Technological solutions and organizational failures: How dysfunctional information management hampers the possibility of a comprehensive and reliable crisis management through ICT systems

Abstract

The evolving possibilities of using new types of technology in emergency settings have made both the UN agencies and International Non-Governmental Organizations (INGO) open their eyes for the potential benefits this can present for them in humanitarian emergencies. Especially information and communication technology (ICT) systems have been applied to ensure that the needs of the people at risk are being meet, through a reliable and efficient information management system across organizations. This explorative thesis will present, discuss and conclude the findings from our two fieldworks conducted in Lebanon in 2014/2015. The empirical material has been collected from relevant governmental and humanitarian actors at field and national level as well as beneficiaries. Our study focuses on how ICT systems can contribute to reliable information management in the humanitarian response. Descriptive and normative theoretical perspectives within information processing have been applied to be able to describe how information management across levels in a hierarchical system either should be reliable, or how the organizational errors may lead the information processing to fail. In addition a theoretical perspective on how technological systems are diffused and adopted in the hierarchical system is used; this will shape the theoretical framework and guide the findings when answering the research questions and problem. The key findings in this thesis suggests that the official ICT systems in Lebanon are innovated and implemented in ways that do not make these compatible with the needs of all users across levels within the organizations. This is especially the case for the users at field level, who have identified different technological needs than what has been developed at national level. Findings also illuminate that when the ICT systems are not covering the existing needs it creates challenges for cross-organizational information processing as users starts to develop their own internal ICT systems to cover their needs, creating a fragmented information picture over needs and gaps across organizations. Further, the findings indicate that a lack of standardized ways of both sharing information, as well as organizations operate with their own set of information, further hampers the possibility for reliable information management. Lacking a holistic approach when performing assessments, the implementation of further interventions may not be according to the actual needs. The lack of a common approach, when handling information therefore limits the possibility, of having reliable information management through ICT systems in the humanitarian response in Lebanon.