What cannot be mentioned here is that, organizing each of such incident is a vital process of managing the incident in any organizational structure. It can be defined as the act of linking together a number of processes, decision-making bodies to effectively identify and manage incidents.
Although most activities during incident management are by necessity already coordinated, there are certain activities which are not coordination activities. This article focuses on analyzing these activities in order to describe which of them should not be considered as implementation of incident coordination.
Learning Regarding Incident Coordination
Coordination of incident means the arrangement and timing of cooperation, information exchange, and decision making with regards to the utilization of available resources during an incident. Some of its objectives are to avoid risk, protect all concerned parties, and reach business as usual in a shorter time as possible.
Incident coordination activities typically include:
- Resource allocation
- Information dissemination
- Inter-agency collaboration
- Setting incident priorities
But not all the tasks related to an incident are considered coordination tasks. It is also important in order to provide specific exceptions for better understanding and clearer allocation of resources.
Key Characteristics of Incident Coordination
To distinguish what activities can be regarded as coordination, one has to know what distinguishes coordination. Incident coordination typically includes:
- Effective Communication: Disseminating in real-time and important information among all the parties involved.
- Resource Management: Warehouse management in terms of the accurate distribution and control of consumables such as people, equipment, and funds.
- Collaborative Decision-Making: Developing specific objectives and making decisions after discussing them with appropriate stakeholders.
- Cross-Agency Collaboration: Coordinating with people from a different department or even different organizations towards the middle of a certain project.
Examples of Incident Coordination Activities
Some of the practice activities that are could fall under incident coordination in an emergency includes the following. These include:
- Setting Up Incident Command: The other coordination activity is the identification and setting up of a leadership framework that will support the response effort.
- Allocating Resources Effectively: Everyone needs to know where to find the necessary people, tools, and money so that an efficient response is guaranteed.
- Disseminating Information: It is now customary to not only update messages with stakeholders, but also to involve notifications, including public safety messages.
- Prioritizing Response Actions: Priorities in organizing of actions-minutes that clearly indicate that planning has been done harmoniously.
Comparison Between Coordinative and Non-Coordinative Activities
The table below highlights the difference between activities that constitute coordination and those that do not:
| Activity | Example | Type |
| Resource Allocation | Assigning medical teams to specific zones | Coordinative |
| Sharing Incident Updates | Informing stakeholders of incident status | Coordinative |
| Fire Suppression | Extinguishing a fire in a building | Non-Coordinative |
| Filing Incident Reports | Documenting the timeline of events | Non-Coordinative |
| Collaborative Decision-Making | Prioritizing actions in a joint meeting | Coordinative |
| Equipment Repairs | Fixing damaged communication devices | Non-Coordinative |
Actions That Do Not Constitutes Incident Management
The commonalities of many tasks inherent in an incident response plan do not inherently imply coordination.
- Tactical Field Operations
Tactical field operations refer to activities initiated at the tactical level and may involve the general public or particular teams of officers at the scene of an incident. For example, a firefighter putting out the fire or paramedics attending to victims of an accident are putting into practice activities intrinsically related to their job.
- Administrative Tasks
But tasks like submission of incidents, chronicling changes, printing of papers or files which are service of management and do not signify coordination in the response operation. These tasks are somewhat less strategic and do not include the actual activities of synchronization with other teams or agencies.
- Independent Decision-Making
That which involves decisions taken by an individual or a department working in a disparate fashion without reference to the overall incident command system, is not coordination. For instance, a team leader deciding to change the allocations, and not involving the incident management team is an act of autonomy not integration.
- Equipment Maintenance
However, tasks such as conducting maintenance and repair as well as taking care of machinery are not deemed to be coordination. Tasks like repairing a communication equipment or checking on some equipment s are wrought on making sure that they are set for use and therefore are not collaborative.
Why it is Critical to Make Distinctions
It is important to determine which activities classifies itself under incident coordination to increase efficiency. Proper definition protects resources from being wasted or confused as to which department or area they belong.
It also thus promotes accountability as there is needed indication on who does what. In addition, knowing these differences can improve preparation for subsequent situations and align all groups’ actions during crises.
Conclusion
Coordination of the incident is, therefore, an essential part of management during crises and emergencies. It covers virtually any set of activities designed to coordinate resources, messages, decisions, and responses between one or more organizational actors.
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