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Volume 9
Journal of Earth Science & Climatic Change
Natural Hazards Congress 2018
July 26-27, 2018
July 26-27, 2018 Melbourne, Australia
2
nd
International Conference on
Natural Hazards and Disaster Management
Tony McAleavy, J Earth Sci Clim Change 2018, Volume 9
DOI: 10.4172/2157-7617-C2-042
The competing pressures paradigm: A conceptual model for improving emergency and business
continuity plans
Tony McAleavy
Rabdan Academy, UAE
D
isasters and catastrophes are becoming more frequent and devastating in terms of deaths and financial losses. This
requires an ever-vigilant approach to enhancing our preparedness for such eventualities. The two dominant streams of
preparedness are the risk and vulnerabilities approaches, which are used in various forms around the world. This paper focuses
on emergency and business continuity planning, a staple of the risk-based approach. An applied model for enhancing the
effectiveness of all-hazards emergency and business continuity planning is presented. The Competing Pressures Paradigm
(CPP) is a conceptual model that combines academic and practitioner best-practice, drawn from emergency and business
continuity planning and visual methodology. The diagrammatic model draws out 3 core issues, namely legislative (the Law)
and organizational compliance (internal and multi-agency) and managerial preferences (the Boss), which are critical to secure
plan sign-off. Planners are required to juggle and more often than not satisfice rather than satisfy, these diverse pressures in
order to secure the necessary authorizations. However, meeting these requirements does not guarantee that a plan will work
in practice. The CPP encourages greater focus on two critical ancillaries but, sometimes forgotten pressures and pro-active
strategizing to address the competing pressures. Firstly, the needs of the plan’s end-user, which can be overlooked whilst, focus
on legislative and organizational issues. Compliance requires depth and technical language, rather than an action oriented
user-friendly approach that can be readily employed under stress conditions. Secondly, greater focus on the needs of survivors
as the primary driver of the planning process which is required to ensure that the life, property and environment ethos is not
over-shadowed by other pressures. The CPP promotes critical review of and a proactive approach to management of these five
competing pressures to engender more effective planning and ultimately greater response efficacy.
Biography
Tony McAleavy specializes in emergency and disaster management focusing on command and control, multi-agency interoperability and emergency preparedness.
He is having experience in the Competing Pressures Paradigm (CPP) as both H M Coastguard and Ambulance Service Officer and within local government
emergency management.
amcaleavy@ra.ac.ae