Measuring, Monitoring and Enhancing Crisis Fitness of Municipal Administrations

Abstract

Municipal administrations play a pivotal role in crisis management under Germany’s federal system, yet research highlights persistent deficits in preparedness, organizational awareness, and structured resilience-building. Existing business continuity and organizational crisis management approaches remain difficult to transfer to heterogenous and resource-constrained local authorities. This paper proposes an indicator-based, modular Self-Evaluation Tool (SET) for municipal administrations for the assessment and improvement of their crisis fitness. Based on a multi-method design—including systematic literature review, expert interviews, participatory workshops, and qualitative content analysis—approximately 60 Crisis Fitness Indicators (CFI) were identified and partially prioritized. The SET incorporates these indicators within a structured, dashboard-based assessment framework aligned with the crisis management cycle and complemented by a legal register and glossary. Ongoing research focuses on the operationalization and validation of qualitative CFI as well as a two-step network analysis to capture interdependencies within municipal administrations.