ISCRAM2009 PhD student poster: Sensemaking Support Systems for Humanitarian Disaster Response, by Willem Muhren

Sensemaking Support Systems for Humanitarian Disaster Response Willem Muhren, PhD Student, Tilburg University Problem description Natural disasters or complex emergencies often result in humanitarian disasters. The crisis environments in What should which humanitarian organizations work are we do? First stage of the research characterized by ambiguity and equivocality, and various types of information problems complicate their What is In order to find out how people in crisis situations handle and process information, we work. This poses difficulties for humanitarian actors in going conducted four case studies using an interpretive approach, interviewing people who making sense of what is going on and taking on? are working in different crisis situations: appropriate action. Our goal is to find out how pp p g information systems can support humanitarian actors Humanitarian assistance in the Democratic Republic of Congo If we do in making sense of their environment. this, what Airplane crash rescue exercise by the countries around the Barents Sea will The yearly recurring forest fires in Portugal happen? The European police mission in Bosnia In these case studies we used Karl Weick’s Sensemaking constructs to understand and analyze how information is processed in crisis situations [1],[2]. Next, we placed the constructs in a communication perspective, and found that people engage in three Sensemaking communication activities [3]. Humanitarian disaster response team Noticing is the activity of how people sense what is ‘out there’. Conceptual model There are five types of interacting. First, there is interaction Second research stage to update understanding of the situation, to stay informed situation informed. The second reason for interaction is to inquire about specific things people want to know. Furthermore, In our case studies on Sensemaking in crises, we people engage in contact with other people to noticed that the social context of people plays an triangulate information and negotiate on what is important role in their Sensemaking activities. In Group Process GSS going on. People also interact to verify the second stage of our research, we specifically Characteristics Characteristics information. Finally, interaction occurs to reflect focus on Sensemaking by groups of people with colleagues on what to do and the decisions - humanitarian disaster response teams – and they need to make. The last Sensemaking how the design of information systems can communication activity is enacting, as people support this. For this purpose we have enact the environments which constrain them. [3] conducted an exploratory case study of a crisis situation in which Sensemaking and group processes play an important role and role, where Sensemaking is not yet sufficiently Group supported by information systems: information management in the United Nations Disaster Sensemaking Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) team and the needs assessment process during the humanitarian TRIPLEX exercise. There, we specifically focused on the group processes in the assessment teams and the interaction with the information managers in the On Site Operations and Coordination Centre (OSOCC), and were able to gain insights into how information systems can support these Group Performance group Sensemaking processes [4] [4]. Future research Through the insights we gained in the previous stages of (GSS) (the characteristics of the information system that the first time that Sensemaking is measured, and Karl our research, we created the conceptual model on group was available and/or used during the mission) on Weick’s Sensemaking theory is quantitatively validated, in Sensemaking support, shown in the center of the poster. Sensemaking (the level of Sensemaking the team a humanitarian disaster response situation. This will We will test this model through survey research in achieved when dealing with the disaster situation) by provide us with insights into what kind of GSS design and disaster response teams. The model investigates the teams and consecutively on their performance. We will which group structure and group processes will support influence of group processes (e.g. type of coordination, use Item Response Theory (IRT) to measure the level of Sensemaking for humanitarian disaster response teams, discussion, group size) and Group Support Systems Sensemaking a team has achieved at a mission. It will be and whether that will lead to a better performance. Further information Acknowledgement Selected publications on this research The research reported here is part of the [1] Muhren W.J., Van Den Eede G., and Van de Walle B. (2008). Sensemaking and Implications for Information Systems Design: Interactive Collaborative Information Findings from the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Ongoing Crisis. Information Technology for Development, 14(3), pp. 197-212. Systems (ICIS) project (http://www.icis.decis.nl/), supported by [2] Muhren W.J., Van Den Eede G., and Van de Walle B. (2008). Sensemaking as a Methodology for ISCRAM Research: Information the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs, Processing in an Ongoing Crisis. Proceedings of ISCRAM2008 (Washington DC). grant nr: BSIK03024. [3] Muhren W.J., Van Den Eede G., and Van de Walle B. Making Sense of Media Synchronicity in Humanitarian Crises. IEEE Contact Transactions on Professional Communication (Accepted for publication). [4] Muhren W.J., and Van de Walle B. (2009). Sensemaking and Information Management in Humanitarian Disaster Response: Willem Muhren, Tilburg University Observations from the TRIPLEX Exercise. In Proceedings of ISCRAM2009 (Gothenburg).

ISCRAM2009 PhD student poster: Sensemaking Support Systems for Humanitarian Disaster Response, by Willem Muhren

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