Time to rethink Norwegian maritime collaboration exercises

Abstract

Purpose This case study maps the perceived collaboration between public, private and volunteer organizations during maritime crisis work, with a substantive focus on communication, information flow and distribution of activities. The exercise studied was held in the far north in Norway. It was estimated to be Europe’s most extensive exercise in 2016. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach The data were collected through observations, semi-structured interviews and reviews of associated frameworks and evaluation reports. Data were collected simultaneously at five different sites. Findings The key findings showed an intra-organizational focus, a predominance of drills and different informal exercises instead of a cohesive exercise. This made evaluation difficult. Reasons for the fragmentation of the exercise appear to be the size of the exercise and the script. Research limitations/implications Generalization of findings is problematic as this study involved only one exercise. However, this study has national significance, as it involved 22 public, private and volunteer stakeholder organizations, including civil emergency response units, the military, the Norwegian Civil Defence, and major maritime volunteer organizations such as the Norwegian Society for Sea Rescue. Collaboration between actors suffered from the size of the exercise. A smaller exercise, less dependency on predetermined scripts, and more receptivity toward improvisation could improve collaboration. Originality/value The study shows how collaboration fails as an effect of strict agendas and scripts to accomplish an impressive but complex and oversized exercise.

The Organizer Dilemma: Outcomes from a Collaboration Exercise

“…These exercises are assumed to incorporate not only command and control, technology, emergency plans, but also are extended to include enhanced collaboration between agencies at all levels. Studies of collaboration exercises and real emergency work in Scandinavian countries have revealed a lack of collaboration efforts by differentiating the actions undertaken in specific organizational operations such as health care, firefighting, and security (Berlin and Carlström 2009, 2013, 2015Kristiansen et al 2017;Sørensen 2017;Magnussen et al 2018;. Because Norway was the first country to include collaboration as a priority in its emergency planning, it has had to pioneer a focused effort to achieve interorganizational consensus, to develop elaborate common strategies, and to use all available resources to stabilize and establish normal order (Norwegian Ministry of Justice and Public Security 2012).…”

“…Exercise utility refers to the improvement of existing crosssectoral capacities to handle emergencies or crises (Andersson et al 2014). But the existing literature points to the tendency that both land-based and sea-based cross-sector collaboration exercises produce limited perceived levels of usefulness Carlström 2009, 2015;Kim 2013Kim , 2014Kristiansen et al 2017;Sørensen 2017;Magnussen et al 2018;. The goal of cross-sector collaboration exercises should therefore not always be to practice something pre planned, but rather to focus on collaboration development (Borell and Eriksson 2013).…”

“…In crisis management, there is a widespread assumption that cross-sector collaboration exercises test and develop, among others, preparedness and cross-sector team integration (Rutty and Rutty 2012). The problem, however, is that crisis collaboration exercises both on land (Berlin and Carlström 2008, 2009, 2015 and at sea (Kim 2013(Kim , 2014Kristiansen et al 2017;Sørensen 2017;Magnussen et al 2018; tend to produce results with limited usefulness in real crisis work. Why this perceived situation exists is debated, but cited reasons include insufficient attention to variation (Borell and Eriksson 2013), insufficient focus on learning aspects (Berlin and Carlström 2015), dominance of mechanistic behavior (Berlin and Carlström 2013), and too much dependence on standardization (Kim 2013).…”

Perceived Usefulness of Maritime Cross-Border Collaboration Exercises

“…There exists an assumption that collaboration is to be developed through an emphasis on collaboration exercises [5]. The problem is that research indicates that collaboration exercises, from a participant point of view, have limited levels of learning and utility [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]. Sources to date are inconsistent on why exercises have a reduced perceived effect, but cited reasons point to a dominance of mechanistic exercise models [15], path-dependency [16], and an insufficient focus on the importance of variation and joint evaluations during exercises [17].…”

When it matters most: Collaboration between first responders in incidents and exercises

“…Collaboration has been highlighted as necessary during inter‐organizational handling of a crisis. In Norway—were data for this study were collected—collaboration is an emergency preparedness principle in addition to responsibility, equality and proximity (Kristiansen, Sørensen, Carlström, & Magnussen, ). Emergency resources mainly consist of police, ambulance service and fire brigades.…”