Management
This paper is devoted to the emergency management and developing a particular Emergency Response Plan. I, as an Emergency Manager, have been tasked to develop the suitable plan. The key elements and priorities of the above mentioned plan are presented below.
The Main Parts of the Emergency Response Plan
Emergency Response is a set of interrelated actions and activities of management agencies and the forces that determine the order of counteracting accidents, catastrophes, natural disasters and their consequences (Bumgarner). There are several steps to develop the Emergency Response Plan, which I as an Emergency Manager use.
In order to effectively develop the Emergency Response Plan it needs to analyze cycle of the emergency (or the crisis). Planning the emergency responses is to conduct analysis of potentially serious incidents which may have a significant negative impact on the functioning of the organization in the “normal mode”, and the development of prevention and / or mitigation (Bumgarner). In this case, it needs to identify any possible unforeseen events that can emergency or disaster and in the framework of the plan for risk management the organization should define procedures for responding to any emergency a situation that may arise (Youngwith). There is a range of possible events, the occurrence of which can affect the organization’s ability to continue to function in a normal (normal) mode, starting from the financial insolvency primary supplier (or, what is worse - the consumer), finishing any natural disaster (floods, earthquakes and others) (Youngwith)
If a risk event can result in significant negative consequences and can negatively impact on categories such as income, quality products, reputation (or customer satisfaction) require an immediate reaction from the management (Jackson, Faith and Willis).
The fundamental cycle of emergency (crisis) consists of the following steps in its basic version:
the stage, which preceding the crisis;
directly risk crisis;
“chronic” stage of the crisis;
stage of the crisis resolve (Jackson, Faith and Willis).
In this case, Emergency Response Plan must be appropriate to each possible stage of the crisis. Protection system against emergencies includes such processes as follows:
planning and implementation of the necessary measures to protect its employees, equipment and other property;
development plans for localization and liquidation of accidents with subsequent coordination with the State Emergency Agency of the country;
maintenance in readiness for use of forces and means for the prevention of occurrence and liquidation of consequences of emergency situations;
creation and maintenance of material reserves for emergency management;
ensuring timely notification of its employees about the threat of, or in an emergency (Cahill).
The Emergency Response Plan consists of at least three sections. The first section of the text contains a brief description and an assessment of the possible conditions that may affect the course of events (Cahill).
The second section of the text describes a number of actions that should be carried out under the threat of or directly in contact in an emergency. The plan details are set not only the order of the sequence, but the volume and timing of events. The actions of citizens are prescribed in the Emergency Response Plan. They concern the following aspects:
protection of the population, material and territorial assets;
prevention of emergencies and / or reduce the adverse effects;
perform rescue operations, other works required in the event of emergencies.
Graphic part clearly shows escape routes and places of deployment of forces and means intended for the liquidation of emergency situations.
In this case, the most important part of the plan in the context of the required emergency procedures. The second chapter of the Emergency Response Plan is as follows:
the first part is connected with natural disasters (severe weather, tornado or others), evacuation of people;
the second part is linked to the providing first medical aid to the people;
the third part presents the fire emergency plan.
Each part of the plan consists of such elements as team leader and contact phones, special persons, who are responsible for one or another process, information about the evacuation team/medical staff/fire service and list of procedures, which must be performed in the case of the particular type of the emergency (Robinson et al.).
At the same time, there are several steps in the emergency response plan implementation at the enterprise (Robinson et al.). There are five crucial steps in this process:
identification of possible emergencies. Based on the results of identification, analysis and risk assessment in environmental and occupational health it forms a list of possible emergency situations with a description of their causes, nature and consequences. In this case, it needs to take into account nature of hazards, which are presented on production sites, the most likely type and scale of the emergency, the legislative and industry requirements, experience from previous emergencies, accidents and incidents in the framework of the enterprise, the adequacy of the proposed plans and the accessibility help in the emergency situations (Krischenbaum).
development of prevention and response plans for emergencies. During the development of the plan it should also be clearly identified need of organization in the emergency equipment (Krischenbaum 343).
management plans in productive activities. The main results of this step must be the familiarity of the organization personnel with the plans; infrastructure and production environment is prepared for implementation of the plans (Qi).
trainings and conducting the emergency response exercises. The favorable results of this procedure are the trained staff, the potential reducing the negative consequences and the analysis of the plan adequacy (Qi).
The Priorities of the Emergency Response Plan
As we know, emergency situations reduce resource potential, can cause additional material costs, and threaten the functioning of the enterprise. Let’s analyze the main priorities of the Emergency Response Plan, which correspond to the basic principles of the emergency management.
