The Handbook of Board Governance, 3rd Edition

35Preparing for Governance of Complex Disasters: Social Dimensions, Knowledge Systems, and Systemic Mitigations

Eric B. Kennedy, BKI, MSc, PhD

Assistant Professor, Disaster & Emergency Management, School of Administrative Studies, York University

Over the past decade, organizations and institutions have had to confront an increasingly complex landscape of crises, emergencies, and disasters. Sometimes these occur within the landscape of traditional business logistics (such as a blocked canal or massive delays in freight systems), while others are more typical of Hollywood-style disasters (such as wildfires, earthquakes, hurricanes, or cyberattacks). Making matters worse, such disasters are often concurrent (i.e., two different events occurring at the same time) or cascading (i.e., one event that triggers or exacerbates another).

Yet, the experiences and lessons learned from these plentiful examples can sometimes be maladaptive when it comes to preparing boards, institutions, and organizations for complex disasters.¹ For example, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic differs in important ways from a more acute, localized disaster like a short-duration flood or a large fire in an apartment block. Such shorter-term events are often seen (1) as having a distinct beginning, middle, and end; (2) as offering a comparatively simple decision landscape for organizations affected; (3) as characterized by a higher degree of consensus between leaders and publics regarding the desired goals and mitigations; ...