Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
technological, human, and organizational requirements can be considered and developed
together by Tsunami Program members and their customers.
As part of the process of maintaining and developing expertise in the TWCs, opportunities
for interactions between TWC staff and external scientiic and professional communities could
be funded, encouraged, and institutionalized within the Tsunami Program. Such interactions
might include drafting and implementing a formal plan for maintaining and increasing scien-
tiic currency; attendance at professional conferences; participation in seminars, workshops, or
other structured learning opportunities; scientiic and personnel exchanges and sabbaticals;
study away opportunities at related scientiic venues; and grants, fellowships, and stipends to
further professional study.
ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURES
Tsunami detection and warning is currently undertaken by multiple, distributed members
linked together to achieve a goal: management of and response to a tsunami disaster. As
indicated in the irst chapter, the tsunami warning system needs to exhibit properties of a
high-reliability organization (HRO), sharing common processes that are supported by distrib-
uted information technology (Davidow and Malone, 1992; Mowshowitz, 1997; Jarvenpaa and
Leidner, 1999; Kock, 2000). In the event of a tsunami, tsunami warning system managers must
assemble effective, functioning response organizations in periods of less than 24 hours and
then adjust the organizational structure to the needs of the response (Tuler, 1988; Bigley and
Roberts, 2001).
A challenge for tsunami warning systems is therefore to develop effective organizational
structures that provide reliable and sustainable operations in non-tsunami periods as well
as during catastrophic incidents. HROs typically have lexible and redundant organizational
structures that permit organizational slack, allow testing of different response modes and
techniques, and provide members the opportunity to develop communication, decision mak-
ing, and organizational culture that are essential to cooperative, interdependent operations
(Weick, 1987; Weick et al., 1999). Organizational structures that provide back-up, redundancy,
skill overlap, checks and balances, and one-over-one reviews are critical to the development of
effective HROs (Grabowski and Roberts, 1997, 1999; Jarvenpaa and Leidner, 1999), and are thus
key structures for highly reliable tsunami operations. Both structures and actors need to be
tested regularly in rehearsal and simulation of tsunami events because tsunamis are relatively
rare. Such regular rehearsals prevent the potential loss of institutional memory about appropri-
ate organizational response.
During this review, the committee found the current organizational structure—two TWCs
managed by distinct regional weather service ofices—associated with several beneits and
risks:
