Critical Incidents in the Private and Public Sector
Public Sector
Read the Lecture Notes and articles by Wachtendorf (2003) and Drabek & McEntire (2002).
• Kendra, J., & Wachtendorf, T. (2003). Creativity in Emergency Response to the World Trade Center Disaster. In Natural Hazards Research and Applications Information Center, Public Entity Risk Institute, and Institute for Civil Infrastructure Systems: (ATTACHED
IN PDF File)
• Drabek, T., & McEntire, D. (2002). Emergent Phenomena and Multi-organizational Coordination in Disasters: Lessons from the Research Literature, International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters,
20(2), 197–224: (ATTACHED IN PDF File)
QUESTION:
What are the key issues for organizations in dealing with disasters?
Private Sector
Read the article and view the video about the activities of Walmart during Hurricane Katrina.
• Walmart & the Response to COVID–19 https://corporate.walmart.com/facing–the–
outbreak/eoc?fbclid=IwAR18Pii4EDknnr1wimV6PsvodoKRbeyo5mDwM_X4fE8JRn5blJ
n8nKRqvJk
• Barbaro, M. & Gillis, J. (2005, September 6). Wal–Mart at Forefront of Hurricane Relief:
o http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp–
dyn/content/article/2005/09/05/AR2005090501598.html
o AND https://corporate.walmart.com/newsroom/2005/09/03/media–information–
wal–marts–response–to–hurricane–katrina
o AND http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TJ7Mkw3rME
QUESTIONS:
Describe a few of the key activities of the Walmart Corp. in response to the difficulties encountered in interfacing with government agencies.
In your opinion and based on this 1 case study, do large private corporations have advantages over governments in the response to crisis emergencies?
