Decision Making By Leaders In High Consequence Disasters
Open AccessThis research focuses on the initial period of decision making by Federal Coordinating Officers (FCOs) who are appointed by the President of the United States with recommendation from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to lead the federal response to the most serious domestic disasters in the United States. The goal of this research was to define the decisional dynamics and influences concerning FCO decision making and model the structure, variables, decision points and processes used by FCOs in making decisions during the initial response interval of a Presidentially declared disaster. To achieve this goal, this research included a survey of FCOs decision making experiences in the most significant and serious disasters they led as an FCO. The focus of this survey and the research was on FCO decision making and not whether any decision was "right" or "wrong" per se.The results of this research enabled the development of an FCO specific model of decision making which diagrams the intuitive and rational decision making processes, dynamics and structures utilized by the FCOs surveyed during the initial response interval of a Presidentially declared disaster. In addition, the research identified the FCOs' views on factors that influenced their decision making processes such as the characteristics of the disaster, its complexity, uniqueness and severity as well as the quality and quantity of situational information concerning the disaster and the resources and time available to make the necessary decisions.Together, the results of this research provide FCOs and their program managers with an FCO validated model of their decision making process as well as identification of influencing factors. These results support the development of tailored job aids as well as the development of training and exercises for FCOs focusing on specific components of these processes and factors. Understanding the decisional processes used by FCOs during a disaster's initial response interval when often the situation is most dynamic and ill defined is fundamental to supporting the FCO in critical disaster response situations where lives and property are most at risk.
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