Organizational Differences in Hazard Mitigation Investment Decision Making: Inside the Organization

Abstract

In this chapter, we present three critical categories of factors that we believe influence whether, why, and how individual hospital organizations make extreme hazard mitigation investment decisions. Each category reflects internal organizational concerns and perspectives. We describe each category from a theoretical perspective, drawing on relevant academic literature. Then, we augment our description of each category with examples drawn from our qualitative research. As stated earlier, the examples capture decision making by California hospitals facing the decision to comply with SB 1953, by hospitals facing seismic threats in Oregon and Washington, and by hospitals facing hurricane threats in Louisiana and Mississippi. In this way, our examples illustrate the impact of the critical categories beyond the environment of SB 1953. The three categories are: (1) organizational leadership, (2) organizational strategy, and (3) economic. They are intended to be illustrative, rather than exhaustive. The unit of analysis is the individual organization and its key decision makers, usually the members of the top management team (i.e., the CEO, CFO, COO, and other members of the C-suite).