Description
TitleNetworked stakeholders and long-term recovery
Date Created2018
Other Date2018-10 (degree)
Extent1 online resource (295 pages) : illustrations
DescriptionThis dissertation addresses post-disaster long-term recovery as a communication and organizing process reliant upon networked stakeholder relationships and collaborative communication. Findings from a multiyear field study are used to propose a relational model of stakeholder theory and a theory of collaborative communication as a web of social and organizational relationships within a community or region solving complex problems of mutual concern. Stakeholder theory is reconceptualized as a framework for understanding community survivability rather than firm or organizational survivability. Advancing Nordic models of stakeholder theory, the dissertation argues that networked stakeholder relationships and collaborative communication are mutually dependent as twin concepts of collective problem-solving and relationship management. Communication practices such as meetings and face-to-face encounters are used by networked stakeholders to connect with one another and build trust, share information, allocate resources, and manage conflict. Networked stakeholder relationships take shape over time and include a mix of existing, emergent, and pre-planned organizations active within a physical community or an organizational field such as disaster recovery. The complex problem of long-term recovery after disaster is used to generate empirical evidence from a geographically bounded region in coastal New Jersey severely impacted by Hurricane Sandy on October 29, 2012. This 5-year field study covers the period from October 30, 2012, to December 31, 2017, and includes active participant observation as a resident and organizational leader in the impacted region, ethnographic observations, and interviews as well as archival data that combine organizational documents with academic, nonprofit, and government reports. A combination of social constructivist grounded theory, abductive analysis, and social network analysis are used to analyze data. Processes, timelines, and networks of recovery in this coastal region are uncovered from the data and used to construct the models of networked stakeholder relationships and collaborative communication proposed by this study. Finally, policy implications are presented that address specific concepts for improving the processes of long-term recovery after natural disaster.
NotePh.D.
NoteIncludes bibliographical references
Noteby John Lamont Harris Jr.
Genretheses, ETD doctoral
Languageeng
CollectionSchool of Graduate Studies Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Organization NameRutgers, The State University of New Jersey
RightsThe author owns the copyright to this work.
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