Integrating Virtual Operations Support Teams (VOSTs) into domestic crisis and disaster management structures – An exploratory study of challenges and requirements for improvement

Abstract: Social media (SM) use in crisis and disaster management (CDM) is resource-intensive and can overwhelm emergency management authorities (EMAs). Digital voluntarism offers SM capacities for EMAs. A significant approach to reap benefits from digital voluntarism for domestic CDM is introducing Virtual Operations Support Teams (VOSTs). While VOSTs have been proven valuable in increasing capacities, they are far from being an established part of practices in domestic CDM. Limited research has been dedicated to understanding challenges and requirements to improve VOSTs’ integration into CDM structures. The objective of the thesis was to address this research gap. Building on secondary data from a scoping study, qualitative expert interviews served as primary data to explore the topic in question. The country of the investigation was Germany. Major findings are that VOSTs’ integration is challenged by an insufficient recognition of VOSTs as a new, valuable actor in the field and lacking official support for VOSTs. However, many of the identified challenges do not directly relate to the new organisational form of VOSTs but originate from underlying issues. It concerns conditions for SM use, missing structures for digital-working teams generally, and digital volunteer teams specifically, as well as innovation-hampering structures in CDM. The research significantly reveals that unidirectional attempts of aligning organisational structures and work approaches of VOSTs to fit into established CDM structures reach their limits if the structures do not simultaneously adapt to the new form of volunteerism. Without changes within the structures, barriers will remain, hindering digital voluntarism from becoming an established part of CDM practices.