Study Finds Organizations Lacking in Crisis Preparedness

A new study from New York University has found that businesses, nonprofits and government have not met the increase in hazards associated with an increasing population.

In an article on the Government Technology website, Jim McKay says the study was done by the university’s Center for Catastrophic Preparedness and Response (CCPR) and The Public Entity Risk Institute.

The report, “Predicting Organizational Crisis Readiness: Perspectives and Practices toward a Pathway to Preparedness,” found a large number of organizations lacked effective preparedness programs to respond to and recover from a crisis (such as a natural disaster or an act of terrorism), despite predictions that these crises are becoming more frequent and more complex. 

“Slightly more than half of government officials that responded to a survey for the report evaluated their preparedness level as ‘very ready,’” McKay says. “Just 29 percent of nonprofits considered themselves very ready and just 20 percent of businesses put themselves in that category.”

The report does acknowledge a direct relationship between population increases and an increase in hazards and says that as this occurs, “levels of crises readiness among organizations remains low or poorly understood.”

To read the full article, click here: http://www.govtech.com/gt/393211?topic=117680