Constructing an Organizational Resilience Index for Decision Making

Abstract

This paper examines the application of strategical and tactical management as foundations for creating a decision support tool designed to prevent and manage major accident risks. The discussion is based on results and experiences from the work of designing a decision support platform within the mining industry.  The design activities are a part of the TERRAVISION project, an EU-funded initiative from 2024 to 2027. The research is carried out in close collaboration with three different mining companies in Spain and Greece – and stakeholders in their surrounding communities regarding identifying relevant knowledge needs. Within the context of risk, resilience is the ability of a system, organization, or community to anticipate, absorb, adapt to, and recover from disruptive events. While traditional risk management tools focus on predicting and preventing specific failures, resilience assumes that some disruptions may be inevitable and focuses on maintaining functionality during and after an event. The TERRAVISION knowledge management tool is being designed to improve decision processes related to emergency planning, at operational, tactical and strategic management levels in the mining companies. Furthermore, it will serve as a tool for local stakeholders residing near mining operations who are exposed to threats and hazards associated with the mining operation. As such, this tool acts as a boundary object that facilitates meaningful dialogue between industry operators and community stakeholders. The tool differs from conventional risk management tools in that it provides information about the organizations and local communities ability to manage to “bounce back” to normal situation with respect to business and community continuity. The tool will consist of a resilience index providing decision-makers with an overview of 1) the status of known hazards, 2) implemented measures to prevent known and unknown hazards from being triggered, 3) measures that have been introduced to reduce the consequences (consequence reducing barriers), and 4) measures to ensure normalization and business continuity. In addition, the tool will include indicators measuring the organizations and local communities’ ability to learn after a potential incident with the aim of improving the ability to withstand and handle an incident.