@article {bnh-8109, title = {Community organisation involvement in disaster management}, number = {678}, year = {2021}, month = {06/2021}, institution = {Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC}, address = {MELBOURNE}, abstract = {

Severe to catastrophic disasters pose the potential to overwhelm traditional emergency management approaches, necessitating the adoption of a whole- of-community approach.

A key component of the whole-of-community approach is building collaborative partnerships between communities, government agencies, community organisations and businesses across the phases of prevention, preparedness, response and recovery to engage their full capacity.

To date there has been little research examining the role of Australian community organisations in disaster management although many organisations provide assistance. This research focuses specifically on the role and involvement of community organisations in disaster management.

Pertinent findings of the research were:

Recommendations

The following recommendations are made for consideration to improve the utilisation of capabilities offered by community organisations in disaster management.

  1. Australian disaster management doctrine should be revised to embrace a whole-of-community approach to disaster management.
  2. The role of community organisations including peak bodies should be clearly defined in relevant emergency plans.
  3. Community organisations should be involved in government-led disaster planning and exercises, including involvement in relevant emergency management committees.
  4. Local councils should form community resilience committees to promote collaboration and joint planning between government, community organisations and local businesses. These committees could be sub- committees of relevant emergency management committees.
  5. Government emergency management organisations should collectively work with community organisations to develop an understanding of community networks and community organisation capabilities.
  6. Government funding bodies should enable funding flexibility to allow community organisations to integrate disaster management initiatives into their core business activities.
  7. Specific disaster management grants should be targeted to community organisations to assist with maturing of disaster management capabilities and engagement with communities.
  8. Funding arrangements should enable collaboration between different community organisations, businesses and government.
  9. Community organisation peak bodies should take an active role in building the disaster management capabilities of their members.
  10. Emergency management organisations should work with community organisation peak bodies to develop a training strategy to upskill the staff and volunteers of community organisations in relevant disaster management roles. This could include a toolkit for community organisations to provide guidance on roles and better practice.
  11. Peak bodies and emergency management organisations should work with universities and training providers to incorporate emergency management content in relevant degree and training programs.
  12. Community organisations should work to develop business resilience plans. These can be supported by relevant toolkits tailored to community organisations.
  13. States and Territories should include community organisations within capability maturity assessments.
  14. The roles performed by community organisations in disaster management should be continually evaluated to ensure robust measurement of the value provided by community organisations.
  15. State and Territories should implement initiatives to raise the awareness of the role of community organisations in disaster management. These could include: integration of the role of community organisations within emergency management training, inclusion of community organisations in policy development and emergency management forums, specific communications outlining the role and value of including community organisations in disaster management, senior leadership involvement as champions.
  16. Community recovery programs should include the provision of mental health and wellbeing support to members of community organisations.
}, keywords = {community, disaster, involvement, management, organisations}, issn = {678}, author = {Andrew Gissing and Steve George} } @article {bnh-8202, title = {Cultural land management in southeastern Australia - Black Summer final report}, number = {704}, year = {2021}, month = {09/2021}, institution = {Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC}, address = {Melbourne}, abstract = {

The Cultural land management research in southeast Australia project aimed to develop foundations for Indigenous-led and co-designed research programs to support cultural land management into the future. The project explored how to empower and enable Indigenous-led cultural fire and land management practices to improve landscape management and community resilience in southeast Australia.

To these ends, the project team convened a Project Steering Group (PSG) of cultural land management experts and advisors currently engaged in cultural fire management operations or research in New South Wales and Victoria. It also convened a Government Advisory Group and a Research Advisory Group to assist with advice where appropriate. As well as meetings of these Groups, the other key project activity was the conducting of several workshops in select sites to progress regional conversations regarding the potential for Indigenous-led cultural fire and land management research.

Overall, on the basis of these activities, this project concludes that research projects and institutes relating to land and fire management need to proceed from core understandings that:

Further, this project report makes 10 recommendations for action by Natural Hazards Research Australia and research partners to support cultural land management and Indigenous-led and co-designed research programs into the future:

  1. Formal acknowledgement by research organisations of the equivalent value of Indigenous knowledge, practice, and science to Western understandings/knowledge systems. Respect and Recognition of knowledge-holders and cultural land management practice
  2. Recognise the holistic and highly diverse context of Indigenous ways of being and Caring for Country
  3. Make clear commitments to supporting Indigenous people to get on Country and engage in cultural stewardship practices to build the resilience of Country and people\ 
  4. Establish an Indigenous Research Strategy with dedicated research streams/project areas for cultural stewardship research within Natural Hazards Research Australia{\textquoteright}s research agenda that supports Indigenous-led research pathways.
  5. Create avenues to recognise Traditional Owners as research partners/end-users of research funded by Natural Hazards Research Australia
  6. Include Indigenous voice and representation in governance structures of institutions and land management agencies
  7. Establish meaningful and ongoing pathways for Traditional Owner inclusion and consultation, to ensure research agendas and processes reflect Traditional Owner aspirations and priorities
  8. Development of a framework of broad research principles/protocols and processes to guide more ethical and collaborative cultural land management research
  9. Embed multiple aspects of capacity building into research frameworks and processes
  10. Support opportunities for developing Indigenous governance, collaboration, and knowledge sharing

These recommendations are further explained in the Key Findings and Recommendations section below.

