Contributions of Russell Dynes to the Field of Emergency Management

This report provides an in-depth analysis of Russell R. Dynes' contributions to the field of emergency management. It begins with an introduction to Dynes' life, education, and career, highlighting his significant role in disaster research. The report then explores Dynes' key publications, including his w...Read More

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Name
Institution
Professor
Course
Date

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Contents
Introduction.............................................................................................................................................3
Publications.............................................................................................................................................3
Motivation to his work............................................................................................................................6
Phases of emergency management..........................................................................................................7
Application of Russell’s work to emergency management......................................................................8
Conclusion...............................................................................................................................................9
References.............................................................................................................................................10

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Introduction
Russell R. Dynes was born in Dundalk, Ontario on October 2, 1923 and he was the son of
late Oliver Wesly Dynes, chair of the Department of Agronomy at the University of Tennessee
and Carlotta a music educator. He received education in New York, Florida, New Mexico and
Tennessee (Erdeji, Natalizio, Chowdhury and Akyildiz 2017, p.25). During Second World War
period Russell served as an Army specialist Training Group in Engineering at the University of
Alabama. He later assigned to the 13th petroleum distribution company, which built a pipeline
from India through Burma and into China to provide supplies for the China Burma India Theatre.
After all these services, Russell returned to the University of Tennessee where Russell received
his bachelor’s degree in social science. He attended Ohio State University where he joined the
faculty of the department of sociology and anthropology (Sylves 2019, p. 12). He graduated with
a master’s degree in 1950 from the same university, and he earned his Ph.D. in 1954, he later
became a full professor in 1965. Dyne was among the greatest contributors of emergency
management. This paper seeks to study and analyze the life and contribution of Russell’s too
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Publications
The disaster management research has matured, in recent years there have been many
academic heroes, and one of them was Russell. He was an expert in the sociology of
organizations, and with these, he brought out insights on the study of emergency management
(Ruiz-Riverra and Malgarajo-Riodriguez 2017, p. 42). He wrote an article to address the 1755
Lisbon earthquake that examined the letters of philosophers, Voltaire and Rousseau; indicating
what the first social root of risk was. He majored on the types of risk their sources and how to
overcome them.

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Handbook of disaster research, each of these handbook looks at the field by evaluating
theoretical models basing on the available evidence. This publication focused on psychology,
psychiatry, and anthropology (Alduence et al. 2015, p.4).
Community emergency planning: false assumption and inappropriate analogies, it bases
on military similarities which considered emergencies as that of enemy attack scenarios (Gupta,
Starr, Farahani and Matinrad 2016). This skill of Russell was deemed to be appropriate to tackle
happening crises. The urgency is a social chaos phenomenon which can be easily prevented by
commanding and source control, although the method is inappropriate in emergency
management planning (Philip, Neal and Wehb 2016 p.7). The best approach tackled in this
publication is basing the risk of coordination, cooperation, and continuity. Therefore military
analogies, provide a better planning approach. However technological changes and legislative
issues influence emergency planning hence making it rigid and inadequate.
Another publication is social capital: Dealing with community emergency. This article
focuses on terrorism in the United States of America which led to the destruction of twin towers
in New York that resulted in 3000 deaths. Most of the deaths were on the floors or the high floor
where the planes hit (Islam, Kamaruddin, Ahma, Jan and Anuar 2016, p.34). Those below the
impact floor survived, and the rescue was done by the victims themselves in the towers. Russell
argues that community members panic and therefore persuasive authority is required. It is
improper to use command and control since it can bring cause instead of helping so while
calculating the amount of damage to physical and human capital it is proper to include social

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capital available in the community since it is most significant in dealing with damage caused by
natural hazards and terrorism.
Also, another publication is on the disaster research policy and disciplinary implications.
In the edition, its primary concern is on sociological research in disaster management in different
settings. It suggests that the most important system used in the disaster has been changed to
conceptualization (Kirschonbaum 2019, p. 10). In spite of transformation being much in some
communities as compared to others, it means that more concern will be given to disaster
preparedness and its planning to minimize the occurrence of a disaster. Therefore the disaster
research should be interdisciplinary and support fundamental research to reduce the problem
between applied research and core disciplines.
Russell work is best according to me because he touched on the sources of the disaster
risk by digging into what leads to some disasters. He also based on risk preparation and planning
so as an individual or an institution will be able to plan the emergencies likely to happen and the
best ways it can be designed to reduce chances of loss. He touched on the risk research to
improve the available methods of disaster management. Finally, he moved on the best ways to
manage risk when it has happened and look for alternative ways to minimize death and property
destruction.
Dr. Dyne most research tackled issues to do with social capital, disaster emergency, and
organization. His student praised him because of his commitment to mentor many of the students
to disaster social scientist around his country as well as support in the university workshops.
James Kendra and Tricia Wachtendorf, the DRC directors, recall Russell work basing on the
book Organizational Behavior in Disaster as a present durable analysis and finding that acts as a

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foundation in understanding disaster management among the scholars (Carley, Malik, Landwehr,
Pfefer and Kowalchuck 2016, p. 61).
Motivation to his work
While in the University of Tennessee his studies were interrupted by the 2nd world war
where he served as army specialist. During this tenure, he learned the best ways to minimize
them and deal with emergencies as it happens, during this time he encountered the disasters and
the risks in the army which he was supposed to tackle this gave him knowledge on the best ways
to handle risk. Also during this period, he nurtured the desire to solving disasters when they
happen and even preventing some occurrence.
While also in the petroleum company he encountered some problems which motivated
him to study and specialize in disaster management. While in the company there was some risk
which usually happened such that required a proper handling technique. This experience
strengthened him on the best ways to solve disaster management hence came back to the
university to specialize in these accordingly pursued postgraduate studies in disaster
management control and later become the professor of this field.
Russell’s while in the army found time to study and understand the disaster management
in depth the military gave him time and space to nurture his interest in saving the lives of people
by exploring the best ways to reduce the amount of loss when a disaster occurred. He gained
experience from the Second World War.
The local government gave the researches little time to do their research they gave them
room for upgrading their skills in disaster management which was quickly becoming a threat to

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companies, government, and association who made consecutive financial losses due to the
occurrence of a phenomenon.
Also during his tenure in the university Russell gained experience from the challenging
issues he faced from the student and other scholarly writing. He was not satisfied with some
ideas of disaster management, so he wanted to add his new skills to help other people solve their
problems. He saw this as an excellent time to develop theories and models on disaster
management
Phases of emergency management
There are four phases of emergency management used in disaster management discussed
below.
The first phase to disaster is mitigation, and this phase includes all activities that prevent
an emergency from occurring and reduces the probability of many affecting the people and
property usually done before the crisis occurs (Haworth and Bruce 2015, p. 246).
The second phase is preparedness; here there is plan development of what to do, where to
be done and who to approach before a hazardous event occurs. For example, posting emergency
numbers or installing smoke detectors.
The response is the third phase, and this is where and individuals’ wellbeing in an
emergency is usually considered and the individual's preparedness to handle the risk. People
should learn to respond to emergencies appropriately to reduce losses.
Finally is phase of recovery; when a disaster has occurred there are high chances of
phobias and stress, recovery tries to look into the ability to cope with the environment and people
after the occurrence of an event (Grupta et al. 2016, p.1614).

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Application of Russell’s work to emergency management
Russell’s story and models have helped people to save lives in some ways. The first way
is through risk identification, most losses that have occurred are not new to the people most of
them usually know the dangers if any future loss occurs it will still be hard to identify (Canton
2019, p.14). Proper and prior information about the risk will be helpful since will give room for
solution search. So therefore previous identification of the risk will minimize the risk hence save
a lot of lives which could lose due to its occurrence.
Also, risk reduction is the best way to save human lives according to Russell. Here
Russell argued that hazard and risk information could be used to inform a broad range of
activities to reduce risk, from improving building codes and designing risk reduction measures,
such risk includes the occurrence of floods and storms or fire breakout (Scolobig, Prior, charter,
Jorin and Patt 2015, p. 210). It is good to assess to reduce the risk like building assessment at
different buildings so by ensuring that all risk loopholes have decreased the amount of
destruction caused by emergency occurrence will be minimal.
Also though Russell’s idea, we lean on how to save humans by preparation for the risk.
By understanding different regions and the probability of occurrence of the risk and hazardous, is
necessary for planning the alternative solution, by the creation of shelters and any other proper
preventive mechanisms (Veenema 2018, p.2). With these, it will be easy to plan for future
disaster rescue mechanisms in case of a natural occurrence of an event. By prior preparation to
encounter, the proper risk mechanisms adopted which will, in turn, minimize harm to property
and human lives in case of a hazardous occurrence.
Resilient reconstruction is a risk assessment that plays an essential purpose in modeling a
rescue plan before the occurrence of a risk. It is the basis for measuring human and property loss.

