EIRP Proceedings, Vol 13 (2018)

Organizational and Operational

Management in Mass Control

Petronela-Adelina Renea¹

Abstract: The nature, complexity and scale of crisis situations, as well as the organization of crisis response interventions or associated responsibilities, require the planning and deployment of prevention actions and, in particular, post-event in all environments, in a unique management and coordination system. In order for the intervention structures to perform their missions, they must have a common, simple planning and execution framework capable of synchronizing the actions of the entities within each category of intervention forces into standard multifunctional operating procedures. The modernization and efficiency of the intervention structures for the control of the behavior of persons, groups and multitudes is achieved by harmonizing the internal legislation with Community and international humanitarian law, improving the independent preventive-action and managerial forms, and procedures in cooperation with other state institutions and the improvement of international police cooperation. Social situations exert significant control over human behavior. The actions and reactions of the individual to the stimuli in a particular social environment are determined by the forces and constraints specific to that environment to a much greater extent than would be expected if only the intimate personality of the person concerned were to be considered. Even aspects that seem trite, insignificant, can cause major changes in the behavior of people in a particular social situation.

Keywords: behavior; crisis situations; operational management

1. Introduction

The management of the company has been and continues to generate specific managerial features and complexities, depending on the type of society. From the earliest times, people, groups and communities have been concerned with fulfilling the necessary functions of life and social development, for which the leaders of the peoples and representatives of the state authorities passed orders, directives, provisions, etc. The science management promoter highlights the interdependence of management between science and art, saying that “science is formed with the help of precise knowledge, and the application of knowledge into practice for the achievement of a certain purpose represents the art” (Frederick, 1967, p. 43). The management science represents all the management techniques of organizations / institutions or the issues of the general and synthetic management laws of their composition. According to the Romanian specialists in the field, “the management designates the science of leadership of socio-economic organizations” (Rusu, 1994, p. 31).

Internally, management is highlighted by concepts such as “current information, systems, objectives, resources, processes, optimization, autonomy, generation, adaptability, operationalization, organization, plan, verification, control and guidance, info - decisions, docimology.” (Vlasceanu, 2004, p. 110)

The art of management is the use of the talent of the manager / managerial team “in conducting the managerial process, in order to train future managers of abilities, skills and attitudes that ensure the transition from theory to practice, action in context, respect of people's opinions” (Voicu, 2007, p. 29) so that the organization / institution performs efficient and competitive activities.

Taking into account the novelties and dynamics with which certain events, crisis situations or antisocial facts may arise or evolve in various public assemblies, the prediction of the actions in the managerial decision-making of the decision-makers in the specialized structures does not completely eliminate the unforeseen actions, but can predict actions of people with deviant, criminal behavior, and can significantly diminish the dysfunctions that may occur in crowd management.

The features of the managerial process are “social responsibility, interdependence, continuity, contextuality, and the orientation of managers towards leadership.”

Manipulating and Controlling the Crowd

“Social situations exert significant control over human behavior. The actions and reactions of the individual to the stimuli in a particular social environment are determined by forces and constraints specific to that environment, to a much greater extent than would be expected if only the intimate personality of the person concerned were to be considered. Even aspects that seem trivial, insignificant, can cause major changes in the behavior of people in a particular social situation. Words, labels, slogans, signs, regulations, laws, and, to a large extent, the presence of others are factors with a great influence on the individual, directing his reactions and behavior sometimes even without realizing that.” (Ficeac, 1997, p. 16)

Throughout his social existence, “man has been manipulated, with or without techniques of technology, sociology, psychology, or advertising. When these appeared, manipulation existed long ago, and its principles were accepted by the manipulated and the manipulators.” (Teodorescu, 2007, p. 7) The art of manipulating the masses and crowds has been used since ancient times in all states, by political leaders, army leaders, religious leaders or others, through messages, images, behavior, slogans, media, informational warfare, radio-electronic or other objects.

Manipulation, clusters, masses and crowds have been carried out continuously and are carried out more than ever in the contemporary society, due to the high technology, techniques and methods developed by persuasive leaders and various organizations pursuing their goals. In the constitution phase and during public gatherings in which some leaders pursue specific goals or public order disorder, the crowds can be manipulated and directed to carry out turbulent acts with the help of hostile messages transmitted by leaders or members of propaganda structures, verbal, through various means of the media or in other ways.

From a psychological point of view, manipulation occurs when a particular social situation is created premeditated in order to influence the reactions and behavior of the manipulated in the desired sense of the manipulator.

“Being directly related to the idea of political communication, propaganda and publicity, manipulation of opinions is a component and a limit form that can be reached within those activities. The notion of manipulation always has a negative moral connotation, since it impinges on free-will and personal dignity.”

Manipulation is understood as “an action to determine a social actor (person, group, organization, real or virtual crowd) to think and act in accordance with the wishes and interests of the influence factor, sometimes even against their own interests.” In other words, manipulation can be understood as a form of deception, a social relationship that abuses the good faith of a person and attacks the person's right of free choice.

