New Yorkers Respond to the World Trade Center Attack: An Anatomy of an Emergent Volunteer Organization

In the aftermath of the New York World Trade Center attack, an emergent group of citizen volunteers organized to provide needed supplies to the workers at Ground Zero. The emergent-group phenomenon has been documented after many disasters. This paper examines the organization of this emergent group through the organizational characteristics of structure, legitimacy, communications, leadership and organizational change. Finally, it argues that through a better understanding of the organizational characteristics, emergency-management personnel will be better prepared to manage and coordinate the activities of disaster-related emergent groups.

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