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Exploring the dynamics
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Organizational attention
•
Hazard recognition
•
Hazard recognition encourages
local governments and com-
munities to pay attention and
invest their resources in EM.
Mutual understanding
•
Stay in touch with current or
potential partners.
•
Develop a good relationship in a
normal
time
period
by
accumulating
positive
ex-
periences in daily interaction and
communication.
•
Build friendship.
•
Build a positive relationship
and facilitate EM collabo
-
ration via strong mutual
understanding,
which
is
realized by keeping in touch
with partners in daily
interaction and communi
-
cations.
Institution/national
standard
•
Rationale for vertical collabo-
ration and horizontal- interlocal
collaboration: Legal requirements
(Stafford Disaster Relief and
Emergency Assistance Act, Florida
state law)
•
Mutual aid programs
•
NIMS helps people from
different places communicate
efficiently and effectively and
therefore decreases misunder-
standing during an emergency.
•
Over-formalized
structure,
centralized control, and tedious
paperwork were mentioned as
being problematic for using
NIMS for collaboration.
•
Both federal and state statutes
give local governments legal
reasons
to
collaborate
vertically.
•
The Florida statute authorizes
local governments in Florida
to develop and sign mutual
aid agreements within the
state.
•
EM-related
mutual
aid
agreements are popular
among local governments.
•
The pros and cons of NIMS
need to be considered.
EM managers
leadership/capability
Respondents viewed themselves
like a conductor in a symphony.
Their duties are as follows:
•
Receive information from higher
levels of governments
•
Depict and certify local EM plans
and enhance local EM capacity
•
Make decisions
•
Encourage or implement various
collaborations
Capabilities:
•
Flexible
•
Favorable interpersonal skills
•
Rapidly adjust to all kinds of
situations
•
Local emergency managers
play a crucial role in
enhancing local EM capacity
and encouraging collaboration
in
both
vertical
and
horizontal contexts.
•
Local emergency managers
are not the people who stand
on the front line; however,
they need to handle daily EM
work well and be ready to
face any emergency at any
time.