Interdisciplinary perspective on crisis management

Focus on soft issues and be prepared to compromise. This enhances the ability to lead organizations through major crises, according to Christian Uhr, who is the new adjunct professor in Leadership and Command & Control.

Christian Uhr has researched management, collaboration, and leadership for over two decades. His career began with a position as an industrial PhD student at the former Swedish Rescue Services Agency, which later became part of the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB) when the agency was established in 2009.

"Ever since I started working on these issues, I have been employed by an agency outside the university. However, I have always had a connection to the academic world, in various types of positions. I see it as the core of my professional life: to be a link between professionals and academia," says Christian Uhr.

Since May, he has been an adjunct professor of Leadership and Command & Control at the Swedish Defence University. He spends the rest of his time at MSB and Lund University.

Being at the intersection of practice and academia has led Christian Uhr to focus largely on empirical and applied research, taking into account local, regional, and national perspectives. He has personally worked on managing several crises, including the forest fires in 2018 and the pandemic in 2019.

"Much of my time is spent studying leadership and management in multi-actor contexts, where many different organizations must work together. That changes the rules of the game."

Aiming to improve systems

A crisis is typically defined as an event that threatens fundamental functions and values in society. It can occur suddenly and requires rapid decision-making, while involving many different actors – authorities, county administrative boards, municipalities, companies, and voluntary organizations. Even during heightened preparedness, there is no uniform command chain that encompasses all societal actors.

The conditions for managing crises are often the focus of Christian Uhr’s research. How organizations are designed, for example. But also how cultures operate, and what ideals, norms, and languages exist within organizations.

“I try to understand how organizations and individuals behave during major crises, how decisions are made, and how they are organized. It becomes quite interdisciplinary. I try to look through various lenses: psychological, sociological, political science, and systems theoretical,” says Christian Uhr.

“The important thing is to develop knowledge that can contribute to better system design and desirable behaviors.”

He believes there are several misconceptions about crisis management. One is the excessive reliance on authoritative command, especially when many actors are involved.

“A problem with more traditional crisis leadership ideals is that one risks becoming the hammer that sees every problem as a nail. It loses both perspective and humility towards differences, which means that society’s collective resources are not used sufficiently well and do not create a collective effect. During a significant event, there are a variety of needs that must be met with very different resources.”

"Crisis means things go wrong"

In Sweden, we sometimes think we are unique because we are so decentralized and lack ministerial control. But we are not that unique, according to Christian Uhr. When evaluating crisis management in different countries, the conclusions are surprisingly similar.

“It's about silo thinking, things moving too slowly, breakdowns in communication and coordination between organizations... We see the same problems in the USA, Germany, and even culturally more distant countries. We've known about these issues for a hundred years. It's a bit frustrating that we don’t really learn from them.”

In recent years, Swedish society has experienced several severe and society-impacting events: massive forest fires, terrorism, large refugee intakes, and a global pandemic, to name a few.

Christian Uhr believes that Sweden has developed its capabilities from these experiences. At the same time, citizens' expectations are increasing.

“Take the pandemic as an example. European countries made completely different decisions, yet the same frustration has been expressed by the public and in the media. 'Damned if you do, damned if you don't'. It’s easy to sit in the stands and be critical. Crisis means things go wrong,” says Christian Uhr.

In evaluations, we tend to focus on the outcome, he argues. But during a crisis, much is beyond our control, making it risky to judge management solely by the results.

“Does a forest fire stop because it rains or because of good management? I think it’s important to discuss whether we are doing what we said we would. Are we making conscious decisions, thinking holistically and proactively, or are we just shooting from the hip?”

Soft issues of great importance

Society's ability to handle major crises is influenced by recent events. Currently, a lot of focus is on the security policy situation. But just because we can handle one crisis doesn't mean we can handle another, according to Christian Uhr. He believes that civil society actors have been poor at classic contingency planning.

"Not based on what is most likely, but on what is possible. We saw this during the pandemic, where there was a big focus on what was statistically most likely. Of course, that's important, but we also need to be prepared for other things."

Christian Uhr advocates working more with so-called soft issues: competence, organizational culture, attitudes, and understanding of perspectives. And to practice—but not things one already knows. Instead, it’s about letting go of pride and daring to show inexperience.

"Competition, prestige, and power struggles don’t just disappear because there's a crisis. They create frictions in the system and do not contribute to the collective capability we need to have."

More on the subject Leadership and Command & Control

Master's Programme in Leadership and Command & Control for Defence, Crisis Management and Security