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It is best to have information before the appearance of the risk since afterward time for collecting
information might not be there due to rescue missions (Dodriquez-Espindola, Albores, and
Brewster 2018, p. 991). Since resilient reconstruction is the ability to endure tribulation without
cracking the method best suits risk prevention and hence a proper way of tackling the risk to save
human life. Russell contribution is of great help in this.
Also, public awareness is an important aspect to reduce disaster destruction in the
community. Informing the people about the risk will raise awareness among them about the
probability of occurrence of a hazardous event in future is high this will make people cautious of
the risk and hence reduce the number of deaths that would have occurred if people were not
informed (Briggs 2016, p.488). For instance, telling the people of the probability of an
earthquake will make the local people move to other safe places hence reduces the number of
deaths which could have occurred if the people were innocent about the loss occurrence.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Russell has played an essential purpose in the facilitation of disaster
management and made most emergencies simple to handle. His ideas and contribution have led
to an improvement in modern ways of tackling the risk. Proper methods and measures have been
put in place to reduce the amount of damage and risk (Henley-shepard, Gray & Cox, 2015 p.
112). Numerous publications of books and journals Russell has written has been and is stilled
used by different companies to analyze and mitigate the risk to reduce the amount of loss they
would incur and still save the lives of their employees which could have been affected by the
occurrence of an unforeseen hazard.

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References
Aldunce, P., Beilin, R., Howden, M. and Handmer, J., 2015. Resilience for disaster management
in a changing climate: Practitioners’ frames and practices. Global Environment Change, 30,
pp.1-11
Briggs, S.M., 2016. Disaster Management and preparedness. In principles of Audit Surgical
Critical care (pp. 487-494). Springer, Cham.
Canton, L.G., 2019. Emergency management: concepts and strategies for effective programs.
Willey.
Carley, K.M., Malik, M., Landwehr, P.M., Pfefer, J. and Kowalchuck, M., 2016. Crowd sourcing
disaster management: The complex nature of Twitter Usage in padang Indonesia. Safety science,
90, pp. 48-61
Erdeji, M., Natalizio, E., Chowdhury, K.R. and Akyildiz, I.F., 2017. Help from the sky:
Leveraging UAVs for disaster management. IEEE Pervasive computing, 16(1)., pp. 24-32.
Gupta, S., Starr, M.K., Farahani, R.Z and Matinrad, N., 2016.Disaster management from a POM
perspective: Mapping a new domain. Production and operations management, 25(10), pp. 1611-
1637
Haworth, B. and Bruce, E., 2015. A review of volunteered geographic information for disaster
management. Geography Compass, 9(5), pp. 237-250.
Henley-Shepard, S., Gray, S.A. and Cox, L.J., 2015. The use of participatory modeling to
promote social learning and facilitate community disaster planning. Environment Science &
Policy, 45, pp.109-122

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Islam, R., Kamaruddin, R., Ahma, S.A., Jan S.J. and Anuar, A.R., 2016. A review on mechanism
of flood disaster management in Asia. International Review of Management and Marketing, 6(1),
PP.29-52.
Kirschenbaum, A., 2019. Chaos organization and disaster management. Routledge
Philip, B., Neal, D.M. and Webb, G., 2016. Introduction to emergency management. CRC Press.
Ruiz-Riverra, N. and Melgarejo-Rodriguez, C.R., 2017. Political inequality and local
government capacity for Disaster Risk reduction: Evidence from Mexico. International journal
of disaster risk reduction, 24 pp. 38-45.
Scolobig, A., Prior, T., Schroter, D., Jorin, J. and Patt, A., 2015. Toward people- centred
approaches for effective disaster risk management: Balancing rhetoric with reality. International
Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 12, pp. 202-212.
Sylves, R.T., 2019. Disaster and politics: Emergency management and homeland security. CQ
Press.
Veenema, T.G. ed., 2018. Disaster nursing and emergency preparedness. Springer Publishing
Company.