The most important priority of the emergency response plan is the life safety. In this case, the main goal of the emergency response plan is to train employees to save their lives.
Human activity together the development of industrial civilization that creates the comfortable artificial habitat for people have led to an increased risk of accidents and disasters of technical systems, to pollution and degradation of the natural environment. The presence of the world’s largest stockpiles of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction of people and increased terrorism make the world closer to a dangerous point. These phenomena pose a serious threat to human life and health, the gene pool of people. Events, which take place in the world, must show a direct relationship between the stability of entire nations, the survival of the people and the readiness of the younger generations to recognize and prevent hazards on the system of public and private mechanisms for the protection of the state and the individual.
In this case, it needs to prepare the person to the emergency, the ability to find a way out of situations that are dangerous to life and health, possibly on the basis of his system of knowledge about the basics of safety of human life and society, practical skills training to protect life and health, the formation of experience of safe life (Zhang et al.).
The stabilization of the incident is in the second place (Elliott, Swartz and Herbane). It includes a notification system as well as the clear delineation of responsible persons for one or another process (Elliott, Swartz and Herbane). The analyzed plan also includes a process for damage assessment and property protection. This is one more priority of the plan. It should be noted that such asset as information plays a crucial role in the majority of current enterprises. In this case, one more priority of the emergency response plan is the protection of the information and appropriate equipment or technique with the databases (Zhang et al.).
Comparison of the Emergency Response Plan and Crisis Management Plan
It should be noted that the most important priority of the Emergency Response Plan is human life while the main goal of the crisis management plan is to survive enterprise and its assets. Crisis Management Plan can be comprised with the business continuity plan. The last one focuses on the restoration and maintenance:
the most critical business processes in the short term;
non-critical processes - in the medium term,
all processes - in the long term (Houser, et al.).
At the same time, emergency response plan is used in the particular extreme or critical situations with different origins. One can say that the crisis management plan can be used more frequently, because it affects more situations, than the emergency response plan (Houser, et al).
Conclusion
Ensuring the proper functioning of the organization for a long period of time requires a mandatory registration of possibility of emergency situations with different nature. Therefore, the preparation of any object for use in emergency situations allows not only to provide adequate security of personnel and property of the enterprise, but also to reduce the impact of adverse effects, through the minimal changes in the operating system.
It should be noted that the psychological of staff increases, behavioral and emotional reaction of the person changes, motor coordination can be broken, attention and perception of reality are reduced during the emergency situations. It needs to take into account this aspect, while developing measures and plan of actions in the emergency situations. Therefore, it is necessary to carry out various trainings, systems training sessions that would allow personnel to prepare and improve the efficiency of their work, which is expressed in the adoption of adequate and clear measures in the particular situation.
In conclusion one can say that the life and health of staff and visitors of particular enterprise and the size of the damage depends on the efficiency of development and introduction into practice of measures for prevention and liquidation of emergency situations in case of their occurrence.
Works Cited
Bumgarner, Jeffrey B. Emergency Management. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO, 2008. Print.
Cahill, Kevin M. Emergency Relief Operations. New York: Fordham University Press and the Center for International Health and Cooperation, 2003. Print.
Elliott, Dominic, Ethné Swartz, and Brahim Herbane. Business Continuity Management: A Crisis Management Approach. London: Routledge, 2002. Print.
Houser, Ari N. et al. Emergency Responder Injuries And Fatalities: An Analysis Of Surveillance Data. Santa Monica, CA: Rand, 2004. Print.
Jackson, Brian A, Kay Sullivan Faith, and Henry H Willis. Evaluating The Reliability Of Emergency Response Systems For Large-Scale Incident Operations. Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 2010. Print.
Krischenbaum, Alan. Chaos Organization And Disaster Management. New York: Marcel Dekker, 2004. Print.
Qi, Zuo,. "The Current Situation Of Sudden Natural Disaster Emergency Management Of Our Government". Studies in Sociology of Science 4.2 (2013): n. pag. Web. 27 May 2016.
Robinson, Anthony C. et al. "Symbol Store: Sharing Map Symbols For Emergency Management". Cartography and Geographic Information Science 40.5 (2013): n. pag. Web. 27 May 2016.
Youngwith, Janice. "Tamara Habib, 26, An Emergency Management Consultant, Knows A Thing Or Two About". Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, IL) 2016. Web. 27 May 2016.
Zhang, Zhiying, et al. "Research On The Scenarios And Scenario Evolution Of Unconventional Emergency Management". Canadian Social Science 9.5 (2013): n. pag. Web. 27 May 2016.
