Towards a crisis performance-measurement system

During a crisis, the main goal for decision-makers consists in restoring a stabilised nominal mode. The stakeholders face considerable pressure and drastic constraints in response time and coordination. This study proposes a method to support these stakeholders in making responsive and accurate decisions while carrying out a performance evaluation of the activities that run during the crisis-response process. This method is composed of four steps: 1 characterisation of the crisis-response system, 2 selection of system components to evaluate in priority, 3 determination of performance dimensions to consider and 4 creation of indicators. Currently, performance evaluation is only used subsequent to a crisis, due to difficulties in gathering and aggregating information into trustable performance indicators. This paper proposes a method to obtain a relevant and dynamic decision-support system. Decision-makers will use it to resolve the crisis based on performance evaluation, in addition to the essential experience they undergo. A case study of crisis management within the French Red Cross non-governmental organisation is developed, through a Web-based prototype, in order to explain how performance indicators can both support crisis-response management and improve the collaboration of stakeholders.