The Emergent Organization: Improvisation and Order in Gulf Coast Disaster Relief

<p>This article employs the interactionist concept of emergence to explore volunteer behavior in organizational settings after natural disasters. Through a several-year ethnographic study of volunteer relief groups in the Post-hurricane Gulf Coast, I examine how emergent social groups navigate situations where interactional norms, practices, and procedures are ambiguous, unclear, or in continual flux. Grassroots volunteer groups improvised organizational decision-making and leadership structures to develop timely and appropriate responses to the post-disaster environment. In particular, I focus on two distinct groups of volunteers whose response to these emergent interactional structures: improvisers embraced the ambiguity of group norms as an opportunity to innovate and express their creativity, whereas ritualists rejected the lack of structure and order characterized by the volunteer organizations.</p>