The dynamics of organisational response: simulating cultural change

Abstract

The goal of this research is to develop a computer simulation that determines the point at which an organisation's culture will change when responding to disaster situations. Different organisations' cultural biases shape how they resolve accumulated response tasks and deal with the disruptions of novel tasks. Called Organizational Response Culture in Disaster Simulation (ORCiDS), the simulation is applied to four organisations, each with a different cultural bias at the outset of the disaster, to Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana. The data demonstrates how cultural biases lead to different outcomes for organisations that face similar circumstances but have very different cultural lenses for interpreting those circumstances. The importance of this research is to model organisational stability and instability to better enable managers and administrators to circumvent pitfalls associated with poor organisational response. The ultimate goal of this ongoing research is to be able predict the point at which an organisation's culture will change in times of crisis.