Managing Citizen Relationships in Disasters: Hurricane Wilma, 311 and Miami-Dade County

As recent events have shown, effective knowledge sharing has become important at all political levels, especially when disasters occur. In this paper, we present the case of Miami-Dade County, which implemented a multi-jurisdictional, multichannel environment (311/portal) and successfully utilized it during hurricane Wilma. Drawing from our research on citizen relationship management (CiRM) and literature on absorptive capacity (ACAP), we argue that this setting increases an organization's ability to acquire, assimilate, transform, and exploit information and knowledge regarding the citizen's needs. We shall discuss implications for further CiRM research and managerial insight for emergency management at the end of the paper

[1]  Amalya L. Oliver,et al.  Social Networks, Learning, and Flexibility: Sourcing Scientific Knowledge in New Biotechnology Firms , 1994 .

[2]  W. Johnston,et al.  An Evaluation of Divergent Perspectives on Customer Relationship Management: Towards a Common Understanding of an Emerging Phenomenon , 2004 .

[3]  Andrew A. King,et al.  Prospects for Developing Absorptive Capacity Through Internal Information Provision , 2004 .

[4]  D. Mcloughlin.  A Framework for Integrated Emergency Management , 1985 .

[5]  Wenpin Tsai.  Knowledge Transfer in Intraorganizational Networks: Effects of Network Position and Absorptive Capacity on Business Unit Innovation and Performance , 2001 .

[6]  George Westerman,et al.  Disruption, disintegration and the dissipation of differentiability , 2002 .

[7]  S. Zahra,et al.  Absorptive Capacity: A Review, Reconceptualization, and Extension , 2002 .

[8]  Lee Sproull,et al.  More Than an Answer: Information Relationships for Actionable Knowledge , 2004, Organ. Sci..

[9]  Louis F. Weschler,et al.  Emergency management and the intergovernmental system , 1985 .

[10]  W. Wallace,et al.  Decision Support Systems for Disaster Management , 1985 .

[11]  Gabriel Szulanski.  Exploring internal stickiness: Impediments to the transfer of best practice within the firm , 1996 .

[12]  Ruth N. Bolton,et al.  Managing Customer Relationships , 2007 .

[13]  Marjorie A. Lyles,et al.  Absorptive capacity, learning, and performance in international joint ventures , 2001 .

[14]  B. Kogut,et al.  Exploring internal stickiness : Impediments to the transfer of best practice within the firm , 2007 .

[15]  Joseph L. Badaracco,et al.  The knowledge link : how firms compete through strategic alliances / Joseph L. Badaracco, Jr. , 1993 .

[16]  Rob Cross,et al.  A Relational View of Information Seeking and Learning in Social Networks , 2003, Manag. Sci..

[17]  Morten T. Hansen,et al.  Knowledge Networks: Explaining Effective Knowledge Sharing in Multiunit Companies , 2002 .

[18]  Daniel A. Levinthal,et al.  ABSORPTIVE CAPACITY: A NEW PERSPECTIVE ON LEARNING AND INNOVATION , 1990 .

[19]  P. Attewell.  Technology Diffusion and Organizational Learning: The Case of Business Computing , 1992 .

[20]  George Coe,et al.  Managing Customer Relationships , 2006 .

[21]  K. Pavitt,et al.  Knowledge Specialization, Organizational Coupling, and the Boundaries of the Firm: Why Do Firms Know More than They Make? , 2001 .

[22]  R. Lasker.  Redefining Readiness: Terrorism Planning Through the Eyes of the Public , 2004 .

[23]  Saundra K. Schneider.  Administrative Breakdowns in the Governmental Response to Hurricane Katrina , 2005 .

[24]  E. Autio,et al.  SOCIAL CAPITAL, KNOWLEDGE ACQUISITION, AND KNOWLEDGE EXPLOITATION IN YOUNG TECHNOLOGY-BASED FIRMS , 2001 .

[25]  Michael K. Reiter,et al.  Homeland Security , 2004, IEEE Internet Comput..

[26]  Morten T. Hansen,et al.  Knowledge Transfer in Intraorganizational Networks : Effects of Network Position and Absorptive Capacity on Business Unit Innovation and Performance , 2007 .

[27]  John L. Graham.  Book Review: The Knowledge Link: How Firms Compete through Strategic Alliances , 1993 .

[28]  Henk Sol,et al.  Proceedings of the 54th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences , 1997, HICSS 2015.

[29]  B. Uzzi,et al.  Social Structure and Competition in Interfirm Networks: The Paradox of Embeddedness , 1997 .

[30]  Tânia Margarete Mezzomo Keinert,et al.  Reinventing government: how the entrepreneurial spirit is transforming the public sector , 1993 .