2. Leadership and Leading styles of the Crowds

The need to lead certain groups, crowds or human masses, as well as the inability of the masses to lead themselves, determines the people in their composition, to choose some leaders who direct their actions, experiences, feelings, ideals, or defending their claims and interests. The most important components of group life are represented by planning, coordination and control of activities. The theoretical and experimental research of social groups of psych-sociology focused on the issue of leadership, leader and leading style.

In contemporary society, the concept of leadership is frequently used, characterized by the existence of behavioral patterns and personality traits that make certain managers more effective in achieving the goals of the organization or structures they lead.

“Leadership is understood as the set of intra- and intergroup relationships through which a person or group of people influences group behavior, conducts, supervises and controls activities, ensuring that the group is maintained as an organized system.” (Cristea, 2005, p. 231) Leadership is also the leader's action based on a certain set of skills, to influence the members of a group so that their work pursues a common goal. In general, “the leader can exercise within the crowd the role of organizer, which inspires, allows participation in the protest actions of the crowds and maintains the order within it; the role of clarifier defines, formulates, summarizes, synthesizes or explains, and the role of planner, which ensures the achievement of the objectives by creating the desired climate.” (Pierre, 2001, p. 589) Leadership is a reciprocal process in which an individual has the ability to influence and motivate other individuals to determine them to achieve group goals and thus inducing group satisfaction. The definition emphasizes some key features: leadership is a reciprocal relationship involving the leader - who determines, directs and facilitates group behavior - and subordinates - who accepts suggestions from the leader; leading is a process of legitimate influence rather than the quality of a person; leadership involves motivating group members to spend more energy to achieve group goals.

The leading style adopted by the leader reflects in a synthetic way both the external determinations and the peculiarities of the leader's personality and those of the group structure as such. Without reducing leadership in leading style, many research highlights the great operational value of this concept, which reflects synthetically a central dimension of group life.

The leading style “synthetically represents the relatively stable and specific way of a leader to exercise his / her organizing attributions, coordinating and controlling the internal activities, of representing the group in exterior, as well as the characteristic ways of reporting on the different aspects of group’s life. The leading style is structured in the interference area of several categories of factors: sociocultural, organizational, group psychosocial, psycho-individual and circumstantial - situational.” (Cristea, 2005, p. 232)

3. Integrated National Crisis Management System

“There is a National Crisis Management System but which has not been set up with very clear attributions and functions and a coherent intervention plan depending on the emerging crisis events. Also, this system is more virtual than practical, lacking the necessary infrastructure and resources to carry out the tasks provided by the legislation in force. In order to put into practice the intervention actions, this system must resort to the infrastructure and logistics of other ministries (IGSU within the Ministry of Business, Ministry of National Defense), public or local agencies or authorities.

The present legislation does not cover the entire territory and does not regulate all the aspects that a crisis situation or a crisis situation created as a result of another previous or simultaneous crisis situation.” (Jurcău, p. 7)

“The National Integrated Crisis Management System is set up, organized and operated for the prevention and management of emergency situations, ensuring and coordinating the human, material, financial and other resources needed to restore the normal state of affairs.

A key role in the Integrated National Crisis Management System is the institution of the Prime Minister and the General Inspectorate for Emergency Situations. At the level of each ministry and government agencies, prefectures and mayors there are structured crisis cells that are alarmed and activated by the Unique Alarm Center (112) and the General Inspectorate for Emergency Situations. An important role in crisis situations is the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of National Defense, the Ministry of Health and the local public authorities.

The principles of crisis management are:

foreseeing and preventing;

the priority of protecting and saving people's lives;

respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms;

taking responsibility for managing emergency situations by public administration authorities;

cooperation at national, regional and international level with similar bodies and organizations;

the transparency of the emergency management activities so that they do not lead to worsening of the produced effects;

the continuity and graduality of the emergency management activities, from the level of the local public administration authorities to the level of the central public administration authorities, depending on their magnitude and intensity;

operativeness, active co-operation and hierarchical subordination of the components of the National System.” (Niculae, 2005, p. 7)

During the crisis situations or the potentially emerging states of crisis situations, according to the law, actions and measures shall be taken for:

warning the population, institutions and economic agents in the danger zones;

statement of a state of alert in the event of imminent threat or emergency situation occurrence;

the implementation of prevention and protection measures specific to the types of risk and, where appropriate, the decision to evacuate from the affected or partially affected area;

operative intervention with forces and means specially designed, depending on the situation, for limiting and removing the negative effects;

granting emergency aid;

establishment of the state of emergency, under the conditions stipulated by art. 93 of the Romanian Constitution, republished;

requesting or providing international assistance;

granting compensation to legal and physical persons;

other measures provided by law.

The authorities and bodies of the National System cooperate, in the exercise of their specific tasks, both with themselves and with other institutions and bodies outside it, from the country or from abroad, governmental or non-governmental.

