MA Humanitarianism and Conflict Response / Course details

Despite the massive knowledge accumulated about disasters, emergency responders are still overwhelmed by the unprecedented complexity of current disasters. The recent pandemic made it clear that our existing approach to managing disasters is not effective. Governments and international organisations started to call for new approaches to address such crises and to recover our societies and systems to become more resilient and sustainable. In contrast to the conventional approach to managing typical disasters, managing highly complex disasters requires adopting a multi-disciplinary approach. The management sciences and operational research offer valuable theories and tools to facilitate more effective decision-making and problem-solving approach when mitigating, preparing, responding, and recovering from disasters. This module introduces students to new ways of analysing complex problems such as disasters using a management and soft operations perspective. The module equips students with theory, methodologies, techniques and tools that facilitate problem-solving and analysis in highly complex and uncertain contexts. Students will appreciate the difference between complicated and complex problems, and the inter-connectivity and mutual influence of communities and organisations as part of a wider environment. Students are expected to develop their decision-making, management, and modelling skills. This module does not require mathematical skills. It is designed for a wider audience who have no previous knowledge of management. The module is engaging and involves exercises, discussions, and activities. These activities and discussions are designed to develop personal and teamwork skills that are sought after in the job market. 

• Introduce students to systems-thinking theories as a way to analyse, understand, and make decisions before and during disasters.
• Develop students’ problem solving, decision-making and analytical skills.
• Deepen students’ understanding of the complex operational problems that face disaster responders.
• Provide the students with practical experience of how to use their system thinking knowledge in analysing complex problems.

• Lectorials: Involve one or more teaching methods (lectures, seminars, workshops, and roleplays) in each session.
• Teamwork and group discussions using systematic methods (e.g. rich pictures and affinity diagrams).
• Case study analysis
• Interactive exercises and roleplay simulations
• Teamwork -Roleplay

• Be able to critically, systemically, and systematically analyse complex problems.
• Obtain an inclusive and holistic perspective to understanding and analysing social problems.
• Appreciate the importance of multi-disciplinary approaches in solving complex problems. · Improve teamwork skills by working on mini group projects.
• Obtain different decision-making and problem-solving tools that can be used in professional contexts.

• Critical and analytical skills.
• Holistic and in-depth analysis of complex and dynamic problems and situations.
• Systematic and robust decision making.
• Innovative, creative, and strategic thinking.
• Qualitative analysis through exercises and activities.
• Ability to refer to literatures from different disciplines to solve problems.

• Ability to work in teams to analyse and solve problems.
• Written and presentation skills.
• Ability to implement a variety of decision-making tools in different contexts.
• Qualitative analysis

• Analytical and critical skills.

• Teamwork

• Appreciation of others’ perspectives.

• Ability to use a range of problem-solving tools and models.

• Written and presentational skills.

Simonovic, S. P. (2011). Systems Approach to Management of Disasters: Methods and Applications. Wiley.

Altay, N., & Green, W. G. (2006). OR/MS research in disaster operations management. European Journal of Operational Research, 175(1), 475–493. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.EJOR.2005.05.016 

Reissberg, A. C. (2012). Managing Natural Catastrophies: Viable Systems to prevent human tragedy-the Hawai’ian example. Frankfurt/New York: Campus Verlag Gmbh.

Preece, G., Shaw, D., & Hayashi, H. (2015). Application of the Viable System Model to analyse communications structures: A case study of disaster response in Japan. European Journal of Operational Research, 243, 312–322.

Checkland, P. (1993). Systems thinking, systems practice. In Systems Thinking, System Practice: Includes a 30-year retrospective (p. i–xiv, 3-330). Chichester: John Wiley.

Cooke, D. L. (2003), A system dynamics analysis of the Westray mine disaster. Syst. Dyn. Rev., 19: 139-166. doi:10.1002/sdr.268

Pidd, M. (2009). Tools for Thinking: Modelling in Management Science (3rd ed.). Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Hollnagel, E. (2015). Disaster Management, Control, and Resilience. In A. Masys (Ed.), Disaster Management Enabling Resilience. Cham: Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08819-8 

Powell, J. H., Mustafee, N., Chen, A. S., & Hammond, M. (2016). System-focused risk identification and assessment for disaster preparedness: Dynamic threat analysis. European Journal of Operational Research, 254(2), 550–564. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.EJOR.2016.04.037 

Weaver, M. W., Crossan, K., Tan, H. B., & Paxton, S. E. (2018). A systems approach to understanding the perspectives in the changing landscape of responsible business in Scotland. European Journal of Operational Research, 268(3), 1149–1167. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2017.11.050 

Kreps, G. A., & Bosworth, S. L. (2007). Organizational Adaptation to Disaster. In H. Rodriguez, E. L. Quarantelli, & R. R. Dynes (Eds.), Handbook of Disaster Research (pp. 297–315). New York: Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.

Holling, C. S. (2001). Understanding the complexity of economic, ecological, and social systems. Ecosystems, 4(5), 390–405. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-001-0101-5