Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Using The Open Systems Perspective To Understand Critical Incidents, Denise D. P. Thompson

Publications and Research

At the end of its Fall 2010 conference, the Academy for Critical Incident Analysis (ACIA) called for the development of frameworks that would aid in the study and analysis of critical incidents. This paper responds to that call. The paper answers the question, “is it possible to construct a framework that is generic enough to encapsulate the essential components observed in all critical incidents?” The paper utilizes the open systems perspective to develop a conceptual framework to help us delineate and understand critical incidents and how they evolve. The paper presents examples to substantiate arguments made about the framework. The …