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The 2010 and 2011 Canterbury earthquakes and organisational learning at the University of Canterbury: Does practice make perfect?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 February 2015

Nigel Healey
Nigel Healey*
Affiliation:
College of Business and Economics, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand
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Abstract

In September 2010 and again in February 2011, the city of Christchurch was rocked by earthquakes of magnitude 7.1 and 6.3 respectively. The second earthquake was shallow and caused extensive damage and loss of life, destroying most of the Central Business District. This paper focuses on recovery management at the University of Canterbury, exploring the extent to which the senior management team learned lessons from the September event which informed the way that the recovery was managed after the February earthquake. It examines the counter-intuitive possibility that successfully dealing with a prior, lesser event, may not necessarily better equip managers to deal with a subsequent, more extreme event.

Keywords

organisational learningadaptiveearthquake recovery managementdisaster managementuniversity
Type
Managing for the Human Spirit – ANZAM Members Reflect on the Christchurch earthquake and Queensland floods
Information
Journal of Management & Organization , Volume 17 , Issue 6: 25th ANZAM Anniversary Edition Remembering 2011: Managing for the Human Spirit , November 2011 , pp. 850 - 856
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press and Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management 2011

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