Date of Award

2012

Document Type

Honors Thesis

Department

Communication

First Advisor

Delyse Steyn

Abstract

Interaction between groups can be understood as regulated by two communication theories: Adaptive Structuration theory which describes how a group's resources affect how it solves problems, and Functional Group Decision Making theory which describes the steps groups take to make decisions. When combined into a model, these theories provide a framework for examining how groups use resources in their interaction with each other. Research into both secondary and primary sources identified ten resources groups used to interact with other groups during the crisis response. Careful analysis determined that the Federal, State, and Private agencies' organizational cultures and social identities were resources that the agencies did not manage well which in turn led to poor coordination.

Subject Area

Organizational behavior., Communication in organizations., Hurricane Katrina, 2005.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

DOI

https://dx.doi.org/10.32597/honors/54/

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