Defining the New Normal: Reaching Institutional Equilibrium After a Major Disaster

• In Event: Understanding Educational Improvement Through the Lens of Institutional and Organizational Theory: From Teacher Communities to Teacher Evaluation

Abstract

This study examines the process of organizational change during campus crisis management, with a focus on the length of the change period. A collective case study design was used to retrospectively follow two institutions’ pathways through the crisis management cycle. The cases in this study reveal that a major campus crisis can be a catalyst for revolutionary organizational change and that the organizational equilibrium may remain punctuated for a length of time that is incongruent across institutional contexts yet related to the accomplishments of the recovery process. Furthermore, reaching a state of operational equilibrium after a experiencing a disaster is unconnected to the completion of the recovery effort. Theoretical and practical implications are presented.

Author

• Mahauganee Dawn Shaw, Miami University - Oxford