Purpose of the management structure
In describing the emergency management structure for your plan, you are basically recording the framework within which the organisations/ agencies/ units or individuals will carry out their allocated tasks (as were determined in Topic 9).
I have come across a number of examples where individuals and organisations have been nominated in a plan's organisational structure, but when we have checked they had no knowledge of being in the plan and in some cases did not have and never would have the ability to carry out the tasks for which they had been listed in the structure. Before you start on either designing or documenting the existing management structure for your plan, there are a number of concepts you should understand.
Command, control and coordination
These are basic management terms that are commonly used in emergency management. You first came across these terms in EMG100 Introduction to Emergency Management. Let us review the definitions of these terms.
command
"The direction of members and resources of an organisation in the performance of the organisation's role and tasks. Authority to command is established in legislation or by agreement with an organisation. Command relates to organisations and operates vertically within an organisation."
Australian Emergency Management Glossary, EMA (1998).
control
"The overall direction of emergency activities. Authority for control is established in legislation or in an emergency plan and carries with it the responsibility for tasking and coordinating other organisations in accordance with the needs of the situation. Control relates to situations and operates horizontally across organisations."
Australian Emergency Management Glossary, EMA (1998).
coordination
"The bringing together of organisations and elements to ensure an effective response, primarily concerned with the systematic acquisition and application of resources (organisation, manpower and equipment) in accordance with the requirements imposed by the threat or impact of an emergency. Coordination relates primarily to resources, and operates, vertically, within an organisation, as a function of the authority to command, and horizontally, across organisations, as a function of the authority to control."
Australian Emergency Management Glossary, EMA (1998).
Lead combat agency
In addition to the concepts of command, control and coordination you will need to understand who and what comprises a lead combat agency, also referred to as the “lead management agency” in some jurisdictions.
A lead combat agency is the organisation that is up-front in responding to a particular hazard. For example, if there is a fire the lead combat agency is the fire service. If there were a number of people crushed in a sports stadium panic the ambulance service would be the lead combat agency.
Being a lead combat agency does not mean that they are in charge of everyone else—it means that they have the most work up-front and quite often they will need some other organisation to coordinate support to them. In the example of a sports stadium the police may be in control of the management of the overall response, and much of what they will be doing will be coordinating support to the lead combat agency.
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I would like you to consider the hazard(s) that featured in your risk assessment/ hazard analysis undertaken in EMG101. Identify who would be the lead combat agency for each hazard, and also specify which other support organisations feature and the role that they are expected to perform. To do this you will need to contact senior personnel in each of the relevant organisations. These people will need to have the appropriate authority to provide you will the correct detail. You will also need to ask these people if there is any legislation that details which organisations have which responsibilities and the structure of the emergency management arrangements. |
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It is quite usual for there to be legislation which defines the roles and responsibility of the emergency services and also some other departments. But one of the difficulties that sometimes arises is that different organisations have their own specific legislation, often enacted at different times. This can sometimes lead to an overlap in responsibilities because of a lack of wider understanding of roles and responsibilities and a lack of coordination between agencies when determining and writing legislation. When you check through the existing legislation make a note of any conflicts that you identify. Use the table below to document your answers. |
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