This second part will answer whether some sections can be compressed while others need to be expanded, if some sections can be transferred directly, need to be adjusted or can be left out entirely. The research done for part 2 will result in the basic structure of the final operational crisis management assessment framework.
Part 3: Which sections for a final framework are missing – given the analysis of part 1 and 2?
The last of the three structured parts examines where the final framework basis that was the result of part 2, lacks insights in relation to the whole of operational crisis management as was analysed in part 1.
Part 1 of the three-structure resulted in an overview of how the operational crisis management domain of the Dutch National Police can be described. Part 2 has the basis of the final
framework as its result. This third part clarifies which parts of the operational crisis management domain are already addressed in the final framework basis from part 2. With this, it is also shown which parts of the operational crisis management domain are not yet part of the framework basis. These missing sections are identified and analysed. Adding the missing sections to the basis of the framework will be the result of this part.
Analysing and answering each of the three structured parts grants the opportunity to answer the central research question. At the same time, that answer to the central research question
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will bear the result of an operational crisis management assessment framework for the Dutch National Police. This end product fulfils the research goal.
A visualisation of the step-by-step approach is presented in scheme 3.2.1.
Scheme 3.2.1. The step-by-step approach.
In this scheme, the methods used in the thesis are shown. These are the field research, the expert interview and the desk research method. The following section will focus on these three methods and specify the collection and exploitation of the different data.
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3.3 Methods of research, data gathering and data exploitation
The thesis seeks to build an operational crisis management assessment framework. Although the reality of operational crisis management is complex, the final framework should be applicable to the whole operational crisis management domain. Or – as stated in the
visualisation of the step-by-step approach – the final framework should be able to truthfully measure the whole of the operational crisis management of the Dutch National Police.
Because this thesis is designed as a both rare and representative embedded single case study, a triangulation of methods is required to uphold the internal validity of the research. “In fact, the more ... these techniques are used in the same study, the stronger the case study evidence will be” (Yin, 1999, p.1217). Thus “by examining information collected through different methods, the researcher can corroborate findings across data sets and thus reduce the impact of potential biases that can exist in a single study” (Bowen, 2009, p.28).
Each method of the triangulation, the desk research, the field research and interviewing is covered in their respective sections underneath.
3.3.1 Desk research
Under the general header of desk research, two data gathering and exploitation methods are combined. These are the literature review method and the document analysis method.
3.3.1.1 Literature review
Via the literature review method, like any academic research, this thesis builds upon previous work done in the crisis management field of study. To deeply understand the research topic – and additional fields of focus which may come out of the third part of the research structure – it is essential to review the accumulated knowledge in these fields (Neuman, 2013, p.136).
Therefore a major data source is the accumulated knowledge on (operational) crisis
management contributed to by academics. This means of data gathering is predominantly used for the theoretical part of the thesis. However, when interviewed crisis experts will point to academic publications on appropriate and applicable crisis management concepts, the literature review on this may also be used for the empirical part of the thesis.
Any information used or paragraph cited out the academic body of knowledge is accompanied by a reference in APA-Style. The full reference can be found in the bibliography.
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3.3.1.2 Document analysis
The second data gathering and exploitation method under the general header of desk research is the document analysis. “Document analysis is a systematic procedure for reviewing or evaluating documents – both printed and electronic material” ... “Like other analytical methods in qualitative research, document analysis requires that data be examined and interpreted in order to elicit meaning, gain understanding, and develop empirical knowledge” (Bowen, 2009, p.7 using Corbin & Strauss, 2008)
3.3.1.3 Data gathering
For this method, non-academic publications by crisis experts, policy documents, inquiries and reports can be used. Which data sources will be used, depends on the information gathered further in the research. If – for instance – an expert interview will lead to a specific policy document, that document is analysed.
Nonetheless, no document analysis will be done without a reference to it by for instance an interviewed expert. This is done because the theoretical framework builds upon the strategic crisis leadership evaluation framework by Boin et al. (2013). For their publication, Boin, Kuipers and Overdijk ‘culled’ their information “from extensive studies of crisis management in a variety of settings” (2013, p.81). This included reviewing inquiries, policy documents and reports. Therefore, the document analysis already carried out to create the strategic crisis leadership evaluation framework – which will form the basis of the operational crisis management assessment framework – will not be reconstructed and done again.
Because the documents that will be analysed are referred to by the interviewed experts, the documents are not sought out by keywords, period of publication or any other characteristic. This method of data collection will serve mostly as a complement to the other research methods (Atkinson and Coffey, 1997, p. 47). The document analysis method will exclusively be used in the empirical part of the thesis. A scheme visualising the use of this document analysis method and the other research methods is provided in section 3.4 operationalization scheme.
3.3.1.4 Data exploitation
The exploitation of the data in the documents is “the analytic procedure [of] finding, selecting, appraising (making sense of), and synthesising data contained in documents” (Bowen, 2009, p.28).
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The information exploitation from the data collected through the analysed documents, will be sampled on the basis of concepts that have been put forward by interviewed experts. Concepts that came forward in the empirical data – and are found in the documents – are also
extrapolated. Furthermore, data on concepts that were not found through the other research methods but are found nonetheless and may prove relevant for the evolving theory, will also be selected and appraised (Strauss and Corbin, 1990, p. 176).
Any information used or paragraph cited from the analysed non-academic publications will be accompanied by a reference which can be found in the bibliography. This reference will be in the APA-style whenever this is possible.
