Leading for preparedness and being prepared to lead – Leading initiatives for crisis preparedness in public organisations.

Research problem Sweden is undertaking its most comprehensive modernisation of its total defence structure since the 1950s.

Municipalities, in collaboration with authorities, regions, and civil society, are key actors and have a particularly critical responsibility to quickly organise and develop local capabilities to proactively manage and plan for unexpected events and crises.

At the same time, municipal activities and initiatives for crisis, civil preparedness, and continuity planning are characterised by deficiencies and need to be strengthened, especially concerning personnel resources and capability development.Purpose and specific questionsThe purpose of this project is to develop knowledge about how assignments within civil and crisis preparedness planning work are organized and managed in municipal organisations characterised by significantly increased demands for preparedness.

Crisis and civil preparedness planning in municipalities is typically organised through formal assignments to specialists in the field.

The project focuses on these so-called assignment leaders, who often have responsibilities for such assignments in parallel with other main tasks in their positions.

The research questions revolve around the leadership of these assignment leaders and how the preparedness climate in organisations affects such leadership and what constrains and enables leadership behaviours that promote initiatives in municipalities´ work on civil and emergency preparedness planning.Plan for project realisation, data and methodThrough a three-year multiple-case study design involving four municipal organisations paired with mixed methods, work organisation and leadership for preparedness issues in a municipal context are explored.

Comparisons within and between organisations with a focus on assignment leadership will contribute to identifying the structural and cultural prerequisites for effective preparedness planning leadership and create a holistic picture of the factors required to organise effective municipal civil and crisis preparedness work.

Societal relevance and utilisationThe knowledge and insights developed in this project will contribute to the development of new and improved ways to organise and lead work on crisis and civil preparedness in municipal organisations.

This knowledge can also be utilised in other parts of society with similar tasks and conditions, such as regions, authorities, and other critical societal institutions.