Crisis Management Organization: Building Governance Capacity and Legitimacy

Abstract

This paper addresses the question of what makes a well‐functioning governmental crisismanagement system. A core argument is that such a system needs both governance capacity and legitimacy. To achieve an institutional design that ensures the necessary governance capacity for crisis management, the focus must be on the structure and performance of governmental authorities, based on the assumption that organizational arrangements affect performance. To this end, the various types of management situation and crisis must be identified. What is considered sufficient capacity and good performance – and which tools are needed to achieve those objectives – can vary significantly. Our aim is to contribute to this line of research by taking governance, institutional and organizational aspects into account. We apply a broad organization‐theory approach that has both instrumental and institutional components. Core concepts such as crisis, «wicked problems», coordination and specialization are discussed. A central argument is that context matters and that there is no single organizational solution for crisis management that can be considered optimal in all situations. This argument is supported by the case of Norwegian crisis management arrangements.