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Author(s):
Gregory Larson
Year Published:

Cataloging Information

Topic(s):
Human Dimensions of Fire Management
Human Factors of Firefighter Safety
Decisionmaking & Sensemaking

NRFSN number: 16262
Record updated:

From documents related to the 1994 South Canyon fire in Colorado, Larson examines how two worldviews presented by J.R. Taylor in his book, “Rethinking the theory of organizational communication: how to read an organization” function as sensemaking tools, both retrospectively and during crisis decision making. As Taylor explains, “In simulating some system and measuring its performance, one can either track the path of the entities processed by the system—the particles—or one can follow the behavior of the organizational units responsible for the processing—the activities”. Larson explores documents related to the South Canyon Fire to provide evidence for a theoretical connection between these two worldviews, the individual and the organizational, and sensemaking. Specifically, Larson found that worldview perspectives discussed retrospectively may not correlate with those of the participants themselves. Additionally, he found that an organization’s worldview impacts the sensemaking and decision making processes within that organization. Larson concludes by emphasizing the importance of incorporating multiple worldviews to understand sensemaking and decision making situations.

Citation

Larson GS. 2003. A "worldview" of disaster: organizational sensemaking in a wildland firefighting tragedy. American Communication Journal 6 (2).

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