Handling Disruption Concurrence: The Importance of Inter- and Intra-Departmental Communication for Critical Infrastructure Resilience

To maintain resilience, critical infrastructure (CI) organizations need to recover from frequent, daily disruptions in a timely and efficient manner, a task that becomes increasingly challenging as disruptions concur in time. Drawing from organizational information processing theory and supply chain research on internal integration, this study examines how inter- and intra-departmental communication intensity, as mechanisms of internal integration, influence resilience under varying levels of disruption concurrence. Analysis of 1978 disruption clusters in a public water supply organization reveals that while increased disruption concurrence impairs CI resilience, enhanced communication intensity mitigates these negative effects on recovery time. The study also provides insights into how communication effectiveness varies across different disruption time windows, demonstrating that timing significantly influences how internal integration enables CI resilience. The study advances resilience research by examining concurrent daily disruptions, moving beyond the traditional focus on rare events. It further extends internal integration literature by conceptualizing integration as a dynamic construct of inter- and intra-departmental communication, and organizational information processing theory by demonstrating how uncertainty from concurrent disruptions requires different communication strategies across time windows. Organizations might enhance resilience through monitoring systems that help employees recognize disruption concurrence levels and adjust communication intensity accordingly.