We propose a staged approach to utilising this project and these recommendations, to be guided by the project team and an interim Indigenous Research Committee (IRC) consisting of Project Steering Group members:

  1. present the key findings and recommendations to the Natural Hazards Research Australia executive as the basis for developing an Indigenous research strategy
  2. establish Terms of Reference for the Indigenous Research Committee (IRC)
  3. work with the Natural Hazards Research Australia to identify priority recommendations and research projects for implementation in the short, moderate, and longer terms
  4. work with the Natural Hazards Research Australia to identify the resource requirements to implement the recommendations and research projects
  5. co-develop with Indigenous partners and Natural Hazards Research Australia representatives, a cultural land and fire management research agenda and priorities.

1.\ \ \ \  Formal acknowledgement by research organisations of the equivalent value of Indigenous knowledge, practice, and science to Western understandings/knowledge systems. Respect and Recognition of knowledge-holders and cultural land management practice

2.\ \ \ \  Recognise the holistic and highly diverse context of Indigenous ways of being and Caring for Country

3.\ \ \ \  Make clear commitments to supporting Indigenous people to get on Country and engage in cultural stewardship practices to build the resilience of Country and people

4.\ \ \ \  Establish an Indigenous Research Strategy with dedicated research streams/project areas for cultural stewardship research within Natural Hazards Research Australia{\textquoteright}s research agenda that supports Indigenous-led research pathways.

5.\ \ \ \  Create avenues to recognise Traditional Owners as research partners/end-users of research funded by Natural Hazards Research Australia

6.\ \ \ \  Include Indigenous voice and representation in governance structures of institutions and land management agencies

7.\ \ \ \  Establish meaningful and ongoing pathways for Traditional Owner inclusion and consultation, to ensure research agendas and processes reflect Traditional Owner aspirations and priorities

8.\ \ \ \  Development of a framework of broad research principles/protocols and processes to guide more ethical and collaborative cultural land management research

9.\ \ \ \  Embed multiple aspects of capacity building into research frameworks and processes

10.Support opportunities for developing Indigenous governance, collaboration, and knowledge sharing

These recommendations are further explained in the Key Findings and Recommendations section below.

We propose a staged approach to utilising this project and these recommendations, to be guided by the project team and an interim Indigenous Research Committee (IRC) consisting of Project Steering Group members:

1.\ \ \ \  present the key findings and recommendations to the Natural Hazards Research Australia executive as the basis for developing an Indigenous research strategy

2.\ \ \ \  establish Terms of Reference for the Indigenous Research Committee (IRC)

3.\ \ \ \  work with the Natural Hazards Research Australia to identify priority recommendations and research projects for implementation in the short, moderate, and longer terms

4.\ \ \ \  work with the Natural Hazards Research Australia to identify the resource requirements to implement the recommendations and research projects

5.\ \ \ \  co-develop with Indigenous partners and Natural Hazards Research Australia representatives, a cultural land and fire management research agenda and priorities.

}, keywords = {Australia, cultural, indigenous, land, management, southeast}, issn = {704}, author = {Oliver Costello and Tasmin Dilworth and Katharine Haynes and Tony Jansen and Timothy Neale} } @article {bnh-8140, title = {Diversity and inclusion: towards a better understanding of management and measurement - policy paper}, number = {696}, year = {2020}, month = {07/2020}, institution = {Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC}, address = {MELBOURNE}, abstract = {

Having effective diversity and inclusion (D\&I) in emergency management organisations (EMOs) can improve their internal\ performance, and contribute to organisational and community capacities to manage disaster risk and resilience building. A\ diverse workforce provides a broad range of perspectives, experiences and skills. An inclusively-managed diverse workforce\ can support better decision making. It can also support better management of the increasingly unfamiliar risks that\ society is experiencing. Inclusion is also central to building productive working relationships and trust with the community. However, the benefits of D\&I are poorly understood, and are often overlooked because they are hard to measure and\ account for.

This paper summarises the main concepts, findings and the framework that has been developed to support more effective\ management and measurement of D\&I in EMOs.

