Addressing the Holy Grail of emergency management: a study of faith-based organizational coordination following Hurricane Florence

Abstract

This dissertation explores the interorganizational coordination of faith-based organizations responding to disaster-impacted communities. During disasters, faith-based organizations play an integral role by providing extensive human, physical, and monetary resources to address the needs of the impacted community. By focusing on the interorganizational coordination of faith-based organizations which responded to 2018 Hurricane Florence in the community of New Bern, North Carolina, this qualitative inquiry provides detailed nuance on the coordination processes of the responding organizations. This dissertation builds on the existing literature by studying how barriers and facilitators of coordination, communication, planning, and the role of local emergency management impacts the coordination of faith-based organizations. Theoretically, it is informed by the work of Giddens’ (1984) structuration theory. The application of this theory provided insights on how the theoretical components of domination, legitimation, signification, rationalization of actions, determinants, and spatial category influenced the coordination of faith-based organizations. Interviews and site observations conducted during a quick response field study were analyzed and also used to develop a semi-structured interview guide. Using that guide, additional interviews were conducted with representatives of the responding local, state, and national level faith-based organizations. Findings from this study contributed additional insights to the existing literature and provided evidence of the value in using structuration theory to study interorganizational coordination in post-disaster settings. Additionally, findings from this study also provided policy-related insights for emergency management practitioners on ways to change coordination practices to improve the inclusion of faith-based organizations in the formal disaster management system.