Abstract
Disasters type events are happening at an alarming rate, resulting in psychological impact to individuals and the collective community involved. Literature exists to inform responders of best practices in response to prevent and mitigate psychological impact, but less literature is available on how one might address smaller scale incidents that do not fit the criteria for a large scale disaster. This presents a unique and challenging scenario for organizations whose sustaining resource, its employees, might be impacted by these types of events. Should an incident occur, businesses leverage continuity planning to sustain business as usual (in terms of operations). Notably, less recognition and resources are given to mitigate the human impact. Disasters that occur within an organization do not necessarily fit the disaster criteria in terms of scope or impact; however, the impact on the individual employee and the collective organization can be viewed through a disaster typology framework, which can be used to inform appropriate response strategies. Literature behind the effectiveness of response strategies has been controversial. Overall, it would suggest that some type of response strategy is better than having no response strategy in place. There are very few studies in this body of literature that focus specifically on how organizations execute a response strategy as a result of more specific internal organizational disasters. This doctoral project seeks to examine existing response methodology and how it can be adapted for use within organizations for this stated purpose. The deliverable is a clear and robust consultation model for psychologists to use when working with an organization to assess the quality and efficacy of current internal critical incident management plans, which specifically address psychological functioning of the employee population and collective organization.