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Clean Gear as the New Badge of Honor: Resilience, Culture Change, and Cancer Risk Reduction in a Fire Rescue Organization

Sun, May 28, 9:30 to 10:45, Hilton San Diego Bayfront, Floor: 3, Aqua 314

Abstract

Community models of resilience emphasize the intrinsic relationship between community resilience and the organizations that help constitute that community. In times of disaster, high reliability organizations (HROs) are central to immediate processes of recovery: Fire and rescue organizations are first responders during natural or man-made disasters, police are called upon to keep order, and the military may be called upon to help restore infrastructure and build peace. The ability of HROs to accomplish these goals depend on their ability to operate at full capacity. However, HROs themselves may also face crises that require these organizations to be resilient in their own right. This paper advances a grounded theory approach to culture change and resilience to show how one HRO (Fire and Rescue) is striving for organizational resilience in the face of their own internal crisis – in their words, an “epidemic” of cancer. However, efforts to reduce risk are complicated by organizational culture and occupational practices that challenge proposed adaptive changes. A model of risk reduction and resilience for HROs is advanced, and implications for communication and change efforts explored.

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