Organisational Resilience After the Canterbury
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ORGANISATIONAL RESILIENCE AFTER THE CANTERBURY EARTHQUAKES: A CONTEXTUAL APPROACH A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Geography at the University of Canterbury by Joanne R. Stevenson University of Canterbury 2014 iii Acknowledgements During my PhD journey I have spent a lot of time thinking about networks of support and resilience. Over the last few years my support network has provided a tremendous amount of knowledge, resources, and care that have helped me not only to survive but to thrive during the production of this thesis. I would like to extend sincere thanks to all of those who helped me during this time. First and foremost, I acknowledge the contribution of my research participants. It is only through the generous access they provided to their organisations, homes, time, and stories that this research was made possible. This work was also enabled by financial support from the University of Canterbury and the Resilient Organisations research programme. I am grateful to Resilient Organisations researchers: Dr. Erica Seville, Dr. Sonia Giovinazzi, Dr. Thomas Wilson, and Dr. Venkataraman Nilakant for their input and guidance at various stages of this process. I am especially grateful to the other two members of the original “3 PhDs,” Dr. Zachary Whitman and Dr. Hlekiwe Kachali. It was an amazing experience to work with you both and inspirational to see you successfully come out the other side. I have been incredibly fortunate to work under the guidance of two fantastic supervisors, Dr. John Vargo and Dr. David Conradson. John, thank you for challenging me to be a better communicator and to find the “silver linings;” your optimism and enthusiasm were a guiding light. David, there are not enough words. Because of you I am a better researcher, writer, runner, and person. Your hard work, high standards, and thoughtfulness were instrumental at every stage of this process. You have been an invaluable mentor and friend. A number of other people have contributed to the construction and refinement of my PhD research and writing. I extend sincere thanks to the research assistants who helped at iv various stages of this project, especially Oliver Baxter who spent dozens of hours helping me transcribe and audio check interviews. I acknowledge the support of my great friend Caroline who proofread the final thesis document. I am also indebted to my writing group: Helen, Claire, Collette, and Jillian for helping me to ‘repack’ my ideas in ways that might help readers stay awake. Many other colleagues and friends in the Department of Geography have provided valuable inspiration, feedback, and encouragement over the last few years. Just as important as those who have contributed to the production of this research, are those who have stopped me from being consumed by it. I owe so much to my friend and running buddy Kelly, truly one of the best people I have ever met. You helped me to overcome literal and figurative mountains, and taught me that when I get to an icy river crossing the best option is to jump in and enjoy. Also, I would not be where I am today without the love and care of my family in the U.S. and New Zealand, especially my hard- working and unfailingly supportive parents. Even though we are on opposite sides of the world I know you are with me every step of the way. I am also indebted to my sister Lisa and brothers Nick and T.J. for reminding me to laugh, and to my sister-in-law Nicola for having a hot water bottle and baking ready at the end of a long day. Finally, I need to express my love and endless gratitude to my husband, Mark. No matter what I do or where I go it is always easier with you at my side. Thank you for your patience, for hundreds of cups of coffee, for working hard, for nights out when I needed them, for listening even if you have heard it before, for everything, always. v Abstract Following a disaster, an organisation’s ability to recover is influenced by its internal capacities, but also by the people, organisations, and places to which it is connected. Current approaches to organisational resilience tend to focus predominantly on an organisation’s internal capacities and do not adequately consider the place-based contexts and networks in which it is embedded. This thesis explores how organisations’ connections may both hinder and enable organisational resilience. Organisations in the Canterbury region of New Zealand experienced significant and repeated disruptions as a result of two major earthquakes and thousands of aftershocks throughout 2010 and 2011. This thesis draws upon 32 case studies of organisations located in three severely damaged town centres in Canterbury to assess the influence that organisations’ place-based connections and relational networks had on their post-earthquake trajectories. The research has four objectives: 1) to examine the ways organisations connected to their local contexts both before and after the earthquakes, 2) to explore the characteristics of the formal and informal networks organisations used to aid their response and recovery, 3) to identify the ways organisations’ connections to their local contexts and support networks influenced their ability to recover following the earthquakes, and finally, 4) to develop approaches to assess resilience that consider these extra-organisational connections. The thesis contests the fiction that organisations recover and adapt independently from their contexts following disasters. Although organisations have a set of internal capacities that enable their post-disaster recovery, they are embedded within external structures that constrain and enable their adaptive options following a disaster. An approach which considers organisations’ contexts and networks as potential sources of organisational resilience has both conceptual and practical value. Refining our understanding of the influence of extra-organisational connections can improve our ability to explain variability in organisational outcomes following disasters and foster new ways to develop and manage organisational resilience. Table of Contents Acknowledgements ................................................................................................... iii Abstract ....................................................................................................................... v List of Tables ............................................................................................................... x Abbreviations ........................................................................................................... xii Chapter 1: Introduction ............................................................................................. 2 1.1 Overview ............................................................................................................... 2 1.2 Defining Organisations ........................................................................................... 3 1.3 Problem Statement ................................................................................................. 4 1.4 Approach and Contribution .................................................................................... 6 1.5 Thesis Structure ...................................................................................................... 7 Chapter 2: Developing a Contextual and Relational Perspective of Organisational Resilience ................................................................................. 10 2.1 Post-disaster Trajectories ...................................................................................... 12 2.1.1 Exposure........................................................................................................ 13 2.1.2 Vulnerability ................................................................................................. 15 2.1.3 Resilience ...................................................................................................... 19 2.2 Organisational Resilience ..................................................................................... 23 2.2.1 The resilient systems paradigm ..................................................................... 25 2.2.2 Assessing organisational resilience ............................................................... 26 2.2.3 Limitations of current approaches ................................................................. 32 2.3 Organisational Embeddedness .............................................................................. 37 2.4 Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 58 Chapter Three: Research Design ............................................................................ 62 3.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 62 3.2 Ontological & Epistemological Approach ............................................................ 62 3.3 Research Questions ............................................................................................... 65 3.4 Study Context & Sample Selection ...................................................................... 66 3.5 Data Collection Overview .................................................................................... 69 3.6 Key Informant Interviews ..................................................................................... 71 3.7 Case Study