Framework Convention on Climate Change

What makes organizations so similar? We contend that the engine of rationalization and bureaucratization has moved from the competitive marketplace to the state and the professions. Once a set of organizations emerges as a field, a paradox arises: rational actors make their organizations increasingly similar as they try to change them. We describe three isomorphic processes-coercive, mimetic, and normative—leading to this outcome. We then specify hypotheses about the impact of resource centralization and dependency, goal ambiguity and technical uncertainty, and professionalization and structuration on isomorphic change. Finally, we suggest implications for theories of organizations and social change.

The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields (Chinese Translation)

Normal accidents. Living with high-risk technologies

Thirty-three brothels in rural and small-town Nevada, which contain between 225 and 250 prostitutes, are legal or openly tolerated and strictly controlled by state statute, city and county ordinances, and local rules. Twenty-two of the brothels are in places with populations between 500 and 8,000, and the remaining eleven are in rural areas. The legal and quasi-legal restrictions placed on prostitutes severely limit their activities outside brothels. These restrictions in conjunction with historical inertia, perceived benefits of crime and venereal disease control, and the good image of madams contribute to widespread positive local attitudes toward brothel prostitution. Interactions between clients and prostitutes in brothel parlors are also restricted and limited to a few basic types which are largely determined by entrepreneurial philosophy. KEY WORDS : Nevada, Political geography, Prostitution, Restricted activity spaces.

ANNALS of the Association of American Geographers

1 July 7, 2010, marks the fifth anniversary of the 2005 terrorist attacks on London’s Metro system. In 2005, terrorists launched a coordinated attack against London’s transportation system, with 3 bombs detonating simultaneously at three different Metro stations and a fourth bomb exploding an hour later on a city bus. In all, there were 52 victims in these bombings with an additional 700 injuries resulting. The four terrorists who executed the attacks were killed in the explosions.

National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism

Globally, and in the United States, flooding is considered one of the most destructive natural hazards in terms of lives lost, injuries, and economic losses. Despite the growing concern of climate change impacts on organizations in particular and society in general, very little is known about the factors influencing public, private, and nonprofit organizations to prepare for flood hazards. This article examines the predictors of flood preparedness in organizations using information collected via an online questionnaire from a national sample of 2008 employees of public, private, and nonprofit organizations in the United States in 2014. The findings revealed that in general, organization size and organization age are robust predictors of flood preparedness. This article concludes by discussing the implications of the results for theory, offering recommendations for practice, and outlining an agenda for future research on the predictors of flood preparedness at the organizational level.

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Determinants of Organizational Preparedness for Floods: U.S. Employees’ Perceptions

Given the substantial and diverse body of research on community flood risk management in the United States, there is a need to establish the current state of knowledge, synthesize the methodological dimensions of community flood risk management studies, and identify directions for future research on community flood risk management. The present study addresses these needs by conducting a comprehensive and systematic review of community flood risk management empirical studies in the United States. We searched three academic databases and identified 60 studies that met our selection criteria (e.g., study must be focused on flood risk management at the community level and conducted in the United States). Findings indicate that the number of studies on community flood risk management is increasing, most studies employ flood mitigation and flood impact as their dependent variables, the preferred analytical method is regression, and this literature is dominated by social scientists, among other findings. We discuss six themes that emerge, present four recommendations based on the gaps identified, and outline a robust research agenda for enhancing communities' resilience to future flood disasters.

A review of community flood risk management studies in the United States

This article discusses U.S. government’s procurement of medical supplies and equipment during COVID-19 pandemic and the challenges posed by COVID-19 to U.S procurement system. The article also exam...

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0275074020942060

U.S. Procurement in the Age of COVID-19: Challenges, Intergovernmental Collaboration, and Recommendations for Improvement

Introduction Zimbabwe’s encounter with droughts, in particular, combined with economic and political challenges, has denigrated the country’s former status as the “breadbasket of Southern Africa” (Hunter-Gault 2006; Maphosa 1994; Swarns 2002). Zimbabwe is particularly prone to a number of natural and man-made hazards such as droughts, floods, veld fires, storms (PreventionWeb 2012), and HIV/AIDS (United Nations Development Programme 2010) among other epidemics. Between 1980 and 2010, PreventionWeb (2012) documented 35 natural disaster events, which resulted in 6,448 deaths, averaging 208 deaths from disasters annually. Of the 35 natural disasters, 6 were drought occurrences, 7 were floods, 2 were storms, and 20 were epidemic occurrences. Chikoto (2004) 1 also counted the number of public transportation disasters that plagued Zimbabwe between 1982 and 2003, which claimed over 700 lives and injured over 400 people. To mitigate and prepare for these and other hazards facing Zimbabwe, the Government of Zimbabwe (GoZ) created the Department of Civil Protection and charged it with the onus of coordinating and managing disasters and reducing hazards. This chapter traces the history of Zimbabwe’s emergency management system, with a focus on the factors contributing to the nation’s vulnerability to disasters and hazards. In addition to tracing the impact of past disasters, the chapter also discusses some of the opportunities and challenges confronting the country’s emergency management system. The chapter concludes with recommendations for improving this system.

/pdf/zimbabwe-s-emergency-management-system-a-promising-fb48qwrat1.pdf

Abdul-Akeem Sadiq

Papers

Determinants of Organizational Preparedness for Floods: U.S. Employees’ Perceptions

A review of community flood risk management studies in the United States

U.S. Procurement in the Age of COVID-19: Challenges, Intergovernmental Collaboration, and Recommendations for Improvement

Zimbabwe’s Emergency Management System: A Promising Development

Community-scale Flood Risk Management: Effects of a Voluntary National Program on Migration and Development