Collective Stress and Community Transformation

Abstract

The research on emergent organizations indicates that they arise during periods of collective stress, serve as transitory social systems providing neglected community inputs and, then, dissolve after the troublesome period has passed (Haas and Drabek, 1973:6; Taylor et. al., 1970:79-108). Quarantelli (1970:4), however, has pointed out that only '... some emergent groups cease to exist when the immediate crisis is over, whereas others become part of a new social order.' The conditions which correspond to such a group becoming an established organization, Quarantelli (1970:11) suggests, '... rest on the new group being defined as one that carries out necessary tasks or activities not the traditional responsibility of already established groups or organizations.' This account may be adequate for depicting community transformation which results from sudden impact disaster agents such as earthquakes, tornadoes, bombings, etc., but it fails to do more than illustrate the 'climate' in which an emergent organization arises. Illustration is important, but it remains insufficient in that it does not facilitate prediction, particularly with respect to the development of a new order or a return to the old.

Surprisingly, the mechanism of group emergence and the means whereby such groups dissipate or become formalized and permanent have not yet appeared in the organizational literature. We believe that this missing link may be due to the fact that research on emergent organizations has focused primarily upon the sudden onset, short-duration impact disasters, excluding for the most part the gradual onset, long-duration impact disasters (cf. Barton, 1969:42-46).2 The present note, therefore, reports upon a research project which is currently investigating a gradual onset, long-term disaster. The data are being produced through a longitudinal study of Neighbors in Need (NIN), a welfare organization based in Seattle, Washington. The information for this report is based on interviews with members of NIN's staff as well as data collected and made available by their own research team. Thus far, the research has developed a series of propositions facilitating (I) an understanding of the procedures and processes whereby new organizations emerge, as well as (2) prediction of their future development or demise. Recent theoretical attempts to conceptualize organizational environments has been helpful in interpreting the findings.