Key findings in relation to D\&I in the emergency management sector (EMS) are:

}, keywords = {Capability, diversity, Emergency management, inclusion, management, measurement, strength}, issn = {696}, author = {Celeste Young and Roger Jones} } @article {bnh-6881, title = {Satellite Remote Sensing Contributions to Wildland Fire Science and Management}, journal = {Current Forestry Reports}, year = {2020}, month = {04/2020}, abstract = {

Purpose

This paper reviews the most recent literature related to the use of remote sensing (RS) data in wildland fire management.

Recent Findings

Studies dealing with pre-fire assessment, active fire detection, and fire effect monitoring are reviewed in this paper. The analysis follows the different fire management categories: fire prevention, detection, and post-fire assessment. Extracting the main trends from each of these temporal sections, recent RS literature shows growing support of the combined use of different sensors, particularly optical and radar data and lidar and optical passive images. Dedicated fire sensors have been developed in the last years, but still, most fire products are derived from sensors that were designed for other purposes. Therefore, the needs of fire managers are not always met, both in terms of spatial and temporal scales, favouring global over local scales because of the spatial resolution of existing sensors. Lidar use on fuel types and post-fire regeneration is more local, and mostly not operational, but future satellite lidar systems may help to obtain operational products. Regional and global scales are also combined in the last years, emphasizing the needs of using upscaling and merging methods to reduce uncertainties of global products. Validation is indicated as a critical phase of any new RS-based product. It should be based on the independent reference information acquired from statistically derived samples.

Summary

The main challenges of using RS for fire management rely on the need to improve the integration of sensors and methods to meet user requirements, uncertainty characterization of products, and greater efforts on statistical validation approaches.

}, keywords = {fire detection, management, remote sensing, Wildfire}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1007/s40725-020-00116-5}, url = {https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40725-020-00116-5?wt_mc=socialmedia.twitter.1.SEM.ArticleAuthorOnlineFirst}, author = {Emilio Chuvieco and Inmaculada Aguado and Javier Salas and Mariano Garcia and Marta Yebra and Patricia Oliva} } @article {bnh-7301, title = {Developing effective management partnerships in remote communities in northern Australia {\textendash} post cyclone response in Ramingining and Galiwin{\textquoteright}ku: annual report 2018-2019}, number = {608}, year = {2019}, month = {12/2019}, institution = {Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC}, address = {Melbourne}, abstract = {

Getting smart and planning what to do during hazards is something the community want to start doing for themselves. Stories about the response to cyclone Lam testify to some of the challenges and issues that the community members feel could be addressed if the community is directly involved in planning for safety. There is much interest among the communities to be involved which is not yet harnessed to the formal process. Within this there is a need to redefine the way the government sees community and underline the importance of recognizing the multiple layering of groups and interests in communities such as Ramingining and Galinwin{\textquoteright}ku.

Planning capacity exists in remote communities and there is abundant evidence on display on how complex the planning arrangements are. These plans draw on complex and often detailed ecological knowledge that exists among the relevant groups and individuals who have so far been left out of the planning process. Our big question in the project is how do we make this existing skills and knowledge visible and useful in the current government facilitated hazard response frameworks.

Equally, local authority and decision-making structures exist in contemporary/customary life. These are evident in ceremony of course but {\textquoteleft}required{\textquoteright} and expected by Yolngu/bininj to guide and support all facets of life. Significant erosion of cultural power and authority are at the heart of many community issues and the extant capacity to re-engage this authority is both complex (in its interactions with other entrenched layers of governance) and almost invisible to the outside observer (including most government agents).

To achieve the kind of collaboration required for the community to be meaningfully involved, government must accommodate calls to open up spaces for engagement. A community driven plan developed with the community provides a framework that highlights those areas of action where there is room for possible for collaboration and areas where there are opportunities for complementarity. A plan that brings together the government and the community is not yet feasible in the way communities are developing it, how do we turn current models on their heads and get government to see and try the {\textquoteleft}community way{\textquoteright}? These complementary projects at Ramingining and Galiwin{\textquoteright}ku are taking a {\textquoteleft}bottom up{\textquoteright} approach to establishing new grounds for more effective engagement.

}, keywords = {management, northern Australia, partnerships, post cyclone, remote communities, response}, issn = {608}, author = {Sithole, B and Glenn James} } @article {bnh-7477, title = {Nonprofit and public sector interorganizational collaboration in disaster recovery: Lessons from the field}, journal = {Nonprofit Management \& Leadership}, volume = {30}, year = {2019}, month = {09/2019}, pages = {277-297}, abstract = {


Recent disasters have identified that interorganizational collaboration is often fraught with complexity. This article explores interorganizational collaboration in the nonprofit and public sectors during the disaster recovery efforts after a catastrophic flooding event. Based on a series of in-depth interviews with practitioners involved in the recovery following a flooding event, the findings offer insights into the barriers and mechanisms used to facilitate collaboration. In disaster recovery, collaboration is reliant on established interorganizational structures and trusting relationships. Role clarity is the link between these two characteristics, and this article posits the association between this and the concept of swift trust to facilitate collaboration. Theoretically, this article extends an existing multidimensional model of collaboration into the context of emergency management. Importantly, it also offers a tangible output for industry in the form of an aide-m{\'e}moire for collaborating in disaster recovery.

