Spinning plates in volatile environments: Conflict management strategies used by emergency response personnel to navigate tensions and maintain high reliability practices during deployment.

Disaster response organizations operate in high risk and volatile environments that, along with their chaotic nature, provide fertile ground for tensions to escalate to counterproductive conflict (Jehn & Techakesari, 2014). This study seeks to highlight conflict management strategies used by emergency response personnel during deployment at large scale disasters. More specifically, the study employs narrative analysis (Boje, 2001; Gabriel, 2004a,2004b; Mumby, 1987; Riessman, 1993) to tease out the ways in which personnel navigate these tensions to prevent distraction or derailment from operating relatively error free (Weick & Roberts, 1993). First, a groundwork for research of organizations that operate in high risk environments with such limited failure will be laid out and demonstrate a need for conflict management research to advance reliability. Next, the methodological process for collecting and analyzing narratives from the organizational members will be summarized. Third, analysis and conclusions drawn from the study will be discussed, leading to a set of conflict management strategies used by the organizational members to assure reliability. Finally, the study will conclude with a discussion of limitations and future possibilities.