Virtual emergency operation centre: How to manage a crisis from an EOC when you need to work from home

ABSTRACT

What happens when an organization requires its employees to work from home during a pandemic that needs to be managed? This research in progress article focuses on TELCO-ALPHA and the transition of their emergency operation centre (EOC) to digital and distributed. A qualitative research method approach was applied and liminality has been used as lens to investigate the shift from analog to digital. Focus has been on understanding the transition and how they handled ambiguity within the organization when their crisis management moved online. The transition was successful, and two areas were identified as important to this success 1. TELCO-ALPHA used IT that the staff in the crisis organization already had experience of working with prior to the Covid-19 pandemic;2. TELCO-ALPHA ran crisis management team meetings as they would run regular business meetings. There was no new "crisis management structure" at the meetings. © 2021 Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, ISCRAM. All rights reserved.