}, keywords = {disaster, management, nonprofit, public sector}, url = {https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/nml.21389}, author = {Steve Curnin and Danielle O{\textquoteright}Hara} } @mastersthesis {bnh-8094, title = {Reducing turnover in volunteer organisations: A leadership intervention based on self-determination theory}, volume = {Doctor of Philosophy}, year = {2019}, month = {08/2019}, pages = {230}, school = {University of Wollongong}, address = {Wollongong}, abstract = {

Background:\ Increasingly high turnover rates in volunteer organisations have reached critical levels. Australian volunteer emergency service organisations are struggling to maintain adequate volunteer numbers to continue to deliver vital services to the community. The experience volunteers have with their leader is one of the strongest predictors of future volunteering. Despite industry, government and academics calling for increased focus on the training and development of volunteer leaders, there is currently limited theoretical and/or empirical guidance to support this endeavour. Little is known about what leadership approaches are effective or suitable with volunteers. Furthermore, it is unknown how volunteers{\textquoteright} experiences with their leader comes to influence their decision to stay with or leave the organisation. This thesis seeks to address these issues and formulates an evidence-based approach for improving leadership to help retain volunteer workers in Australian emergency service organisations.

Aim:\ The aim of this thesis is to examine the application of managerial autonomy support, an interpersonal style proposed by Self Determination Theory (SDT), as an approach to volunteer leadership, focusing on its potential to retain volunteers. In order to achieve this, the thesis addresses three objectives. First, the hypothesized conceptual model that delineates the relations between perceived managerial autonomy support, followers{\textquoteright} basic psychological need satisfaction, job satisfaction and turnover intention is tested in the volunteer organisations. The second objective is to determine whether, through an SDT-based leadership development intervention, leaders can change and/or develop their managerial orientation towards autonomy support. The final objective is to ascertain whether followers of these leaders perceive changes in their socio-contextual climate during the intervention period.

Method:\ A total sample of 363 participants was obtained for this study, comprising 167 leaders and 196 followers across four volunteer emergency service organisations in Australia. A quasi-experimental design tested the impact of an SDT-based leadership intervention on leaders (n=65) and their followers, compared to a control group of leaders (n=102) who received no training. Leaders{\textquoteright} self-reported managerial orientation was assessed at pre-test, post-test and one year after the intervention. Followers{\textquoteright} perceived managerial autonomy support from the leader, basic psychological needs satisfaction, job satisfaction and turnover intention were measured before and after their leader completed the intervention.

Results:\ A test of the hypothesised model via structural equation modelling indicate that emergency service workers{\textquoteright} perceptions of leaders{\textquoteright} managerial orientation influenced their job satisfaction and subsequent turnover intention through basic psychological needs satisfaction. Testing the impact of the SDT leadership development intervention, leaders in the experimental condition changed their interpersonal orientation towards autonomy support after completing the intervention and these reflected enduring changes that remained evident one year later. The intervention was most effective for leaders with relatively little prior experience leading volunteers, who showed greater propensity for developing their managerial orientation. Followers did not report any significant changes in the provision of autonomy support from their leader, basic psychological need satisfaction, job satisfaction or turnover intention over the nine weeks their leader was participating in the SDT-based leadership development intervention.

Contribution/Implications:\ This thesis provides one of the most in-depth empirical explorations to date, of the malleability of managerial autonomy support amongst organisational leaders. A contribution is made to the scholarly study of volunteer leadership more broadly, by offering a validated theoretical model of leadership and its influence on followers in the volunteer context. This research provides support for Self-Determination Theory in the volunteer organisations.

}, keywords = {Autonomy, autonomy support, basic psychological needs, competence, dyads, Emergency management, emergency services, field experiment, interpersonal skills, intervention, job satisfaction, leaders, leadership, leadership development, leadership intervention, leadership training, management, manager, managerial autonomy support, motivation, motivation theory, organisational development, organisations, relatedness, self-determination theory, structural equation modelling, supervisors, turnover intention, volunteer, volunteer leadership, volunteer retention, volunteer satisfaction, volunteer turnover, workplace}, url = {https://ro.uow.edu.au/theses1/692/}, author = {Vivien Forner} }