4. Methods and Techniques of Management-Specificities Specific to Professional Emergency Services

The management functions and relationships at the level of each organization are carried out through the management system. Defined as “all elements of decisional, organizational, informational, motivational, etc. feature within the organization, through which all the processes and management relationships are exercised in order to obtain the greatest efficiency and effectiveness ", the management system of the modern organization is based on a complex of principles, rules and requirements that ensure its modeling according to the precepts management science.

The managerial method is defined as “a coherent and rigorous managerial construction, incorporating phases, components, rules, etc. precisely highlighted, through which a small segment of managerial processes or relationships in an organization is exerted, with effects typically located at the level of a small number of managers and departments within the organization.” A more pragmatic definition presents management methods as “practical ways of allocating in time and space of the material, human, financial and informational resources of the company”.

These methods are used to solve as efficiently as possible some problems specific to the various management functions, in order to ensure the knowledge of the current operational events and facts that take place in an organization. With their help, managers positively influence the evolution of processes as they unfold.

5. Intervention Management System (SCI), Component of Emergency Situations (Events) Management

The Emergency Event Management System (NIMS) is a systematic approach that integrates best practices and methods into a single national emergency management framework defined as all prevention, protection, response, risk mitigation and recurrence. This framework forms the basis for interoperability and compatibility that ensure the integration of response operations of public and private organizations in an efficient manner. Within NIMS, the Intervention Management System (IBS) is a flexible inter-institutional management mechanism for emergency events involving governmental, non-governmental institutions and private sector organizations.

SCI is a generally valid management system designed to provide effective and efficient management of emergency events by integrating equipment, personnel, procedures and means of communication within a unitary organizational structure. It is designed in a standard format to enable managers to identify the tactical goals associated with the emergency event without being forced to directly manage all types of response activities such as resource records or reporting activities.

Figure 1. Structure of S.C.I.

Source: Processing www.dhs.gov

SCI is used to organize field response actions for all types of emergency, routine or large-scale emergencies of natural or anthropogenic origin. On the field, operative personnel carry out tactical decisions through operative response actions under the authority of the action commander.

6. Conclusions

The nature, complexity and scale of crisis situations, as well as the organization of crisis response interventions or associated responsibilities, require the planning and deployment of prevention actions and, in particular, post-event in all environments, in a unique management and coordination system. In order for the intervention structures to perform their missions, they must have a common, simple planning and execution framework capable of synchronizing the actions of the entities within each category of intervention forces into standard multifunctional operating procedures.

Efforts to prevent hazards and mitigate their impact on society are imperative and are an integral part of sustainable development and global, regional, national, community policies, and even individual security. Knowing and managing these sources of risk allows for preventive measures and efficient planning of intervention and rehabilitation measures to limit and reduce suffering, loss and destruction, and return to normality when hazards occur or social-human activity generates them.

Accumulation of difficulties and the conflicting outbreak of tensions make the normal functioning of the social system difficult and trigger strong pressure towards change. It is the moment when the crisis occurs as a manifestation of some temporary or chronic difficulties in how to organize a system, expressing its inability to function in the current way. The exit from the crisis is done either through the structural change of the system or through important adaptive modifications of its structure.

7. Bibliography

Cristea, Dumitru (2005). Bazele psihologiei sociale/The Basics of Social Psychology. Bucharest: Editura Universității Titu Maiorescu,

Ficeac, Bogdan (1997). Tehnici de manipulare/Manipulation techniques. 2^nd Ed. Bucharest: Nemira.

Jurcău, Flavius-Nicolae (whithout year). Managementul situațiilor de criză și sprijinul medical militar în situațiile de criză/Crisis Management and Military Medical Support in Crisis Situations. Bucharest: Academia de Științe Economice.

Niculae, Cristian (2005). Manual de Protecție Civilă/ Civil Protection Manual. Bucharest: Editura M.A.I.

Pierre de Visscher (2001). Animatori, lideri, monitori și diferențierea rolurilor în dinamica grupurilor/ Animators, Leaders, Monitors and Differentiation of Role in Group Dynamics. Bucharest: Polirom.

Rusu, Corneliu (1994). Bazele managementului/ Basis of Management. Bucharest: Tempus.

Taylor, Frederick (1967). The Principles of Scientific Management. New York.

Teodorescu, Bogdan (2007). Cinci milenii de manipulare/Five millennia of manipulation. Bucharest: Tritonic.

Vlăsceanu, Mihaela (2004). Organizații și comportament organizațional/Organization and Organizational Behavior. Iași: Polirom.

Voicu, Costică & Prună, Ștefan (2007). Managementul Organizațional al Poliției/ Organizational Management of the Police. Bucharest: Mediauno.

www.dhs.gov, Homeland Security Department of United States of America, accesed on 15.04.2018.

www.fema.gov/nims, National Incident Management System, 2008, accesed on 15.04.2018.

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