3.3.2 Field research
“The best way to learn about a complex reality is to capture events as they occur in their authentic reality ... this is the best way to develop an in-depth understanding of a community or culture” (Neuman, 2013, p.434-437). As it is essential for the thesis to create in-depth understanding of operational crisis management by the Dutch National Police, the field research method is chosen as one of the three data collection methods.
Field research gives good insight and a ‘thick description’ – see definitions – of the complex reality (Neuman, 2013, p.51). A negative aspect of field research is that it takes a relatively long time to gather data in comparison to most other data collection methods (Neuman, 2013, p.438). Next to that, access to the social setting where the field research is conducted may be hard to get (Neuman, 2013, p.439). The field research setting can however be accessed through the active compliance of multiple gatekeepers – see definitions – of researchable settings, working with the Dutch National Police.
3.3.2.1 Data gathering
The data gathering for the field research will be conducted in a training setting in which the OvD-Ps train with OvDs from other emergency services in a worst case scenario training. Although the OvDs from all the emergency services will know that it is a training scenario, pressure and stress is created through the scenarios and the rapidly evolving timelines.
In such a training scenario, many OvDs can be observed at once. This also makes on-the-spot comparison between the OvDs possible, showing strengths and weaknesses compared to other OvDs. This will provide rich data that can later be analysed. By observing the OvDs from all the emergency services, the competences needed to perform well as an OvD as well as their common pitfalls can be found. The analysed participants of the training will know that they
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are units of observations. This is in line with the ethical codes of doing research (See
Neuman, 2013, p.142-157). Awareness of the presence of an observer can affect the gathered empirical data (Anderson, 2010, p.3). However, because the presence of ‘evaluators’ and researchers is common during such training sessions, the impact of the presence of the researcher on the data is arguably negligible.
A scheme visualising the use of this field research method and the other research methods is provided in section 3.4 operationalization scheme.
3.3.2.2 Data exploitation
Because in field research, the researcher “must do many things at once” (Neuman, 2013, p.438), the data will be captured using general notes. This means that the data will be written down per observation in a paragraph regarding that observation.
With field research, the researcher is the instrument for measuring the data (Lofland, 2006, p.3). The researcher will therefore try to keep a neutral but interested stance. Whenever something will however evoke a reaction in the researcher – like disagreement, wonder or being impressed, the researcher will write this down in the general notes. This is done because “If we avoid writing about our reactions, we cannot examine them...” (Kleinman and Copp, 1993, p.19).
The general notes data capture method also makes it possible to effectively combine the data from this field research data collection method with the data from the expert interview data collection method.
3.3.2.3 Ethical remarks
- The general notes of the field research will not be made public for other researchers to use as primary data. The researcher is allowed access to the field research setting on a confidential basis. The researcher will at all times respect that confidentiality.
- None of the names the observed crisis managers will be stated in this research. This to avoid the possibility that information gathered for this thesis is used for any other than its intended purpose.
3.3.3 Expert interviewing
The expert interview method is chosen as experts from the field of operational crisis management – when at the centre of analysis – make sense of their work better than non-experts. This argument is derived from Davies et al. stating that “ultimately police make sense of their work better than most researchers” (2011, p.208). Furthermore – seemingly trivial –
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solely interviewing on the strategic level (mayors) or too ‘low’ in the operational field will not lead to the same in-depth information as interviewing the crisis experts.
This connects to the key point put forward by Aberbach and Rockman in their publication on conducting and coding elite interviews, that “studies must be designed with purpose as the key criterion” (2002, p.675). This thesis uses the expert interviewing method in order to probe deeply into the elite’s attitudes, critical opinions and beliefs on operational crisis management (Aberbach and Rockman, 2002, p.675-676). The purpose of the data gathered through this data collection method is to gather data which: is true to the reality of operational crisis management, examines the definition of problems by operational crisis managers and collects data on their responses to them (Aberbach & Rockman, 2002, p.674).
Furthermore, as goal of the thesis is to build an operational crisis management assessment framework, this framework needs to reflect the whole of operational crisis management. In order to come to this ‘whole’ of crisis management, a broad scope is needed. This broad scope is fundamental as a lot of independent and interdependent fields of focus may be important. In relationship to the interviews this means that the focus will lie on obtaining a diverse dataset (Zhang and Wildemuth, 2009, p.223-224).
3.3.3.1 Data gathering
The unstructured interview type is specifically chosen to get the diverse dataset and “to give respondents maximum flexibility in structuring their responses” (Aberbach and Rockman, 2002, p. 673). This type of interview is combined with the expert interview method.
The unstructured interview method is chosen as this method has as a prime advantage that the interviewee is influenced the least in giving answers, compared to semi-structured or
structured interviews. Preventing limiting and influencing answers is essential for receiving diverse answers (Zhang and Wildemuth, 2009, p.222-223). Or as Noaks and Wincup note “The more open unstructured approach is favoured as providing more opportunity to incorporate the interviewee perspective. The open approach gives more scope for the interviewee to set their own agenda and typically provide a more in-depth response to questions posed” (2004, p. 77).
The interview length may however increase due to the lack of predetermined structure
(McLeod, 2014, par.16-22). The lack of predetermined structure also “requires great attention from the interviewer since such an interview has a more conversational quality to it than the typical highly structured interview and questions may, therefore, be more easily broached in a
