Are Disaster Agencies Effective?

In the previous chapters I was extremely critical of how public sector disaster agencies are beset by dilemmas that are inherent in their bureaucratic organizational structure. These include a long list of conflicting goals and organizational behaviors that obstruct the agencies from optimally fulfilling their goals. The uniqueness of disastermanagement agencies is that their goals are directly related to preventing the loss of life and property, an objective most service organizations do not entertain. It is for this reason that a great deal of attentionmust be paid to such organizations, as their success or failure has a direct impact on our survival. Until now, I have argued that enough evidence is at hand to suggest that typical behavioral patterns of formal disaster organizations and those whomanage themhas had aminimal bearing on attaining their goals.